Pprune Frequently Asked Questions

[Self Loading Freight]

It strikes me that there are a lot of questions that turn up on a v. regular basis -- how do I get an upgrade, how do I get a jumpseat flight on xxx, how do I join Emirates, how does Reddo find the time to post all those messages... stuff like that.

Might it be an idea to have some Pprune FAQ files? How they're accessible from the forums is another matter: could have a "How do I...?" link in the right hand sidebar, or a link from the main forum page, or... well, lots of options. And FAQs need some maintenance, thus volunteers (I'd be happy to do the Passengers and SLF one), but in general it's just a matter of finding good answers from the forums and pasting them in.

Waddya think?

R

[Flintstone]

Very, very good idea. Only trouble is most of them can already be answered from the archives and if someone can't be bothered to look in there will they use an FAQ function?

As my father once said to me:
"Did that hurt?"
"Yes"
"Well don't do it then"

[This message has been edited by Flintstone (edited 01 September 2000).]

[Checkboard]

You'll see some archives at the bottom of the list of forums. Moderators have the ability to move common threads to these forums (if they remember at the time!).

[Self Loading Freight]

Yes, fair point. I wasn't really aware of what the archives did -- I'm used to another conferencing system where archival means copying the message base of a forum in toto. So I assumed the same was true here, and we all know how assumptions over time mature into full-blown cock-ups. I know better now!

However, only the Wannabe forum seems to be archiving stuff on a regular basis and there's no real visual prompt to send people checking the archives for their questions. Perhaps a fiddle here? And not all forums have moderators (a good thing); perhaps the ability to move stuff to archive might be made more generally available.

R

[OzExpat]

I have this nasty habit of avoiding FAQs like the plague. I hold the belief that, "if at first you don't succeed, read the FAQs."
:)

I know that's a really dumb attitude, but I'm probably not the only one. So, if we're voting, I think archiving is the better way to go.

------------------
Once a king, always a king.
But once a nite's enough!

[Self Loading Freight]

OzExPat--

It may or may not be dumb, but I really don't understand it...

Why? And why would the archives be acceptable when an FAQ would not?

Confused of North London

[seadog]

Bravo ! I've been thinking the same things - get p***ed off reading the same questions, answered often by people who really shouldn't. FAQ's are the answer.

[OzExpat]

SLR ... see the post by Flintstone. That's pretty much the way I feel about it. To me, the thing you'd use FAQs for is to find out how to put a check-mark in the "show signature" box. In other words, it's more of a "how to" thing than than a "why did it happen that way" type of thing.

The latter category describes many of the posts on PPRuNe's various fora. FAQs would not convey the same sort of logic to me. If you've used FAQs often, I'm sure you'll agree with that.

And, no, I figured out the checkbox thing all by myself, thanks.
:)

[Darn it, forgot to put a check in the box for the signature which is, of course, a completely different sort of problem! And I now discover that it can't be included in an edit operation. That's something I probably COULD have found from FAQs]

[This message has been edited by OzExpat (edited 10 September 2000).]