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Subject:Re: FAQs - Good or bad? From:Emily Berk <emily -at- armadillosoft -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 18 May 2005 11:03:10 -0700
As usual, I am many days behind in my email. But, this question got me thinking about the FAQs I've written.
It turns out that I've written FAQs for two kinds of clients:
1. For clients like Borland, who have excellent documentation, the FAQs I've written were re-wordings of questions that were answered (well) in the docs.
2. For other clients, who I will leave un-named, the FAQs were questions that were answered frequently by tech support because the docs were so awful that no one could do anything with the product without the FAQ. For these clients, I came up with an XML-to-Framework document design so that I could sneak the answers back into the docs if I was the one maintaining them. So, that part made me feel righteous...
-- Emily
On Fri, 13 May 2005 13:00:11 -0700, "Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com> wrote:
>The problem with a lot of FAQs that I see is that their creators seem
>to miss the "F" part. A FAQ shouldn't answer questions you just
>think users might ask, and certainly not all of them. It's supposed to be
>short list of questions that are asked so often by so many people that
>the folks who are responsible for answering user questions want to scream,
>"Not THAT one again!" and strangle the person asking it every time they
>hear it. Every company's support staff should, if asked, be able to rattle
>off every question that belongs in a FAQ at the drop of a hat (just before
>they go for your throat). If you don't have any questions that produce a
>reaction like that, chances are you don't need a FAQ
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