What the FAQ (was Re: Noobie list)

[mascarasnake]

Me with my lowly BFA, I bow to you all. However, I would be willing to 
dedicate all my available webspace to help folks with a ppc explore the 
linux world. There are worse things you can do.

----------

	It's what you make it man
	Takes time
	A little bit
	A little bit more

			-The Minutemen

dontdrill@earthlink.net
mascarasnake@mac.com
On May 4, 2004, at 10:54 PM, Clinton MacDonald wrote:

> 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>
>
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