RE: To FAQ or not to FAQ?

[MList -at- chrysalis-its -dot- com]

Hart, Geoff [mailto:Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

> /kevin wonders: <<Do you think that there's value in 
> perpetuating an issue
> in the form of a FAQ, ...>>
> 
> There's merit to both: 
[...]

And another corner heard from...  
But seriously. I always appreciate hearing what Geoff 
has to say on a topic.

I agree that both have their merits -- leaving an issue 
in a FAQ format or pulling it into the "official" product 
documents. But a disadvantage of doing both, simultaneously, 
is that they take different forms (in my experience), so you 
can't just copy one to the other, or use a hot link. That 
brings up the issue of maintaining the same information in 
multiple places... the reverse of publishing a single piece 
of information in multiple documents.

I guess I should expand some of the other arguments that have 
arisen on this single aspect of a big discussion.

One is that Customer Support have been doing it for a while, 
and they will continue to be the clearing house for the questions 
(cuz they are customer-facing) and the answers (cuz they take 
the responses from our developers and from their own efforts 
and create answers -- and re-worded questions -- that will 
be meaningful to the largest audience). So, my role should 
be to review the FAQs for ideas to improve/update my docs, and 
to provide editorial assistance to the Customer Support authors.

Another consideration is that some people like the idea of a 
single owner for all Customer Documentation, who has responsibility 
for the content and for the presentation. That way, it all 
shows a consistent, cohesive corporate face. They do have a point, 
but one problem with that approach is that I have to fit it in 
between my product/project-related documentation jobs... which 
are becoming very tightly scheduled in recent times. If a piece 
of information can't be made public until it goes through my 
hands, that introduces a (to me, unnecessary) delay.
Better it should get out there as soon as possible than that 
it be delayed until the next hole in my schedule.

It may look like I already have my mind made up that the FAQs 
should stay with Customer Support, and that I should stay with 
my more formal documents, and any support that you folks supply 
will be gratefully accepted. However, I know the variety of 
points of view that are represented here, and there may well 
be some good reasons to do it differently, as well as ways to 
minimize the possible disadvantage(s).

I reserve the right to ask you gang to bolster my prejudices 
or to destroy them.  <g>   Or both at once.    

Meanwhile, thanks, Geoff.

But, here's a different question that has popped up:

How many people say FAQ as "a FAK", and how many say it 
as "an efF Ay Qyoo"??  I have slid from the latter to the 
former, over the years.  Sometimes I'll spell it out when 
speaking but, mostly, I or others will say "that sounds 
like a Fack to me".

Cheers,

/kevin

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