Re: To follow responders -- building an FAQ

I welcome the idea of building a resource to help deal with the number of repeated questions that are posted in the newsgroup. But, IMHO, it is wishful thinking to believe that providing a FAQ is going to cut down the number of repeated questions that are posted to this newsgroup.

There are a lot of people that are starting to install and use Oracle, and, let's face it folks, Oracle can be a real challenge for beginners. And for those that can't bother with locating or reading the Installation Guide or the Concepts manual, do you really think that they are going to bother with locating and searching a FAQ ?

I understand (only too well) the frustration that comes from seeing the same question posted over and over again. Because it is frustrating. But that doesn't bother me as much as some of the responses that get posted. Some of responses have a slightly disrespectful tone, and some are downright rude. I do think we all deserve respect from one another and should strive for professionalism in our communcations.

What bothers me more (about the newsgroup) is that more than a few responses (and how do i put this politely) contain "inaccurate" and/or "incomplete" information.

I believe that a resource, which i would refer to as "Frequently Posted Answers" would be a tremendous benefit to this newsgroup, both for long time members, and for those just joining. The purpose of this resource would not be to cut down on the number of frequently asked questions that are posted, but rather, providing an easy to use resource to answer those questions as accurately and efficiently as possible.

Q: "... problem install on linux... " A: a link to page(s) on linux installs

Q: "... ORA-1555... "  A: link to the article on steve adam's web site
Q: "... convert timezone ..."  A: a link to the page on timezone issues...
Q: "... migrate from SQL Server ..." A: a link to page on migration ...

Sometimes a link to the exact section of the Oracle manual would be appropriate, but not everyone is registered at technet, and even fewer (i suspect) at metalink.

Just to summarize what I'm thinking...

A "Frequently Posted Answers" website would provide links to articles and other resources which can be referred to in replying to commonly posted questions.

A "Frequently Asked Questions" resource is NOT going to significantly cut down the number of frequently asked questions that are posted.

I welcome feedback from members of the newsgroup.

My apologies for the length of this post. Received on Tue Jan 23 2001 - 21:50:14 CST