FrequentlyAskedQuestions (2005-08-29 23:57:31)

FAQ page


origin of the FAQ: if there is a structure, look up the relevant section. Without a structure, make a FAQ

The Frequently Asked Questions method was invented for traditional forums (newsgroups, mailing lists, web forum) that are usually a big pile of unstructured collection, with extremely bad noise level.

Noise sources:

Unfortunately traditional forums noise level does not converge to a reasonable value (like 60% noise, 40% useful info is a very good noise level, you only need to read 2.5 times more than ideally), but noise level converges to 100%, which means the effective information content of the archive is converging to 0% in the long run (3..7% is typical value after a few years: you need to read 15..30 times more than ideally. Look up a yahoo forum and make an abstract of it and you will see ).

Those forums need some methods to avoid repeating the same question repeating the same question repeating the same question repeating the same question repeating the same question repeating the same question repeating the same question repeating the same question:

I think


If you know a question which does not relate to a subtopic (no page for it in SiteIndex) why not make a page for it linked from the page with the closest topic?

If you are inconfident if it requires a page, or cannot find a good name for it, write here:

Q: Where should I ask the question ?

A: Try on the relevant page if possible


Q: Has anyone used VEMS with the [Rover K-series] engine?

A: _____________________________________

Q: What's the correct place for this question?

A: _________________________________________

Q: Thanks!

A: Erm... that's not a question!