Kathryn A ([info]kerravonsen) wrote in [info]gimp_users,
@ 2008-03-18 08:09:00
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Current mood: frustrated
Entry tags:faq

Frequently Asked Questions
I notice that we are getting the same questions being asked over and over and over, such as "Where can I find a starter Gimp tutorial?" and "How do I crop images?" and "How do I get brushes?" and "How do I make animated icons?"

What's the best way of making things so that people don't have to keep on asking these questions, but actually find the answers first? Having an FAQ post? But that's only any good if people can find it. Having tags? But they aren't that informative, and newbies probably wouldn't look at them.

Ideas?


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[info]gliriolielin
2008-03-17 09:20 pm UTC (link)
Change to a layout that has a sidebar and/or tags on the side so it'd be possible to add useful links and tags would be visible? I think it'd be easier then.

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[info]ahavah_ehyeh
2008-03-19 11:27 pm UTC (link)
I agree. Or having a link to the tag page on the profile would be helpful.

Edited at 2008-03-19 11:28 pm UTC

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[info]spacekadt
2008-03-17 09:26 pm UTC (link)
or a top post with a date of some day in 2050 or something? But I don't know what that would do to people trying to post in the community.

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[info]lied_ohne_worte
2008-03-17 09:39 pm UTC (link)
That doesn't work in comms, although there are other possibilities to simulate this behaviour. Comm posts are sorted by server time, not by the time the poster gives them, because people are posting from different time zones.

As for the main question: In my experience, many people tend to ignore all such FAQ posts, because it is much easier to ask the question for the 100th time than to actually search for an answer in an FAQ, no matter how well-structured it is. I guess such an FAQ post would need to be combined with strict posting rules, threatening deletion and banning, in order to get people to make the effort of reading it. (Can you tell I'm cynical?)

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[info]kalypso_v
2008-03-17 11:31 pm UTC (link)
But it would be possible to reply "See No. 14 in the FAQ [link]" when the question was asked, rather than having to explain from scratch every time; and maybe the questioner would remember about the FAQ the next time and look there first.

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[info]lied_ohne_worte
2008-03-17 11:39 pm UTC (link)
Well, you've got a point there. :-)

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[info]missfnb
2008-03-17 09:37 pm UTC (link)
Some communities have searches. (E.g., [info]thesims2.)

I don't know how'd you go about getting one of those, but it'd be much more specific and helpful than tags. Especially since I've noticed lots of posts without tags at all. :(

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[info]sputtertoo
2008-03-17 10:43 pm UTC (link)
I would suggest a search and and tags on the side.
Although it might be prudent to just set up an outside page that has all the links categorized and ready, we would just need a maintainer for that.

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[info]theonlysong
2008-03-17 11:09 pm UTC (link)
i'd say your best bet is to make a FAQ post and link it all over the community

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[info]plotbunniofdoom
2008-03-18 02:11 am UTC (link)
I think a FAQ post would be a good idea and link to it from the profile.

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[info]kerravonsen
2008-03-18 08:58 am UTC (link)
One problem with a single FAQ post is that one person has to maintain it, a person who may not be able to continue to do so.

I'm wondering if a compromise, using tags, might work:
- each Frequently Asked Question to be answered in a separate post
- each FAQ post tagged with a tag like "faq"
- (additional) answers to the Question can be given by anybody, in the comments of that FAQ post; this will make the answers easier to find, since they're answers to just one question
- the FAQs could be found under the "faq" tag.

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[info]pherber_m
2008-03-18 08:16 am UTC (link)
A search function would be useful in any case, IMHO.

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[info]mer_moonchild
2008-03-20 11:40 am UTC (link)
What about the community memories? I like how things are set up at icon_tutorial, but you'd probably need a few more maintainers who were willing to keep it updated - at least once a month.

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[info]moony_blues
2008-04-04 02:23 am UTC (link)
I run a couple of fandom-related communities, and utilizing the memories feature makes it really easy to organize the information:

One thing to note is that, even if you decide to go with an FAQ tag, you won't be able to sticky any kind of FAQ post to the top of the page. LJ doesn't allow out-of-order posting in communities (as I'm sure you're already aware). However, you can set up your memories with certain categories, i.e. "FAQ," "Tutorials," "Plug-In's," and then file the entries under those categories. After you've got the memories set up, you can place a link to it at the top of the page in the header and make the text of the link something like "Start Here."

Edited at 2008-04-04 05:02 am UTC

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[info]kerravonsen
2008-04-04 07:05 am UTC (link)
But unfortunately, I think only the comm Moderator can add to memories? I'm not a Moderator, in fact, we haven't heard a peep out of the Moderators about this, so the whole question is probably moot, since we can't do anything without their cooperation. 8-(

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[info]moony_blues
2008-04-04 07:11 am UTC (link)
Check out this FAQ. We could probably argue that the constant requests for answers to the same question are the same as spam and therefore there are grounds for someone to take over the comm, if the maintainer is genuinely AWOL.

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