What the FAQ (was Re: Noobie list)

[Clinton MacDonald]

Ms. Suzy-Q, Mr. Ed (Sutherland), Mr. Bill (Longman), and Dr. Quintanar 
(there, is that everyone? :-) ):

Suzy wrote:
>>> That means Suzy has to start the FAQ ;)
>>
>> Hear that, Suzy? ;-)
>>
> I hear. I'll help. Tell me how.
> Suzy

Well, I was half joking (but half serious) when I wrote that. Writing 
and curating a FAQ for this group will be quite a job -- and most of us 
already have day jobs! In addition to the authorial and editorial work 
involved, we are going to need a Web host, archive space (preferably the 
free or low cost kind), a Web/database guru, and so on.

In no particular order, and with no immediate goals in mind, here are 
some things I have thought about with regards to a FAQ:

[1] Several months ago Mascarasnake and I discussed starting up a FAQ (I 
even had some Earthlink Web space at the time), but we soon realized 
that neither of us had the time to devote to the project. What I 
imagined we would do was collect some of the answers that were proposed 
on this very list, tidy them up with some HTML (I was trying to grok CSS 
style sheets at the time), and post it on the Web. Even this simple goal 
was a little more than we had the time and skill to put together.

[2] A simpler approach might be to have a text-based FAQ that could be 
simply hosted on some Web site somewhere, and we could post to the 
mailing lists a link to it once a week.

[3] I don't think we can expect much help from Terra Soft (though I 
might be wrong about this -- it wouldn't hurt to ask). Terra Soft's 
business is in *selling* Yellow Dog Linux support. It would not be a 
very business-savvy decision to undercut that model.

[4] We probably do not want to recapitulate the entire Linux Web, but 
should instead focus on YDL-specific issues. There are many thousands of 
Web sites with very, very helpful advice for everyone from Newbies to 
Old Farts, and everyone in between. I don't think we can expect to go 
out and set the Linux world afire by doing a better help desk (I think 
that is one of the suggestions Ed has made). Instead, we can focus on 
YDL-specific issues, while including pointers to popular How-To sites 
for inevitable "How do I edit my fstab in vi?" questions.

[5] Having a willing technical editor with experience in tech writing 
and has a couple of surge protectors for her Baby G3s, :-) can only be a 
help.

[6] That being said, now that both the Newbies and the General mailing 
lists are both being archived (hurrah!!!!!), the need for a FAQ is 
slightly less disparate.

What have I not covered, folks?

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald | <mailto:clint DOT macdonald AT sbcglobal DOT net>