Let me try to clarify. - This list is the place for people to raise questions, and there are many people on the list who will provide answers. To reduce duplication and noise, it does help if newbies (and even more experienced people) consult the FAQ list before raising questions.
- People (the original questioner, the original answerer, or anyone else on the list) are encouraged to submit any Q&A pair to the FAQ list. The Q&A pair is reviewed by the editorial committee. If suitable, it is added to the list, perhaps after being rewritten somewhat, with credit to the original answerer. - Thus http://www.unicode.org/reporting.html is not for people to ask questions on; it is for people to submit Q&A pairs on. I'll ask our "FAQ-Meister" to make that clearer. Mark __________________________________ http://www.macchiato.com ► “Eppur si muove” ◄ ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 02:36 Subject: RE: Assume everything on this list is ignored > > Isn't the very notion of "submit[ting] a FAQ question" a contradiction in > terms? Surely, one merely ASKS a question. If enough people ask the same > question, we may then classify it as "frequently asked". > > It's like this. Newbies want to find things out. So they read books, and > look around on the web. Eventually, they'll encounter some point of > confusion they can't resolve by their own research (or don't have time to > thoroughly research), so they will then find some forum to join in the hope > of finding somebody there who will know the answer. > > This forum -- indeed, ANY forum -- will have questions asked on it. Some of > them may be asked frequently. These are, by definition, Frequently Asked > Questions _of the forum_. Forum FAQs are generally put together by long-term > members of forums who are sick of having to answer the same question over > and over again to all these damn newbies, or by other long-term members who > simply wish to cut down the traffic on the list. > > Now this is, in fact, rather curious. Because the web page > http://www.unicode.org/consortium/distlist.html implies that _this_ list > (described as the "Unicode Public E-mail List") is _the_ place for the > public to go to "pose questions to the community of Unicode users". In THE > SAME PARAGRAPH that web page says "as a courtesy to others on the list, > please check the ... Frequently Asked Questions [at > http://www.unicode.org/faq/]";. (Which I did). > > Now, if it is true, as Mark Davis suggests, that the Frequently Asked > Questions list at "http://www.unicode.org/faq/"; is unrelated to this list, > then: > > (1) This should be made clear on the consortium's web page > (http://www.unicode.org/consortium/distlist.html), which currently implies > that the stated FAQ is the FAQ _of this list_, and > > (2) This list should have a FAQ of its own, independent of the consortium's > FAQ, and maintained by long-term members of this list (i.e. by those who are > in a position to know which questions are, in fact, frequently asked). > > ...and for what it's worth, the consortium's submission form at > http://www.unicode.org/reporting.html seems (a) difficult to find without > knowing the URL (I couldn't find it anyway, at least not by starting at > www.unicode.org and clicking on links from there), and (b) intimidating -- > it is not worded to encourage the "I don't understand feature XYZ" type of > question from the public. I am therefore forced to wonder who actually > _asks_ these frequently asked questions of theirs. > > Just my thoughts. Please don't take of this too seriously. > > Jill > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: John Cowan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 1:35 AM > To: Mark Davis > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Assume everything on this list is ignored (was Re: Newbie > Question - what are all those duplicated characters FO R?) > > > Mark Davis scripsit: > > > If you want to submit a FAQ question > >
