writing book on how to write FAQs, have questions

RUSSELLSHAW@delphi.com
Sat, 30 Mar 1996 13:57:18 -0500 (EST)

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March 30, 1996

Hi:

I am preparing a book on FAQ page construction. It will be
called "The FAQ Writers' Guide, and will be released this
September by MIS:Press, a leading computer-industry publishing
house.

Knowing that FAQ list maintainers often visit and post to this
site, I'd like to cite several of you as a source in my book.
I've enclosed a brief synopsis, and a list of questions, which
you may feel free to answer re e-mailed response back to me, or
via a phone interview @ (770) 988-9663.

BOOK SYNOPSIS: THE FAQ WRITERS' GUIDE

FAQ CONSTRUCTION TIPS. How to construct a workable and relevant
FAQ is a critical issue for Webmasters, but I've never seen a
book on this subject. Now, we are going to do one. FAQs are all
over the place; a recent Lycos search I did for the term "FAQ"
revealed more than 165,000 citations.

Here are some questions. When applicable, I'd greatly appreciate
it if your answers could reflect your own experiences.

QUESTIONS

*Are the qualities that make a good FAQ the same regardless of
whether they are Usenet, Listserv or Website related?

*Are there general rules about FAQs for different parts of Usenet
-- i.e., would there be specific or general guidelines on alt.,
rec., sci., and the other domains?

*What's your Newsgroup domain? Did your presence in this area
dictate the kind of FAQ you composed?

*What are some consistent goals to shoot for regardless of
platform, as opposed to specifics related to each of the sections
of the Internet as mentioned above?

*How can you tell whether or not your group or listserv needs an
FAQ?

*How did you draw up your initial FAQ list? How can you tap into
sources beyond those of your own intuition for coming up with
questions?

*How basic or how detailed should the questions be in a Newsgroup
FAQ?

*Pick about three or four of your most popular FAQ questions, and
give me a life cycle of when they were first thought of, how and
why it was decided to put them on your FAQ page, and how their
presence has helped your site.

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*Have you ever taken a FAQ off because: it was out of date, drew
little response, was found to be confusing, and/or the
information it explained became irrelevant? Can you cite and
example or two?

*Should you in fact put up an FAQ on rollout, or wait till you
actually get questions? What did you do, and why?

*How basic or how detailed should the questions be? How did you
identify your approach?

*Should there be a mechanism for monitoring questions not on an
FAQ and posed via thread post, e-mail, phone -- and then
migrating them to the FAQ after they get posed a certain number
of times? There are tools that do this. Have you used them? If
so, which ones? Are they reliable -- or, do you prefer a much
more informal, "we've sure been asked that one a lot, guess we
better put it up on our FAQ page" philosophy?

*How can you determine when changes you make to your group will
naturally spawn more FAQs? Do you automatically post these as
new FAQs in anticipation they will be asked? Any examples come
to mind?

*Who manages your FAQ? If its you, how many hours a week does it
take?

*What special tech tools, if any, do you find useful in FAQ
maintenance?

*If there is exceptional amount of FAQ traffic compared to the
number of hits you get, should that give you a hint that maybe
the rest of your site is too daunting? Has this ever happened to
you?

*Are there ways to monitor which "Qs" in your FAQ are asked the
most? Should this be of any significance to you?

*Is there a natural "order" to the list of FAQ questions -- i.e.,
the most basic first? Or should they be organized into sections,
like chapters of a book? Did this factor come into play when you
organized your FAQ?

*What about links in FAQ answer fields - i.e. to other sites
where the questioner could get even more information? Are there
pros and cons to this? Are direct e-mail links between the FAQ
pages and your own group's SYSOP always desirable?

Anything you'd like to add about the FAQ process?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you might be able to
provide.

Russell Shaw
Author, The FAQ Writers' Handbook
MIS Press: A Subsidiary of Henry Holt & Company

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russellshaw@delphi.com
tel. 1-770-988-9663 {metro Atlanta}

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Next message: Brad Knowles: "Re: comp.mail.sendmail FAQ update/split..."
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