> Sorry, too late. Go visit any of a number of mostly pointless sites
> like mcdonalds.com: you'll almost invariably find a section that,
> whether explicitly called a FAQ or not, is in fact a FAQ, Mac.
> (Couldn't resist.)
Well that isn't a FAQ posted through the *.answers groups, so I
don't see how it is relevant. A FAQ that is archived on servers you
do not neccesarily pay for directly is what I think most of the
maintainers here are concerned with. Especially the kind of support
given by the *.answers people.
> I see in your emails a kind of reactionism. Is the form a kind of holy
Yes. I'm a little annoyed that Usenet FAQs aren't completely biased
like they should be. My post was to voice my opinion that maybe some
of us have went too far.
> You couldn't have picked a better random example:
> http://www.colgate.com/faq/ And you know what? I think that that FAQ
> is perfectly cool, too.
See above.
> The traditional FAQ society is centered around a kind of "respect
> bank". The greater your contribution to the society, the more credits
> get put into your account. Those credits can be used as "pull" in the
> community. If, for example, the maintainers of faqs.org stepped in on
> this debate and made a pronouncement, I'd give it more respect than one
> from a fellow FAQ keeper.
So if I setup a FAQ archive like faqs.org you'll listen to me? I
could do this btw, I have the resources, but I think the validity of
my opinions won't change.
> Stingray Software, the keepers of the MFC FAQ, have also got an account
> in the FAQ community's respect bank. As it happens, funds from that
> bank are partially transferable to other banks, such as the bank of
> public opinion of their software products. One of Stingray's motives as
This is just wrong, IMHO.
> Beyond the front page, there is virtually no mention of Stingray or its
> products. It's obvious that the FAQ's purpose is not as a marketing
Ok that's good. I'm not targetting Stingray. In fact I'm not
targetting anyone though I have seen a few FAQs that would be great
to tear apart, I won't go there. Same goes for Steve Summit's FAQ.
After looking through it I'm very impressed with his compromise.
> I do have a motive for putting that image and those links in the site,
> and I'm certainly not ashamed of either the act or the results. I don't
> mind saying what you apparently are embarrassed to hear: the links bring
> me money. I continue on this topic below.
I'm not embaressed. It's your life and your descision. None of my
business how you make your living.
> Your argument works because you're attacking the dictionary meaning of a
> term I used, altruistic. In fact, my actions as a FAQ maintainer aren't
> altruistic in the strict sense -- neither are yours or any other FAQ
> maintainer's for that matter. I don't know if there is a more precise
> term for our practice, but it starts from altruism, modified by a
> realization that we will get some kind of return from our efforts.
Well I did write my FAQ for the good of a group of people. I did it
because there were no other sources of information that answered the
questions it does. Seriously, you'd have to grok kernel code to get
some answers. It's pretty arcane even in its field, and every now
and then I receive a nice e-mail thanking me.
The most it does for me personally is sit on the bottom of my
resume. No I don't think it makes much of a difference, all things
being equal, during a job hunt.
> FAQs like yours and mine are built on that premise. So does it bother
> me that by my actions I'm increasing the stock value of Amazon.com? Not
My FAQ will never increase the stock value of Amazon.com or anyone
else. I never set it to write a FAQ that would. I set out to write a
FAQ that answered questions.
-- Thamer Al-Herbish PGP public key: shadows@whitefang.com http://www.whitefang.com/pgpkey.txt [ Maintainer of the Raw IP Networking FAQ http://www.whitefang.com/rin/ ]
[
Usenet Hypertext FAQ Archive |
Search Mail Archive |
Authors |
Usenet
]
[
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
1997
]
© Copyright The Internet FAQ Consortium, 1997
All rights reserved