FAQ: What am I missing?

dangelog · wrote on 17 Dec 2010, 21:01

[quote author="Volker" date="1292619597"]peppe, the content under menu "FAQ" is fully automatically generated from the Qt docs. The DevNet Trolls (Marius, Alexandra, Gurudutt, etc.) do not have access to change that, but can only request their colleagues.
[/quote]

I know that, and moreover those FAQs do not cover the forums, the wiki and so on. That's why I asked for some unofficial, user-mantained FAQs. Should I assume that there are none? If so, wouldn't it be nice to have them?

dangelog · wrote on 17 Dec 2010, 21:04

[quote author="Gerolf Reinwardt" date="1292619621"]Afaik the support is only for commercial customers, isn't it? And a forum is something like FAq or not?[/quote]

No, the forum is certainly not FAQs. OTOH, a FAQs section could be made in the wiki, and things that aren't already in the "official" FAQs and/or are related to the DevNet wiki/forums themselves could go in that section.

giesbert · wrote on 17 Dec 2010, 21:05

Ok, your point.
And perhaps a wiki page / category would make it.

stukdev · wrote on 17 Dec 2010, 21:09

What is the 'input' that create some FAQ to the troll database?

giesbert · wrote on 17 Dec 2010, 21:25

bq. Marius wrote "here":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/forums/viewthread/1079
To answer the OPs question; the FAQs are edited by the Qt Support team. And each night we get a fresh copy of their FAQ database. The actual source is in the customer support systems we use.

I’ve cleaned up some of them, removed the “please fix this / now it’s fixed” comments and removed the tag. But more work is needed there, clearly.

So it comes from the support database. And I think, the support database is dilled by supprt cases?

mgran · wrote on 18 Dec 2010, 18:31

It goes like this: Qt Support (the fantastic Trolls responding to support requests from "paying customers":http://shop.qt.nokia.com/en/support.html) have a support system, this system stores questions that they get with the answers they have. They have had this FAQ database for years and years.

The ones that are thought to be of general good value for anyone gets tagged with "OK to put on the web" or something like that.

Every night we get this set of FAQs over the wire from that support system and we turn it into the FAQ section here. So even though I can edit a FAQ here it's going to be overwritten later.

We have made an RSS feed of FAQ comments that Qt Support checks up on and slowly but surely they are updating the FAQs at the source. And there is a set of tags used by the moderators on the FAQs to identify improvements.

We've had some good old challenges with this, since the source is in pure text with limited or no indentation. All the syntax-highlighting is added by a regex on import and it's not water tight. Also some FAQs have attachments and they don't make it over (and they need a legal check).

I'm thinking of adding some text above the comment box on FAQs, asking that questions should go to the forum but if you have something to add to the FAQ it's great to add it as a comment. Hopefully that would help with expectations, any thoughts?

fcrochik · wrote on 18 Dec 2010, 19:23

Just to make sure: the FAQ contents are overwritten every night but the comments added "by us" not. Right?

I have to say that the "FAQ" name throws me off a bit and by the posts on this thread I am not the only one. My "first instinct" was to assume that FAQ somehow was a sub set of the forum questions that were answered and highly rated. After I couldn't find any relation between the two contents my next impulse was to try to figure out how to ask a question on the FAQ section...

I don't know how but I would suggest that there is something that can be done either to the title of the section ("Support FAQ?") and/or maybe adding an explaining paragraph (with a link to the support page?) on the top of the FAQ page. It may actually work as an incentive for people to try to buy support :)

giesbert · wrote on 18 Dec 2010, 19:52

That's right, it would help. I think there are many people a bit suprised, you see that on the other threads regarding the FAQ.

dangelog · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 11:38

Right. So, how about a "community" unofficial FAQ section, exactly like the "official" one but maintained by regulars?

giesbert · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 11:50

So in addition to the wiki? as part of the wiki?
And who should fill it? only mad scientist? all? questions on questions :-))

stukdev · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 11:57

Yes, question on question.
Maybe is a good idea only the FAQ on the qt site.
Some people look that, not a FAQ in a wiki.

[quote author="Gerolf Reinwardt" date="1292759426"]So in addition to the wiki? as part of the wiki?
And who should fill it? only mad scientist? all? questions on questions :-))[/quote]

dangelog · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 13:20

Many threads from the forum can possibly become good candidates for inclusion into the FAQs; and being FAQs, I like the Question + Answer + Comments (which from time to time get merged into the Answer) structure more than a wiki page.

goetz · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 14:03

That could easily achieved with a category FAQ that would be added to the respective pages, together with some overview page.

I too like the idea of a community maintained FAQ.

vsorokin · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 14:29

[quote author="Volker" date="1292767407"]
I too like the idea of a community maintained FAQ.[/quote]

QtDN wiki is community maintained FAQ now. Why do make something else?

goetz · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 14:36

[quote author="Vass" date="1292768981"]QtDN wiki is community maintained FAQ now. Why do make something else?[/quote]

Good point - you catched me ;-)

dangelog · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 14:53

[quote author="Vass" date="1292768981"][quote author="Volker" date="1292767407"]
I too like the idea of a community maintained FAQ.[/quote]

QtDN wiki is community maintained FAQ now. Why do make something else?[/quote]

Because the wiki lacks the form of a Q/A database. I'd say it's much more suitable for articles, tutorials or so, while FAQs are good for "How I do this?" kind of things. My 2 cents.

vsorokin · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 15:03

peppe, What about this category: "Category:HowTo":http://developer.qt.nokia.com/wiki/Category:HowTo

dangelog · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 15:22

I'm not saying that the wiki cannot possibly, never ever, contain FAQs! :-)
I'm saying that I like more the "Q/A+comments" structure, probably because the wiki lacks comments and discussion pages.

giesbert · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 15:28

So, I think it could be a new section in DevNet, like the Trolls FAQ just DevNet driven. But then the access should be somehow be secured? I think it's agood idea, as you have additional questions on the same page, not searching the forum for discussions on the topic.

dangelog · wrote on 19 Dec 2010, 15:36

[quote author="Gerolf" date="1292772503"]So, I think it could be a new section in DevNet, like the Trolls FAQ just DevNet driven. But then the access should be somehow be secured? [/quote]

Yes, rank-based, exactly like everything else in DevNet right now.

[quote]I think it's agood idea, as you have additional questions on the same page, not searching the forum for discussions on the topic.[/quote]

What do you mean? Additional questions about an entry should go in the forum and be debated there ("I did this but I didn't get the expected results..."); comments could instead add valuable content and/or suggestions to the entry ("On lines 4-6 instead of doing X, you can do Y"), and they can periodically get merged into the entry itself.

At the same time, forum threads can get "promoted" to FAQs when problems are solved.