Constant questions???

[mairving]

It seems like a lot of times the questions that are asked are the same questions over and over. Some of these questions are questions of the moment. In other words, "what motherboard should I get?" changes every couple of months. There are those questions like partitioning, like how to set up a modem,etc that the questions are always the same & the answers are always the same. Some of these like Reboot's answer to disabling com ports or going into safe mode and removing drivers are permantly etched in my mind.

I guess I am thinking that there must be a better way. It seems that we should come up with a list of common questions & answers. Then maybe we could have a FAQ section for each of the categories. It seems like this may speed up the learning process for some people. What is everyone else's opinion?

[LawyerRon]

mairving,
I've thought the same thing many times.
We could have the the "Top 20 Most Frequently Asked Questions" or something to that effect.

I agree it would save time answering common questions like; "I'm swapping motherboards but don't want to reformat my hdd", "How do I install a new HDD", "My modem doesn't work", etc, etc.

[M. A. Dockter]

If you guys start a list, I'll publish it somewhere on pcmech

[mairving]

Doc, a FAQ will not do much good unless there is a link from the forum to it. Now we need to come up with FAQ here. Can you guys help me make one?

[kraken]

An FAQ is a good idea but mad dok its up to you to implement.

MAdok

Ask for submissions and ye shall recieve.

You know the subjects and I am sure the respondants will
supply you with the appropriate pages.

you can always ask for thoughts and for facts.

Ask and I will submit a preformated page with the appropriate links.

Hmmm, memory or hard drives! You choose.......

[AndyM]

I second, third, fourth or whatever it! For many us hobbyists we don't do these things often enough to stay abreast.
Here's my topic nominees:
1. How to resolve device conflicts/IRQ assignments
2. Partition recommendations/scenarios
3. How to move a bootable drive to a new computer.
4. How to install CDRW/scenarios.
5. How to troubleshoot boot problems.
6. A Conservative Guide to Overclocking(see #5)
7. Hardware recommendations, make it available to members with over 100 posts, that way you include the Canadian.
8. OS install scenarios
9. DOS instructions for doing this & that. Like the one from glc for downloading the Win CAB files to HD.

Lemme know if you need more...the advantages to this are tremendous. Rookies like me can reference one place and save everybody's time. This is significant for those of us weekend warriors still on dial-up.

[mairving]

Maybe we could have:

• Top ten FAQ's.
  
• Top ten tips from the pros.
  

AndyM, your list looks good. Some issues like partitioning everyone does differently. We would have to make sure that we present the answer as a combination of various people's opinions.

[AndyM]

Thanks mai,
That's why I thought we could have the pros describe their favorite scenarios for things such as partitioning, and why, then let the reader get the straight info and decide for themselves.
For instance, I was advised to put win98 on a FAT 16 partiiton by itself, was told it runs faster. But I really would like to have the explanation of "why?" along with the advice.

[LawyerRon]

Here's a few more that come to mind;

1. Will pc100 ram work in my computer tho it specifies pc66?
2. Can I run pc100 with pc66?
3. What's the difference between UDMA66, ATA33, etc. etc?
4. What's the difference between OEM and Retail?
5. What's the difference between a Winmodem and Hard modem?

[reboot]

Ron, I think I've covered #5 at http://www.pcmech.com/article.htm?modemsa

[AndyM]

I'm just hitting this to keep it alive. Is this project still viable?

[goodcanuck]

How 'bout in the meantime...enphasize the "search" button more...I try to use that first then post a question...to see if there are any post on what I am looking for.

Perhaps this will subside some of the repeat questions.

With the button being up at the top of the page...once you get in the forums you tend to forget that it is up there. and just go ahead and post your prob.

by the way thanks for thinkin of me...perhaps make it 150 and then I'll have something to shoot for 40 post just saying "hi"

[Karel]

goodcanuck,

You beat me to it (been away for a week).
I always use the search button first. Of the 5 questions (problems) that I ever had, 4 of them were resolved that way. I posted a detailed (I hope) question about the 5th, and it was swiftly answered by glc (thanks again).

What I mean is; you've already got the best FAQ there is - the search option - it's just not "visible" enough.

[mhayes]

Perhaps we could start moving a few more topics, after some editting, into the Hall of Fame. A suggestion from anyone who feels a post may be of relevance to others at another time could start a nomination process to have the original question and any relevant responses post in the Hall of Fame. We could edit the subject line of the original post to reflect the question.

[SARGE]

Gotta remember, alot of folks are 1st timers to the site and aren't nearly as geeked as alot of others. They've given up asking friends or the guy at Best Buy, etc.

I agree about the search part. But then again, how many newbies think to look there? This would be a boring forum w/o fresh blood now and then, otherwise there would be over 6000 registered old farts talking about over-clocking in .10 increments

I've been guilty of posting some questions on the fly, w/o taking time to research on my own. Perhaps it's just me, but I kinda view this forum as a bunch of guys shooting the bull over coffee at the local cafe.

[Edited by SARGE on 02-17-2001 at 10:26 PM]

[WJWheels]

Originally posted by mairving Some of these like Reboot's answer to disabling com ports or going into safe mode and removing drivers are permantly etched in my mind.

I wonder if these would still be "etched" in your mind if the respective subjects were NOT constantly broached. Maybe the repetivity of both questions and answers IS the learning process.

[StuartW]

It must be remembered that many of us don't work with computers all day, and so only have a fraction of the knowledge of the professionals. I know that it was only after I had done a complete reformat of my HDD for about the fifth time,that I was able to do it without looking up my notes.
It is important that you do not scare off newcomers to computing, which is so easily done if most of the topics are on 'difficult' subjects like disc partitioning or delving into the registry.
How about a new forum called something like Newbies Corner, where it is clear that the simplest and silliest of question are welcome, even if they have been covered countless times before.

[kraken]

As a computer expert.

There will always be something that someone doesn't know.

But with the wealth of information on this forum it should be quite easy to gather a lot of basic computing information. It needs only the members to subit and the administration to accept.

Editing of pages could be done by a group of the best to eliminate the possibility of incorrect information.
It seems that I may have to write some training information for work and I would be happy to submit these for scrutiny to ensure accurate information.

IMHO the first should be about Fdisk and partitioning as this is common to all hardware.

[reboot]

How about a new forum called something like Newbies Corner, where it is clear that the simplest and silliest of question are welcome, even if they have been covered countless times before.

I like it!

[Kubie]

reboot, I like it too!
If anyone can ask simple or silly questions, its me.
Carl

[Carl Price]

I like it too and promise to help out there.

[mairving]

How about "Newbies Nook"? Maybe we can take all of these suggestions and roll a big one and fire it up. Could we have?

• A forum called Newbies Corner
  
• Have some FAQ's in there.
  
• Show people how to navigate and find stuff on this site by using the Search, etc.
  

What about it Herr Docktor? I also will help out as much as possible.

[goodcanuck]

Jee Wiz...I just might be able to increase my posts if this were to happen ...

I'll try to stay quiet so as not to confuse the newbies.

(but if you need help...I might as well start volunteering with something that sounds simple and sort of straight forward)

or maybe there is an article about why computers in Canada run cooler than in Austrailia...perhaps...efront would sponsor a trip for me to test my hypothesiseseses????? [wow...where the hel1 did that just come from...decided to leave it in...just because].