[pmwiki-users] Troubleshooting versus FAQ versus Error Messages versus ...?

[Patrick R. Michaud]

On Sat, Mar 11, 2006 at 07:26:01PM -0700, H. Fox wrote:
>  The first FAQ Q/A pair is:
> 
>     How do I get my question answered?
> 
>     The quickest and best way is to join the pmwiki-users Mailing List
>     and post your question there. If it really is a frequently-asked
>     question, it will eventually be added to this page.

While I agree that this is often the quickest way to get
an answer (assuming the answer isn't already in the documentation), 
I'm not sure it's best for many people.  

First, I think a number of people will simply decline to ask
the question and will start looking elsewhere.  Many mailing lists
have a reputation of being unfriendly to newbie questions -- thus
the frequent expressions of (pleasant) surprise when people ask
their questions here and get a helpful and rapid response.  I think 
that's a great part of community building and an essential part of 
PmWiki, but I wonder how many people simply turn away at that
point.

But the real issue has often been that I (and I suspect others)
don't get around to answering things on the Questions page
because I'm used to doing it via email, which is a push resource
for me.  Maybe if I get the per-page/per-person notifications in
place this would be easier, since I and others could subscribe
for notifications of the Questions page.

>     An alternative way is to leave your question on the Questions page.
> 
> The questions page has a reference to the FAQCandidate page, which is
> for question with answers.  So...
> 
> Questions - Unanswered questions
> FAQCandidate - Questions with answers
> FAQ - FA Questions with answers

This seems to me like it's just adding more places to store
questions and answers and more places to search and have to
coordinate.  I'd feel better if we could get by with fewer somehow.

Pm