An Anandtech Forum FAQ?

[pm]

I've been seeing a lot of Frequently Asked Questions show up in General Hardware - which is fine, I answer if I have time and don't if I don't. More importantly I've been seeing a lot of high quality "dissertations" showing up such as "Partitioning" by SUOrangeman and the "Stepping" one by Ulysses.

Is there a reason why there isn't an Anandtech Forums FAQ? Is it simply that no one has volunteered? Am I the only one who thinks it's a shame to see really high quality posts disappear down the list and then see someone post a new thread about that same question just a few days later?

I hereby volunteer to compile a AT GH FAQ unless someone on here has a reason why I shouldn't. (ie. copyrights, intimidating to newbies, etc)

 

[BurntKooshie]

I wholeheartedly support it. The lack of the ability to keep top posts/information at the top (because of archiving, and the annoyance of bumping and copy/pasting a new thread) is partially what drove the dist. comp. forums to create the teams own webserver. The same can't be done everywhere, but if there were a FAQ forum, I think it'd be great....

 

[pm]

Erm. I was talking about a webpage (or maybe a text file) which has FAQ's listed followed by a particularly coherent answer posted by one of the forum's residents. A FAQ Forum's not a bad idea except that, if you are a newbie asking a FAQ, how would you know it's a FAQ? (boy that sounds like a Dr. Suess rhyme).

 

[BurntKooshie]

I see your point. I wonder if its possible to have "moderator validated" FAQ's be posted in a hypothetical "FAQ's forum". There, the records are automatically archived after being approved....just a thought. I suppose a regular page would be easier

I can't exactly volunteer the server for this, or say the team will, but I highly suspect that the dist.comp forum would be happy to host that page....

 

[pm]

Well I run a server at home, so I could just put it there and add it to my sig and perhaps others may add it to theirs if it is useful. If the accesses start to swamp my bandwidth (unlikely, but possible), then I could move it to Geocities. If the thing actually is useful perhaps Anandtech.Com may host it.

The type of FAQ's that I'm thinking of for right now would be top #20 FAQs from GH, like "What's the difference between CAS2 and CAS3 memory?", "When will DDR motherboards be available?", "What is a stepping and why do I need a cC0 stepping Pentium III?", etc. Perhaps even diplomatic answers to the stuff that causes flamewars "Which is better a Voodoo5 or a GeForce2?", etc. I envision it being short, up-to-date, and compiled using answers from members on the forums. I also thought it should contain something like the HOWTO's from Linux and have these really good posts that don't answers FAQ's - like the dissertations mentioned above.

 

[Adul]

Sounds like a great Idea PM.

 

[BurntKooshie]

Sounds great to me PM. If I could be of help (I guess I can't see quite how...), but if you need a hand with any remedial grunt work, I could give it a whirl.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Be sure to include as many of Hardware's informative posts as possible.

 

[AndyHui]

Sounds good to me. I'd be willing to contribute if anyone ever found any of my stuff useful.

 

[Train]

I suggested this exact same thing like 3 months ago, but was utterly ignored

 

[BurntKooshie]

train, we ALL have suggested this at one point or another. Don't take it personally.

 

[pm]

Ah, but I'm not merely suggesting it, I'm volunteering to do it. In fact, I started last night.

I'll post the preliminary list of questions to this thread tonight and you guys can suggest additions, subtractions, etc.

 

[hubbs]

Isn't there a Semi-Official AnandTech forum FAQ already? I rembmer it being brought up.

 

[Jason Clark]

The forum software has a faq capability built in.. someone just has to paste a faq into it and hit submit . Once one gets written we'll take care of it.