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

[Susan]

Ok. The titles listed in the first post aren't terribly informative, 
then. Remind me to actually look at the pages next time; the info's 
right there. Me bad.

I like the three-stage process for Questions, FAQCandidates, and FAQ, 
for the reasons you've listed. Maybe make the Answer pages uneditable, 
so they're forced to use the question page?

Can you customize the "Sorry, you need a password to edit this page" 
message on a per-page basis? "You can't post your question on this page, 
but here's a good place for it." Save this for the pages most likely to 
generate questions.

I still like the idea of separating "how to" from "it's broken".

Regardless of how questions on the question page are dealt with, there 
are unanswered questions all over the place in the wiki, and more likely 
to be added daily. No way to get back to the asker. And I can just see 
some of them, "I asked a question, and they deleted it rather than 
answer it," when what really happened was it wasn't seen for ages, then 
it was answered and moved to the FAQCandidate page.

Some brainstorming. Use, abuse, or ignore as appropriate:

Maybe flag changes as "(not-)Reviewed". But then who would have the 
authority/responsibility to review? What would they look for besides 
unanswered questions? Can of worms, not recommended for opening at this 
time.

Maybe discourage asking questions and reporting bugs directly in the 
wiki. Instead, use a form. Link to this form in the footer / header of 
every page. User enters question. Line is added to table in Questions 
page: date asked, link to page under question, question / bug, link(s) 
to answer -- to be filled in when question is answered). Icing: Page in 
question has link to the question page.

To clarify: Comments not needing responses go right into the wiki. 
Questions or bug reports (or anything else needing a response) would go 
on the form.

I really like the [[DocumentMe]] category, but people asking questions 
directly in the wiki aren't at a stage where they'd be aware of it.

This is another reason to change the Q&A format of the cookbook: if 
people see questions, then they'll think that adding questions directly 
to the wiki is the right way to get answers.

I'm not a big fan of Q&A style anyways. I already know the question, I'm 
looking for the answer.

I'm rambling.

Good luck with tonight's release!

Susan



H. Fox wrote:
> On 3/11/06, Patrick R. Michaud <pmichaud at pobox.com> wrote:
> 
>>I'm having difficulty understanding the purpose behind having
>>separate pages for
> 
> [...]
> 
>>    FAQ
>>    Questions
> 
> 
> The Questions page exists to deflect people from posting random (not
> Frequently Asked) questions on the FAQ page.  Cleaning up the FAQ page
> for 2.0.0 was not easy, and I didn't want it to need to be done again.
>  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.
> 
>     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
> 
> Hagan