Question to the moderators.

[old_wombat]

Having been more active on this forum recently, I note that there a quite a few repeated questions, albeit of course from different people. To give one example, "Where and on which install CD is the xxx file located?" Is there any thought to maybe maintaining a FAQ to which such questions could be directed? I would be happy to assist in this regard.

Steve from Mudgee.

[JSkorna]

The FS Wiki is perfect for this sort of thing:

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/showwiki.php

[old_wombat]

Ok, Jim, thanx for that, it's going to take me quite a while to digest all that. I will get back to you when I'm done.



Steve from Mudgee.

[pivek]

Remember FS2004 is only a game.-

Apologies in advance, I'm not a moderator; but as long as new members arrive to this forum, and as long as newbies simmers encounter problems in their leaning curve while using FS2004 there will be lots of questions. And guess what ?... those questions are almost always the same we asked when we were newbies too.

It is a pleasure to answer and answer the same questios again and again to keep this community alive.

NB a personalized answer is more humane than a FAQ section. (please note its just a comparison not a dogmatic statement)

[lolaloa22]

Remember FS2004 is only a game.-

Aplogies in advance, I'm not a moderator; but as long as new members arrive to this forum, and as long as newbies simmers encounter problems in their leaning curve while using FS2004 there will be lots of questions. And guess what ?... those questions are almost always the same we asked when we were newbies too.

It is a pleasure to answer and answer the same questios again and again to keep this community alive.

NB a personalized answer is more humane than a FAQ section. (please note its just a comparison not a dogmatic statement)

I agree!! I don't know how long this site has been up but I don't remeber it not being here. Have you ever tried to do a search on a common problem on the message boards? Good Lord Man!! The hits you get back could literally take you days to get through. Sometimes you get lucky and only get a few hits back and presto, there's your answer but trying to go through reems of material...I usually end up doing a Google search in such a case becasue invariably you ask a question and someone always replies back 'search the forums". I'm not an expert at FS but I am always willing to answer a newbie question...and who knows, the same question asked 2 years ago may just have a different answer in 2012

[old_wombat]

Well, there's two completely different points of view !!!!

I was envisaging a combination of the two. You ask a question, and it happens that the answer is in a FAQ. so the kind human who answers it merely points you at that FAQ. And since we are in 2012, it is a tagged FAQ, which means that he can point you to the exact spot in the FAQ. So no searching through reams of Googling.

The other problem with personalised answers is if they happen to be long ones. "How do i put a tree.api in my scenery?" "How do I make a gtransparent bitmap?" Or if they require total 100.000% spelling/punctuation/instruction. Having a known bug-free document from which you can copy and paste (as, for example, several people have done from an SDK these past few days) is always handy.

Having this available does not negate the possibility of all you people much kinder and less lazy than I who are prepared to answer over and over again.

Steve from Mudgee.

[jgf]

.... so the kind human who answers it merely points you at that FAQ. ...

I have actually been castigated in these forums for referring someone to a FAQ, tutorial, or (heaven forbid!) a Micro$oft SDK rather than giving them a "quick and dirty" fix for an issue. But I'm of the "teach a man to fish..." school of thought.

[lolaloa22]

I have actually been castigated in these forums for referring someone to a FAQ, tutorial, or (heaven forbid!) a Micro$oft SDK rather than giving them a "quick and dirty" fix for an issue. But I'm of the "teach a man to fish..." school of thought.

For sure....don't get me wrong, if there is a FAQ available or the person answering the question includes a link to a previosly published document then that is excellent! Why write in an answer what is covered in a well prepared document already. I've asked questions in the forums before and have been given links, pointed to other places, referred to FAQS etc and all were very helpful...and I actually prefer that as I can save, print or do whatever with the document. The main beef I was really getting at was the few responders that will simply write "have you tried a search?" A better answer would be "I had the same problem and when I did a search I found the answer at this link here"

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that every question needs to have a 3 page response with graphs and charts....but something a little more helpful than "search the forums"

[ScatterbrainKid]

I was an admin/mod/big shot at the Few Good Men wargaming/military discussion forum for several years and found the best way of handling queries was for me and other members to simply give people a straight answer based on current up to date knowledge and experience, rather than just shunt them off to an old thread that might or might not still be accurate.
However for good measure we always ended our replies by saying-"There's also a thread/ FAQ/article etc that you might like to look at, here's the link-xxxxxx"
PS- At FGM we also used to sticky half a dozen or so interesting informative key threads and write-ups at the top of page 1 so they'd always be easy to find and wouldn't scroll off and get lost..

[pivek]

Has anyone alse pointed out that the Similar Threads section in each post is also very usefull for finding anwers? I always give the Similar Threads section a try and had found anwers there for my inquires.