In fact it would, but it's not just the act of setting up a server that
makes faqs.org valuable: it's the fact that faqs.org is canonical and
useful as more than just a FAQ repository. (Mainly, I speak of all the
maintainer resources up there.) The same goes for rtfm.mit.edu, and the
people who manage these sites.
> > 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.
Wrong as in immoral, or wrong as in poorly-thought-out?
> > 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.
Oh don't be silly: if you didn't care you would not have brought it up
in the first place.
> 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.
And here's another: right after I sent of my previous message in this
thread, I added a couple of links in my FAQ to yours. (No need to
reciprocate: my FAQ doesn't contain much of interest to your readers, I
think.) It's good stuff -- I'm glad I found it. It's too bad I found
it under these circumstances, though.
> > 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.
Ditto -- my primary focus is the same as yours. Our only difference on
this matter is that in addition I link the products I review to one
place that my readers can buy them. I don't even give my readers the
standard, "please buy books from these people or I'll quit maintaining
the FAQ" guilt trip. As a result, I have managed to pay a small
fraction of my yearly $300 ISP bill. Who is harmed?
-- = Warren Young, maintainer of the Winsock Programmer's FAQ at: = http://www.cyberport.com/~tangent/programming/winsock/ = = ICBM Address: 36.8274040 N, 108.0204086 W, alt. 1714m
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