Let's build a FAQ?

[deleted]

Does anybody else think that it might be a good idea to build a list of the most commonly asked questions on these forums?

Instead of people constantly asking the same questions, why not make an easily accessable FAQ?

Anon

I think it would be a great idea especially for Newbies. I am experimenting with PHP coming from Cold Fusion. Cold Fusion has the same problem with same questions over and over. There should be categories such as:

Installation
Database Connection
Email
Databases

ETC :
I suppose the manual has a lot of these.

Anon

It's a good idea but only if whatever powers-that-be are fine with us answering questions using a standard "read the FAQ" response.

I'm assuming questions that would be covered are generally beyond the scope of the manual (or hard to find info) but not as in depth as some of the articles.

toma42

The ability to search forums is already in place.

Personally, and this may be pessimistic, I think those people not smart enough to do a search are the same group of people that arn't smart enough to use a FAQ.

php4hosting

I agree with Tom, a lot of people don't want to look for the answer themselves they just post a question "how can I...." and wait for someone to reply.

A simple search here and the PHP.NET site will answer more questions, plus maybe a search at google.com

It wouldn't help, as people would not use it

Regards

Darren Casey

HTTP://WWW.PHP4HOSTING.COM ($)

HTTP://WWW.PHP4HOSTING.CO.UK (£)

craigh

I think it would help those of us that aren't newbies but aren't experts yet.

I always search here and php.net before asking a question, but there are still some simple concepts that I struggle with (classes come to mind.. um and sessions.... and yes - I've read the articles.)

Questions that KEEP coming up should be included - the one about images in a MySQL database seems to hit the boards about once per week and login pages and ... well YOU know!

craig

sepodati

There are articles on every one of those topics that always come up, usually multiple articles.

Create a FAQ that points to these articles, and maybe answer any questions that are left unanswered.

Like the others said, if they don't take the time to read the articles or manual...are they really going to read a FAQ?

Plus....what's that online FAQ thing....where a lot of these questions are already answered....ah...found it.

http://www.faqts.com/knowledge_base/index.phtml/fid/51

don't recreate the wheel...just give the newbies the links, and nothing but the links.

---John Holmes...

[deleted]

John, I couldn't agree more with your statement:

"just give the newbies the links, and nothing but the links."

The trouble is, everytime I do give them a link and just a link, I get flamed for not giving the answer and for pointing to a document that people can't understand.
(yes, some people think the manual is written in swahili)

I am slightly fed up with that, so I want to create a document that just covers the most frequently asked questions in a format that the biggest newbie can understand (no offence guys).

My aim is most definately not to re-invent the excellent faqts.com site, just a doc that covers the FAQ's of phpbuilder.com, so that the newbies get understandable answers, and the "advanced" don't have to repleat themselves over and over and over...

sepodati

Everything is already out there. People are too lazy to read and want everything done for them. They are the Microsoft generation that expect programs and other people to create all of the code for them and everything to work automatically....

---John Holmes...

moyashi

OK don't want to anger you folks but :-) I'm a neuBee, and no I'm not too lazy to go through 3 - 4 sites for an answer.

Problem is if you do a search and "of course, my search string is ambiguous or too general -- I get tons of pages and links to refer too." "Well, put in a better search variable, somebody might add .." "Well, that's because I'm a newbie and don't know what I'm looking for ..." So catch 22 and so I turn to folks like you all -- ask a lame question -- get an answer or a link -- write back a response IF I don't forget since I'm pretty dam happy most of the time with the answers. yes, I ended up using a lazy man's way, but personally I really appreciate all the help I get, thank you message or not. I was helped and I'm very grateful.

I've been to other forums where people burnout and turn spiteful because of a few sh_t heads who take advantage of the help they have been given so generously. In a sense, we're all caught in a catch 22. Want to learn but have time restrictions (php - computers - website - and wife, who is angry that I'm turning into a nerd, are pretty hard to manage) so I do a few searches and if no luck I trun to the boards. some of us truly want to learn but ... alas ... no luck.

So, yes, a faq and quick and easy links are no problem, but I still like getting help from people too. It's that personal touch that helps when you stare at a monitor too much everyday.

Sorry for the book and the gibberish.
AND
Thank you all.

Anon

Vincent,

I couldn't agree more. I remember that when I just started with PHP - I bought books, searched the web, read the articles, experimented with code, etc. The only question I posted was related to socket programming, which is a hard issue.

Right now newbies are so lazy. I mean c'mon, asking questions on how to connect to mysql and things like that. Answer to almost all questions on this forum can be found by searching the web... basically doing some work!!! Windoz newbies don't want to do that.

Yes, FAQ is a great idea. I even think that we can subdivide it in parts for newbies to advanced. My question is this: how are you going to do that? I mean do you think that admin crowd for phpbuilder.com will let you do it? What's the action plan?

shanx24

Exactly!

Take a look at www.phpbuilder.com (most things are searchable) or

http://php.faqts.com

HTH,
Shanx

Anon

I think it is a good idea. Place a GIGANTIC button on the front page of the site that says "Newbie FAQ's Click HERE!".

PHPBuilder has a lot of great articles which cover probably 50% of the questions I see on all of the boards.

The rest of the questions can be covered if they would just search the forums before posting.

I think this would be a great addition. What does Mr. Perdue think???

Anon

I understand what you are saying...

The thing is that sometimes forum is being cluttered by some really, really stupid and simple questions answer to which can be found by doing general search. I agree with having FAQ because it not only will clean the forum from unnecessary postings, but it will also help newbie to find help and find it quickly.

You said, <b>"Want to learn but have time restrictions (php - computers - website - and wife, who is angry that I'm turning into a nerd, are pretty hard to manage) so I do a few searches and if no luck I trun to the boards. some of us truly want to learn but ... alas ... no luck."</b>

That's great that you want to learn, and I understand that it is time consuming, but if you've been going to this forum for quite a bit you'll know that may be 10% of people who come do 90% or so of postings. So every time newbie comes and asks how can he can deal with regular expressions (ereg, eregi), I think, man, how many postings were already made on this topic not counting information that is available from books (Professional PHP Programming and etc.), Manual (php.net), articles, and etc. So FAQ combines info based on its relevence, and newbie first goes and browses what I hope an extensive FAQ section, and if he or she doesn't find an answer, then go right ahead and ask us.

Doing this way will increase educational value of this forum, because I'll know that when I get mailing list every day, I won't have to skip through 75% of stuff knowing that some lazy newbie is just not willing to do research himself...

I am all for FAQ!

Anon

You know what I think would help along with the FAQ, is a page devoted to terminology. You see most the time that I end up posting, is due to the fact I cant think of any other subject to look under in the manual, I am not lazy, just sometimes lost, or bewildered. The language itself sometimes stops the newbie from the being able to search the manual. I think a FAQ is an excellent idea, and some help with some of the language would be a great benefit too.
Jim

sepodati

Okay...I didn't say everyone was lazy. 🙂

I post questions, too. I explain what I'm trying to do, and what I've already tried, and the results. That's a good post.

The "lazy" people I'm referring to post questions like "I can't connect to mysql. What's wrong?", or "I want to do ______. How do I do it?" You can fill in the blank with whatever...

I don't think we should write a FAQ for newbies. I think we should write a FAQ for people that have an idea of what they are doing, and give them explanations on how to do other things, give code examples, move on to the next step, whatever...

I don't want a whole section on "Should I use print or echo??? Please respond ASAP!!!"

🙂

---John Holmes...

sepodati

Okay...so let's go to YahooGroups and set up a mailing list that people can subscribe too who are interested in this. We can discuss how we want to do the project, what content we want in it, and stop cluttering up this forum. Get some free space at geocities to host it, or something, and once it's finished, I'm sure PHPbuilder or Devshed will host it for us...

Actually...I went ahead and made a group.

Group name phpfaq
Group home page http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phpfaq
Group email phpfaq@yahoogroups.com

Go subscribe if you're interested in helping...

---John Holmes...

sepodati

Besides the faqts site..there's also

http://www.alt-php-faq.org/

Are we reinventing the wheel??

---John Holmes...

[deleted]

Peachy.

I can host the faq itself at my site (vindev.xs4all.nl) for now. If it catches on maybe we can tickle the PHPbuilder people to host it. If it doesn't catch on, well at least we gave it a try.

So I would suggest to all you newbies, advanced and experts: send your contribution to the FAQ to me at: phpfaq@vindev.xs4all.nl
(Please don't send just the questions, only send questions with answers.
If you have no answer to a questions, post it in the forum.)

Anon

We already host a simlar type of site for the alt.php newsgroup.

http://www.alt-php-faq.org/

Its growing all the time.

Regards
Darren
http://www.php4hosting.com/