Just the FAQ's, Ma'am

BuzzLY

What do you guys think about putting together a FAQ for the board. If you are a newbie, would you read it? If you are a veteran, would you appreciate having one to point people to for simple questions? Do you think it's a waste of time?

There are a lot of PHP FAQs out there, but I'm thinking of one that specifically addresses the questions that are asked most often on this board. For example, "how do you do Prev/Next Buttons?" These FAQs can give sample code, answer the questions best they can, and even point to other resources on the net that the answer can be found. There is nothing wrong with encouraging research!

Please participate in the poll, regardless of your opinion, and if you like, please give your opinion as a response to this post. This is our board, so let's figure out how to make it better!

sarahk

By FAQ's do you mean the basics of php? If so, then isn't that what the core site is about - http://www.phpbuilder.com/ - and http://www.php.net

Or do you mean netiquette, well it's no different here.

Maybe you need to explain more...

BuzzLY

By "FAQ" I mean Frequently Asked Questions.

As I said:

I'm thinking of one that specifically addresses the questions that are asked most often on this board

I don't know if I can be clearer than that. I am not talking about rehashing basic PHP principles, unless it's a question people keep asking about (such as questions about register_globals). In such cases, a link to the appropriate manual page, and perhaps an explanation clarifying why, would suffice.

The bottom line is... people keep asking the same questions on this board over and over... and most of the time they are patiently answered. With a FAQ, we hope to avoid some of the simpler questions (assuming people actually read it).

z0r

As with any community, a F.A.Q. topic is useful for newbies as well as anyone else (you don't always run into a frequently experienced problem as newbie).

Keeping it current and accurately threaded (like, say, a top 100) would be the only chore. 😃

BuzzLY

I completely agree. However, as the point of a FAQ is to prevent people from asking the common questions, ideally once the FAQ is written those questions won't be frequently asked any more. There may be more to add to the FAQ, but I wouldn't necessarily say that we should remove any existing items from the FAQ. If we did, those questions might start getting asked again!

It's somewhat like a paradox, isn't it? Once it's in the FAQ, it no longer is a frequently asked question, so it doesn't belong in the FAQ! 😃

theDog

Originally posted by BuzzLY
It's somewhat like a paradox, isn't it? Once it's in the FAQ, it no longer is a frequently asked question, so it doesn't belong in the FAQ! 😃

It becomes a Frequently Answered Question. Ergo it's still a FAQ.

Isn't the phrase "somewhat like a paradox" somewhat like a paradox?

Pls insert basic syntax instructions into this hypothetical FAQ? Quotation marks, parentheses, concatenation dots, and where you need them and where you don't? It all seems so ambiguous to me, and it's not at all ambiguous to PHP.

🙂

crickettdt

I think instead of a FAQs section, it might be more useful to have a resource library, with lots of examples on how to solve the more common problems encountered in PHP, and the best ways to solve them.

Also, give tips on how to build better code, as a lot of the posts on this board can be solved by actually reviewing the code and spotting the simple syntax errors - like missed out curly braces.

I would be willing to contribute examples and explanations for this, as I'm sure many others would be.

BuzzLY

There is a place on PHPBuilder.com for code examples, but I'm guessing from the requests I have seen on the board that some people are not aware that it exists. You can even submit a snippet of your own... I think that might be what you are referring to, right? Do you know a reason why that effort should be duplicated in the forums?

Here is the link for that page.

crickettdt

Thanks - i wasn't aware of it.

BuzzLY

Sure... I didn't mean to sound snippy (so to speak 🙂)... It would be nice if the PHPBuilder site were a little more tightly integrated with the forums, but that's okay. All we need to do is educate people and give them handy links to the areas that will help them.

crickettdt

I only really wanted to suggest the "resource library" as i believe its a good idea to write, and read articles on the subject.

I will definitely write some articles for the site. I've only so far ever written a simple HTML article, but think i would prefer to write some good beginners tutorials for PHP - as i could only find bad examples that were'nt explained properly or didn't work when i was first learning it.

It probably didn't help that i used a "Learn PHP in 24 hours" book! Some of the examples just didn't work! Quite frustrating when trying to learn.

BuzzLY

You know, I used that book too. I found that I had to make changes to the scripts to make them work properly. The biggest change was the fact that they assume you are using register_globals, when in fact I was not. I had to change all the variable references to $GET or $POST. I also had to fix bugs.

But you want to know something? I think that helped me to learn PHP even better. I know that was not their intention, but to simply copy their code and have it work is not too helpful. To have to fix their code, in my opinion, makes you a better programmer.

Come to think of it... that would be a fun addition to this board. Someone posts code that would normally work on a server with set conditions (such as register_globals turned off). However, the code has one or two errors in it, and it's up to everyone else to determine what the error is. It could be a fun game, and educational as well. Anyone interested in such a thing?

planetsim

I think its very useful.
Ive seen many things about User Scripts and the use of cookies and sessions.

To redirect people to a faq's on this.
I think will hopefully stop people either posting there troubles about it. As well as people who try to help people to stop helping with the same problem so they can help others.

crickettdt

Buzzly

I like the way you think regarding the posting of problem code for people to fix.

Did you use the "Sams, Learn PHP in 24 Hours". There were lots of assumptions about global variables. I found i had problems with some of the cookies not working as well.

I guess it did improve my problem solving ability - but was also very frustrating at times.

ahundiak

It's doubtful the most newbies that currently post the common question would first search the FAQ's. Think about it. The ones that are willing to do some research before posting probably already do so and hence don't post.

What would be really nice is to have two additional buttons.

The first button would be a 'Submit to FAQ'. Pressing the button would add the thread to the FAQ list. The senior members could use this to automate the process of building a FAQ. Of course, someone would review and edit before the thread actually made it into the FAQ.

The second button would be a 'Answered by FAQ'. When somone sees a new post that they know is in the FAQ, they would press this button and a form would pop up with a list of available FAQ entries. Pick the applicable entry and press submit. A reply would then be posted which simply says 'Answered by FAQ ###' with a link to click on. Maybe the fact that it's answered by a FAQ could show up on the thread list to preclude other senior people from reading the entry.

In this way, you could easily direct the newbies to the specific FAQ. Hopefully, they would then get the idea of looking in the FAQ first.

theDog

Originally posted by ahundiak
Think about it. The ones that are willing to do some research before posting probably already do so and hence don't post.

Ya know, if you're going to substitute contempt for patient counsel, you might as well replace the whole Newbie forum with big block letters that say "RTFM."

Just because someone has read TFM doesn't mean he understood TFM. In the case of PHP, i sometimes find TFM inscrutable, and i need someone to speak to me in English. Also to mention, as noted above, sometimes TFM is wrong. This can be either challenging, or hopelessly frustrating, depending on the individual. And TFMs are often very lacking in procedural advice.

I have a whole stack of FMs next to me here, and a hundred bookmarks of FMs in my browser. It's not always helpful, and so i go looking for friendly people to help.

This whole forum reads like a FAQ to me. The most common stupid newbie questions are by definition the most common newbie mistakes and misconceptions. I like to avoid contempt, so i'm busy reading practically the whole forum. It would be nice if the FAQs were organized into a FAQ. In fact, given how helpful this place and it's people have been to me, i'd be willing to help organize them.

</$.02>

Bunkermaster

concidering the ammount of Qs we have on :

how do i can send an email (english bad sorie)?
what is a database?
how do I use session?
what is the speed of an unladden swallow?
Can buzzly really fly?
etc.

we should have a basic answer to frequently asked questions (we CAN see frequently posted topics).

post a link to FAQ as first answer and maybe make it evolv over time to match new needs. Wouldn't be too much work if we all contribute.

BuzzLY

Well, I'm all for it myself. Maybe we can start by posting some of the more common questions/answers here, then once we have a few, we can create the FAQ. Of course, it will be a work in progress. All good FAQ's are.

I'll answer the first question:

No, I don't fly. I fall with style! 🙂

xblue

From my point of view, it may not prevent new users from asking the same questions over and over again, but a well organized FAQ can be a good thing to refer to for the one who answers the question.

And once they are there for the first time, and found out their question actually is answered in the FAQ, users might be encouraged to give the FAQ a look before posting - after all this should be faster than waiting for someone to answer.

BuzzLY

An excellent point. Plus, if we ask real nice, maybe we can get the admins to put a link to the FAQ thread on the forum home page... 😉