Re: FAQs: What to do?

Sending this to both Martin and newgroup.

>|>1. We have a whole lot of documents here. Is it worth keeping the old
ones?
>|
>|Only if they are necessary and help someone who wants to learn it all.
>|
>|I feel you can answer the question or heading in a simple and quick way,
but
>|further in to that same heading should be the complete info that we have
>|collected through the years. Keep the good and throw out the bad.
>'-------------------------
>I'm sorry but I'm not exactly sure what you are suggesting here. Is it
(like
>Matthew's suggestion) to use the other documents as an extention to the
main
>FAQ?


Answer the question in a quick and simple way, then in the same section
write all the rest of the info. Simply state, 'For more detailed information
on this question read on.'

Can you imagine the clicking and browsing that will go on just to read the
FAQ's, if you divide it up into links all over the place? ONE DOCUMENT keeps
from doing that. AND what if a person wants to print it out and read it
later. NO WAY! He will now have to go to every link and print each one. THAT
IS NOT USER FRIENDLY. Believe me I know because that is waht I had to do. It
really sucked.

Just do the complete rewrite and yes, you should have other people help
write it. Opinions are not the issue, the info is. Granted a variety of
opinoins are good. We can post each section to just get a general consensus
of whether it is OK. OR have 2 or 3 editors look over each submission from
each section. NO NIT PICKING FOLKS! We need a good document and it will
never be 100% Ok for everyone. But close is good!

>.-------------------------
>|The question I use in determining this is, "Did knowing this info make me
>|more knowledgeable about the subject matter?" If the answer is yes than it
>|must stay in or be added. One reason for this is someday we will all be
gone
>|but this info is our gift to the future artists and generations. We all
know
>|someday the internet world will try to squeeze the ascii-art out of us
(like
>|IE4 and IE5), so we need to collect and pass along any and all good info
we
>|can.
>'----------------------
>I see what you are getting at, but quite a few of these documents contain
>identical or very similar information. Which ones should be kept?


Fine do the rewrites and have you and Mathew (as editors) decide which
duplicate info gets referenced to a different section or not. Plus when we
do a fully linked mirror html version, imagine how nice that will work.

>.----------------------
>|>2. Some of the 'current' ones will need rewriting (alt.ascii-art
documents
>|>list springs to mind) ... how will this be handled?
>|
>|IF it is at all possible to contact the original writer and get permission
>|then that is what we do.
>'--------------------------
>Well, I can easily contact myself. There will be problems with the others
>though. I have Daniel Au's email address but not Jorn Barger or Scarecrow,
>and obviously contacting Colin Douthwaite is no longer possible.


Scratch it and do the rewrites and we can just put in there,

by so-n-so using info from an aticle written by ????? And if you want to put
the original articles link in there by all means do it there.

>.-------------------------
>|>3. Are we to have mirrors of all of our agreed documents identically, or
>|>just on a 'whatever owner decides to put up' basis as we have now, with
all
>|>of the sites doing it differently.
>|
>|I think the layout of the txt document should stay very close to the
>|original. As far as all having the same name file name. NO WAY! We as a
>|group worked hard to get the word out. We are everywhere in the search
>|engines. This would litereally kill the availability that we have gotten
to
>|at this point. Also, all of those websites would now have to be updated.
If
>|they are not it would leave a bad taste for those who are interested in
>|getting invovled in ascii-art. THAT SHOULD BE OUR BIGGEST CONCERN! WE NEED
>|MORE PEOPLE TO FEEL WELCOME AND WANT TO PARTICIPATE TO KEEP OUR ART ALIVE!
>|Sorry about shouting but we do have people who treat newcombers poorly.
And
>|we all know what that does to the newcombers. C-ya!
>'---------------------------
>Yes, but in the long run having identical filenames will make the site more
>usable and the fact that all mirror sites have a link to one another has
got
>to get it back into the search engines pretty quickly -- there are lots of
>free services on the web for getting good web site exposure.
>It would be proper to put up a 'this page has been moved into the ADA (see
>Matthew's latest FAQ posting) etc etc...


You said, "site more usable", whose site? My site is very usable and the
name of the file or html documanet has nothing to do with ease or speed of
it's use. Although imbedding a file in folders does slow a document down in
an extememly minor way, but never noticable. A link is a link. Not many
people actually read the link itself, just about where it will take them and
what it is for. (I read them, but I don't know anyone at work or in my
family who does. And that's about 60 computer users.)

Why damage the already good search engine use that there is out there now.
The name really is irrelavent. Unlike a business,
Location-Location-Location, we need,
Participation-Particpation-Participation.

>Matthew has said that maintaining HTML and text versions is no problem for
>him, so this is no longer an issue... there will be two versions available:
>plain text and HTMLified. Obv it will be the Plain Text posted to the
>newsgroup.


Sounds great!


>|One document to do it all! Please! It is the right thing to do...think of
>|the folks who can't go to websites and read "the extras". There are more
>|systems out there like that than you think. Remember the more people the
>|better! Even the getting started in Ascii-art is a fantastic feature that
>|should be in the FAQ's. If it makes us smarter about the subject, it
should
>|be added.
>'-------------------------------
>Eek.. Up till now everyone was in favour of moving all of the details out
of
>the FAQ and into separate web documents, and putting simple answers in the
>main FAQ with links to more detailed information.


Please read the first one again and think about it, short answer and then
more detailed info. The html versions could allow you to go to the next
question from the point where the simple answer is over and the more
detailed answer starts or it could go back to the index.

This is the beuty of the html versions and how it make the FAQ's easy to
read and still be in one document. All the other newsgroups that I have see,
give you all the info at once. Those who care read it.

PLUS ANOTHER BIG CONCERN, WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE KEEPER VANISHES FROM THE WEB
(at no fault of their own obviously) AND ALL THOSE DETAILED LINKS GO WITH
HIM? We now have to rewrite all the links to the next person who has them
and all the search engines now have dead links and need to be updated again
and we have to hope that the documents have been kept 100% updated from the
keeper's version,... Can you see what I am getting at here? ONE DOCUMENT
SOLVES THIS ALSO!


***I don't expect everyone to agree with me, (if any of you do for that
matter on this issue of one document says it all), but at least consider the
problems involved with not having it that way.***

Peace,
Donovan

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