Closed or Resolved: FAQ Content Suggestions - How to Find Existing Information in the Forum

[Marc]

It has been recommended that I include a section in the FAQ here about "How to Find Existing Information" in the forum.

What are your suggestions on verbiage to use? What would you say if someone asked how to find information here?

[DsqrdDGD909]

Originally Posted by Marc

It has been recommended that I include a section in the FAQ here about "How to Find Existing Information" in the forum.

What are your suggestions on verbiage to use? What would you say if someone asked how to find information here?

I would lead them on a step by step how-to with screen shots.

I would explain the difference between searching Entire posts and searching just the titles.

I would give some advice on keywords and if any special characters are allowed/recommended.

[Tupham]

Useful information for those with limited experience would be a list of the most common keywords in a table format. Something like "if you are looking for ... use the keyword/s ..."

[silentrunning]

It might be helpful and speed things up if you could divide the subjects up somehow. Like ISO, PPAP, Corrective Actions etc. I know this would be a pain in the beginning, but I think it would get used more in the long run.

Doug

[Frank T.]

FAQ's are there to help answer any basic questions for someone not familiar with whatever they are looking for. I think Brad is on the right track with his thoughts on some of the FAQ's that will help people better understand how the cove site works.

My

[Marc]

Originally Posted by silentrunning

It might be helpful and speed things up if you could divide the subjects up somehow. Like ISO, PPAP, Corrective Actions etc. I know this would be a pain in the beginning, but I think it would get used more in the long run.

Doug

The idea is good, but how is the problem. What I mean is, a couple of years ago we re-did most of the forums with this idea where we tried to categorize by 'topic'. The moderators and I spent a lot of days (a couple of weeks if I remember correctly) moving threads about and trying to get thousands of threads in their 'appropriate' forum.

What I found at the time was there were too many people who could each envision a different categorization scheme, so what sounded good to one someone else didn't like.

The current forum home listing / categorization is the result of that effort. If you envision a different specific categorization scheme, I'm all ears.

[harry]

I had tried the guidelines for finding information in the existing FAQ section several times and can vouch that it works.

My view is that it has nothing to do with this subject but rather attitude of people. Some just barged in when caught in a jam either at work or study, hoping some kind souls here will answer their questions without the need for them to spend time searching for information they need. It’s easy to tell who they are – they disappear as soon as they get what they want. You don’t see them again and remaining as a part of this community is last in their mind. Taking the cue from our ‘kind host’, we always entertain them.

Yet there’s another category who could not even bothered to give a good thought about what they want to ask or find out – asking questions such as “what is ISO” and expecting people to read their mind or guess what they want. Such are the type of questions that elicit some less than polite response sometimes and yet, some one here will volunteer answers to their questions. There are some genuine ones who are new to the subject and ‘fit into this mould’ and if you had remain here (evidence that you are genuine) please accept our apologies - the bell curve has 2 extreme ends.

Perhaps we can have another box below the first one (containing the welcome message) at the opening page. The title of this box should be something like: Some good practices or netiquette for consideration before you start posting (actually a reminder). There should be 2 columns – one for existing users and another for newbie’s.
For existing users, some reminders are: no personal attack, refrain from responding if you don’t like what is written and so on…… For newbie’s, some reminders are: think through what you want to ask, be specific so that respondents can give you a better answer. Where possible, do a search before posting (I have never seen any impolite reply for posters who say that they had done a search but could not find……). Apologetic and well crafted questions for those in an emergency (in-fact all situations) always end up with an abundance of courteous replies.

My

[Sidney Vianna]

Originally Posted by harry

My view is that it has nothing to do with this subject but rather attitude of people. .... think through what you want to ask, be specific so that respondents can give you a better answer.

on both points. Concerning the latter, my motto is: the caliber of the answers depends on the quality of the questions. If you phrase a question poorly, don't expect insightful answers.