> We're in a net.culture which has turned to the instant
>gratification, and people would rather charge into an area and do
>stuff than think first. I've had emails about my FAQs where people
>have flat-out said "Your FAQ and web site look very detailed, but I
>thought I'd just ask you a bunch of questions."
Lord knows I've had them do that often enough. I bear with it though
because I'm finding for about every five or so that do that, I get one that
says "Would you like more detailed information for that section"?
> My response for most
>of the questions was the URL of the site and section/question numbers
>where I directly answered those questions.
If it's a lengthy answer that's already in the FAQ, that's what I'll do.
If it's a relatively short answer I'll go ahead and give it to them while
mentioning that it was already in the FAQ.
> Is looking over a table of
>contents and/or using the handy search engine on my web pages frankly
>too much to expect of folks? Right now, I'd have to say 'yes', and the
>problem's gonna just get worse.
Yes, it probably is. I think part of it has to do with the fact that we're
largely limited to straight ascii text if we post the FAQ to the
newsgroups. I have several web sites that I allow to use mine to increase
the content value of their sites that have put the entire 36K word document
into HTML. From talking with them they seldom get many people who read
more than a relative small portion of it online, but they'll frequently
look at the Table of Contents then download the FAQ text file. Lately I've
had a higher than usual number of people offering to submit information so
I'm not complaining.
.................Alan.
From the House at Cat's Green -- Alan T. Hagan, NRA Life Member
The Universe is utterly indifferent to the fact that
you do not realize the consequences of your actions,
you will have to deal with them just the same.
Prudent Food Storage FAQ editor. The FAQ is available from:
http://www.waltonfeed.com/grain/faqs/ (ver 2.5)
http://www.idir.net/~medintz
http://www.survival-center.com/foodfaq/ff1-toc.htm (ver 2.5)
http://www.d-n-a.net/users/dnetIULU/files.html (EUROPE)
http://www.zetatalk.com/food/tfood01.htm
http://www.iinet.net.au/~standeyo/News_Files/Info_Files/html (AUSTRALIA)
(ver 2.5)
The most current FAQ version is now 2.5