> A particularly insightful comment on my original suggestion of dealing with
> Yahoo was: why single out one portal? This comment would surely apply to
> dmoz.org also, wouldn't it? As a *.answers moderator I'd feel happier about
> starting the work of dealing with any particular hierarchical directory if we
> had some glimmer of a medium-term plan for handling all (or at least 'many')
> of them.
Well I found out about dmoz.org because one of their editors, a kind
soul who signed up to add links, placed a link to one of my FAQs. It
would seem to me that they would probably be a lot more responsive
if approached by someone who represented FAQ maintainers.
I have to admit the FAQ was not exactly placed in the right
category. It's about low level network access from UNIX systems, and
it somehow made it into their security section. (Raw IP Networking
FAQ)
> Else why not stick with just faqs.org?
The only complaint I have with faqs.org, and I believe I mailed Kent
personally but received no reply, is that it does not allow FAQ
maintainers to upload HTML FAQs. Instead the Usenet postings are
turned into HTML.
This is fine if your HTML version doesn't have anything spiffy on
it. Mine does already; a clickable TOC. I like FAQs with clickable
TOCs because they are easily navigatable.
So what are the chances of getting faqs.org to accept a new
auxilliary header? I currently use the URL header to point to the
FAQ page, which has links to a text and HTML version a long with
links to related FAQs and mirrors. So possibly another html-archive:
header is needed that points straight to the FAQ version.
Another problem of course, some people use TeX and convert to HTML
in multiple pages. You would need some sort of 'recursive' flag on
the header information.
> Perhaps an 'interact with the portals' project could replace the apparently
Problem with some portals is that they are just too busy adding
banners, and not free enough to handle interest groups. However, I
have a feeling that some official e-mail from *.answers to portal
editors would be better received. It would give the impression that
we're organized and ready. As opposed to "Thank you Mr./Ms/Mrs. FAQ
Maintainer, we shall add your FAQ to our Binky The Elephant
directory Real Soon Now."
Some brave soul must climb upon the portals and yell "I'm all over
it."
-- Thamer Al-Herbish PGP public key: shadows@whitefang.com http://www.whitefang.com/pgpkey.txt [ The Secure UNIX Programming FAQ http://www.whitefang.com/sup/ ]
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