Well, now it's time to throw my $0.02 into the kitty...
Pat Berry asked:
> Here's a question I've been wondering about for some time: How and why
> do people get into the FAQ-maintaining business? I know some
newsgroups
> have a formal selection process with a vote and everything, but I
> suspect this is the exception. I'd be interested in hearing how you
> became maintainers.
My first FAQ started out as a result of my searching for information on
8051 microcontrollers. I rooted around the usual newsgroups, and always
saw the same questions that I wanted to ask. Fortunately, I was smart
enough not to ask them, too. On rare occasions an answer would rear its
head, but not often enough. I did searches via Archie, etc and turned up
some more sources of information.
I decided that based on the frequency that the same questions were being
asked, I should cobble together the information that I had, and post it
as a small article. I still remember the first "FAQ". It was about 5K,
and several paragraphs were devoted to an apology for my temerity in
posting such a thing. After all, I was a real newbie on the net, with
only a month or two under my belt. I was afraid that I had overstepped
the bounds. I was subsequently inundated with positive mail from all
over the world. Today, the 8051 FAQ is over 100K in size.
As a result of compiling a FAQ on the 8051, I had run across a lot of
references for the Motorola 68hc11. Based on the positive comments on
the 8051 FAQ, I decided to put together a 68hc11 FAQ. This FAQ is
almost 80K today. Still having more material that didn't fit in either
FAQ, I decided to put together a more general FAQ on microcontrollers
which I called a primer, which today is well over 120K.
I'm no great expert on microcontrollers, but I thought that I could help
out a bit. I've been learning a lot in the process - both on
microcontrollers and on Internet/Usenet. I've developed contacts with
many of the manufacturers (large and small), and have made a lot of
friends.
The next logical step was to get my FAQs approved for posting to
news.answers. I kept putting it off since I was overwhelmed by the FAQ
guideline. Finally, I just prepared my FAQs the best that I could,
submitted them to news.answers team, and asked (begged) for help.
Begging was unecessary. They promptly and courteously held my hand
through the process, and I got all 3 FAQs approved with no problem at
all. They even helped me out with the faq server, which is a real time
saver.
A real heartfelt thanks to the news.answers team!
My FAQs become wildly popular - and to think that I apologized for them
in the beginning! Next, I had many people writing to me to ask me how I
did it. Some of the questions:
- Where did I find the information?
- How did I compile the information?
- How did I get it approved?
- ...and many others in a similar vein
I would always answer, and help the best that I could, since I knew what
it was like to be a newbie and to be completely lost. Since I ended up
composing answers that were frequently the same, I decided to put
together a canned reply, that whenever I got asked about how to do a FAQ,
I would send this reply out. This reply ended up being my FAQs about
FAQs article, which was subsequently approved for news.answers.
I get many positive letters in response to this article also. I guess
it's filling the need with which it was intended, helping others.
> So I started out as a newbie who got flamed for not reading the FAQ,
and
> ended up maintaining it! Life is full of surprises, isn't it?
It sure is!
How much time do I devote to my FAQs? Way, way too much. I spend
several hours per FAQ each month - and that isn't really enough. The
FAQs are due for a facelift, but hey, who's got the time?
I agree, this is an interesting thread.
Russ Hersch
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