Re: FAQs: What to do?

On Mon, 29 Mar 1999 21:15:22 +0200, Veronica Karlsson (dre...@on.spammer) wrote:
: I said that each person should be able to choose how they want to format
: their copy. I.e. what colours to use, what kind of file to use, if they
: want to use <p> or <pre> for ordinairy text, if they want to use CSS,
: etc. It's all just looks. What matters is the content.

I agree with that if and only if sufficiently narrow limits are placed on
what changes can be made. I've seen too many sites where the style itself
- even if entirely approprite for the main content and reader profile of
said site - makes reading a FAQ a pain.

Think dark green 7pt "fancy" font on black starfield background, width
limited to 400 pixels, enclosed in a table in order to top it all with a
graphically intensive navigation column.

Maybe none of us would do that to the FAQ, but maybe someone would.
Besides, there are several other points:

 * A FAQ file should above all be as readable as possible. The reader's
   default setting usually get closer to that than anything the page
   designer can provide. Not everyone wants to override author styles even
   if they do prefer their FAQs simple and legible.

 * If the FAQs are updated anywhere near frequently, the HTML for each
   mirror should be identical. Of course, a LINK element could be used to
   add site-specific styles, but this still imposes limits in any case.

 * Relating to the previous point, IMHO the whole point of mirroring is
   that the mirrors should be identical, not varying interpretations of
   the base document. The way I see it, if the author of the original page
   wants BODY { text-color: green; } then green text it shall be, but not
   otherwise.

 * Besides, people expect informational decuments to be simple and without
   distractions. Just because I can read the FAQ just as easily in purple
   text doesn't mean that the unexpected color change wouln't be an
   incovenience if I was browsing around for info on, say, configuring OE4
   to show ascii art properly.

The key here is relevancy. I'd have no problems with a big animated GIF if
it was useful for illustrating a particular answer. But such decisions are
up to the FAQ author, not to the mirror providers. 

I'm not saying some allowances couldn't be made. For example a
site-specific navigation bar at the bottom shouldn't be too bad, though
just a simple link might suffice. I suppose we'll have to allow GeoGuides
too.. :-(

Anyway, that's just my view. If those with the power (the FAQ author(s))
decide that mirrors may use their own styles, then I won't complain. But
my copy (if I'm allowed one, that is) will still be faithful to the
original, and I hope just for the readers' sake that the central mirror
list will mark mirrors as either original or modified.

</rant>, I suppose, though I _was_ trying to avoid overreacting.

-- 
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 ,_f_)\. Ilmari Karonen  ilt...@sci.fi  http://www.sci.fi/~iltzu/  /(_|_,.

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