Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!psgdc!rg
From: rg@psgdc (Dick Gill)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Frequently asked questions in these groups deserve a monthly posting
Message-ID: <221@psgdc>
Date: 7 Jun 89 22:48:55 GMT
References: <21089@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <810060@hpsemc.HP.COM> <10369@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Reply-To: rg@psgdc.UUCP (Dick Gill)
Organization: Professional Solutions Group, Vienna VA
Lines: 37

In article <10369@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn) writes:
>In article <810060@hpsemc.HP.COM> gph@hpsemc.HP.COM (Paul Houtz) writes:
>>When you create a list of frequently asked questions, you inadvertently
>>create a rule that everyone must pour through that list every time they
>>want to ask a question, ...
>
>Not at all.  Having read the list once, everyone now knows the answers
>to those questions.  There is no need to refer to it later when asking
>for enlightenment, because one is not going to ask about something
>already understood.

I envision this list as more dynamic, although I may be expanding the
notion of the original poster.  For simple answers, this list could,
of course, be pretty much definitive; that could certainly cut down
bandwidth for the person who wanted a simple answer (as opposed to
seeing their name in print).

There may be another function of such a list (or, UGH! another new
one), and that is to point the reader to the conclusions (if any ;-)
of an extended discussion about a question with a complex answer. As
an example, I am about to try to bring up a bi-directional modem port
on a Tower 32/600, and know that there was extended discussion over
several weeks about doing the same thing on a Sun system. It would be
useful if I could know who to ask were the discussion went. Since I
can't read all the news every day, things pass; often a discussion
that is only mildly interesting today becomes important tomorrow.

Do people out there keep enough record of these discussions that an
index of topics and source people would be feasible?

Dick

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Dick Gill     Professional Solutions Group   (703)761-1163   ..uunet!psgdc!rg
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Dick Gill     Professional Solutions Group   (703)761-1163   ..uunet!psgdc!rg