[thelist] was rant - FAQ/resources for oft-asked questions

[Tom Dell'Aringa]

On 7/20/06, Christian Heilmann <codepo8 at gmail.com> wrote:
   Tom said:

> > Frankly, I wonder if it is time for thelist to have one of these:
>
> > Granted it's work to get running and maintain, but it might head off
> quite a
> > bit of this issue (you can easily refer people there). I know on
> css-discuss
> > they refer people there all the time for the oft-asked questions, and it
> is
> > a good source.
>
> Well, "they" is Zoe and me :-) The problem with WIKIs is that it is
> another resource to handle and people just don't "get" WIKIs (we do
> all technical documentation with them here, and guess what - they are
> a mess).
>
> We have a stunningly cool mechanism here, which is the tip harvester.
> We should use it more for practical solutions on topics that come up
> over and over...


Ah, didn't know you did it Chris :)  Yeah, well you would know better than
anyone then how much work it is. We had some trouble with our Maccaws wiki
back a couple years ago too - they indeed can become a mess. You guys do a
good job with the css-discuss one.

The tip harvester kind of does make sense... but it's not real accessible in
the sense that the info is not easy to get at. I just poked around the site
and actually cannot find them. I imagine that data could be extracted but
I'm not sure the tips match up exactly to the questions we see over and over
again (probably at least some do).

It might be a good start though to publish them somehow, and have a
mechanism for adding new ones as they come in.

Something like the css-wiki page is what would be best, although maybe it
isn't a wiki. And yes, someone still has to do the work...

Tom