I posted about this at least 6 months ago and go almost 0 replies, so lets see what happens now.

Is anyone interested in a general Linux/Technical FAQ for this forum?

I believe it would help out quite a lot and solve many common problems, we can also add in specific parts for different distributions, i'm quiet accomplished with Gentoo / Debian where there's bound to be Redhat/SuSe/Mandrake experts (maybe even BSD :) )

If you're interested, post in here and we can ask a moderator about the best way to do it (be it through a sticky thread or a link at the top to a webpage etc)

suppose it would be a god idea because there is allot of stuff that is posted over and over again, like common issues with apache and other servers

thing is though would anyone read it before they post, that is the problem :)

but im in favour of it

Excellent, that's 1 :)

We could also request that the moderators punish people who don't read the FAQ before asking a question.

FAQs never hurt. Go for it.
People here really need to just do a search before they ask a question. I have seen the same questions posted so many times that I've lost count. Unfortunately, the same people who don't bother to search probably won't bother to read a FAQ.

Perhaps it could be a FAQ forum with minor moderator permissions for FAQ maintainers, that way common questions could be asnwered there and any rubbish questions removed

thing is how is this going to be oganised because thing about it

if the FAQ contains information and little tutorials and such on how to do things and answering questions to lots of problems then putting it all into one big topic would make the topic absolutly huge and put people off.

what i think you need to do is have someone be the main FAQ maintener, for example winkie, cos you thought of the idea.

then any one that writes answers, tutorials, etc for it, send them to winkie, then have the questions posted in a topic, which are links to the full answers stored on a server some where

so that the questions and answers are not in the same topic crowding it all up.

anyway this is just a suggestion, winkie came up with the idea, it him to winkie how it will be orgnanised. im just butting in.

It's not up to me, I just thought of the idea, it's up to everyone to think of the maintainer, see my post before yours, a FAQ forum would be easy to impliment, it would also give the maintainers easy access if they were given minor moderatory permissions. For example, in that forum, the report post to moderator function could be used to report incorrect answers.

Regardless, I wouldn't be the best choice for maintainer, i'm incredibly busy. I would however chip in with tutorials and answers every day, probably starting with porting my network guide across from forums.far2cool.com


Any idea which moderator we should contact regarding this?

Originally posted by Winkie
Any idea which moderator we should contact regarding this?

The nicest one?

nah only kidding, im sure they have probably already seen this post by now, and if they dont reply to it then they probably arn't interested in the idea.

i suppose it wouldn't hurt to pm one of the moderators, but im sure it will be discussed between them in the end so i doubt it will really matter who you ask.

i personally think its a good idea tho, and a nice way for people to get help, by reading tutorials from people trying to accomplish simular tasks

I think the idea would work . . maybe post Questions in a Thread, then have the answers as seperate posts, have links in the first post, get a mod to sticky the thread.

If I was a moderator ... I'd probably move this thread -- because it has nothing to do with Technical or Security Issues, and has turned into a WHT: Announcements, Suggestions, Feedback & Questions type thread.

Regardless, I think its a good idea. However -- it has the same problems as the Search feature -- its only effective if people use it.

I, too have seen many many many repeated questions, and I have started posted the search results instead of answering specific questions -- in hopes that people will take a hint.

One way to encourage use (if it ever gets implemented) would be for people to post links to the FAQ instead of answering quetion. Something like "Your question has been asked and answered in the FAQ > Linux FAQ. This thread in now closed. Please consider using the Search and browsing the FAQ before posting".

Something like that. Would certainly reduce the noise of repeated questions.

For those interested, i've applied for a guide/liason position and mentioned the FAQ in the email.