The Cutting Edge: Computing/Technology/Innovation : Yeah, So What Does FAQ Stand for, Anyway?
On the Internet, it sometimes seems, there are many more questioners than questions. The next person to come along inevitably wants to ask some of the same things as the last person, only the new person doesn’t know that everybody’s already been through that already. Thus, the FAQ. As all veteran cybernauts know, FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. But if you’re a newcomer, by now you probably have a whole raft of questions about FAQs--what are they, where do they live and so forth. Well, this is your lucky day, because what you’ve found here is the FAQ on FAQs.
OK, so just what is a FAQ?
A FAQ is a text file written in the form of a dialogue that tries to think up all the questions you might have about a given subject and provide fairly objective, reasonably dispassionate answers to them. Think of Socrates or Bishop Berkeley, only without the papyrus or quill.
The Internet discussion forums known as Usenet newsgroups often have a FAQ. At a minimum, a FAQ should answer basic questions about the subject at hand, avoiding a lot of the boredom and wasted effort that arises when people ask the same things over and over. At their best, though, FAQs can rise to the status of thoughtful essays, functioning almost like up-to-date encyclopedia articles. There are FAQs on an amazing array of subjects, including juggling, libertarianism, electrical wiring, Irish setters and, oh, several thousand more.
Whew! Is there some Plato out there in cyberspace, compiling all these questions and answers?
Nah. FAQs are typically written by a volunteer who is extremely knowledgeable on the subject that is the focus of a given newsgroup.
Who appoints this person?
Depending on the group, the FAQ writer can be self-appointed (it’s a lot of unpaid work, after all, and because the Net is ever-changing, you always have to worry about updates), or anointed by others in the group, or agreed upon by informal Net consensus.
FAQ writing can be a delicate business. For example, rec.martial.arts is a contentious place where people are always arguing about whose form of fighting--aikido, tae kwon do, etc.--is better. Yet the group’s FAQ is a model of judiciousness. On the other hand, some groups are so divided that there is no accepted FAQ. In general, a badly biased FAQ would likely be shot down by others in the group.
How about the quality of the writing? Will reading FAQs set my teeth on edge?
Not at all. The prose is rarely brilliant, and sometimes there is an awful lot of throat-clearing in which the FAQ writer tells you what he is about to tell you, goes ahead and tells it to you, then tells you he has just told you. Yet given the great number of FAQ writers, the writing is really surprisingly good, and oddly consistent, in my experience.
Maybe there is some self-selection at work here, with the people who take on the task of FAQ writing tending to be those who can write. But mainly, the form seems to work. It emphasizes clarity and simplicity, which is most of the battle in writing anything, and the Net is so intolerant of pretense that a lot of the worst excesses common to bad writing are avoided for fear of flames.
I’m not planning to post any questions to this newsgroup, so why should I bother about the FAQ?
There are several good reasons to look for a FAQ, aside from the obvious one, which is that you don’t want to post some question that is answered in it. For example, when my wife and I were recently offered a pair of kittens described as “Maine coonish.” This was a new one on me, so I checked into rec.pets.cats, an excellent newsgroup that contains some great FAQs. There is a table of contents FAQ which in turn lists a host of sub-FAQs about cat care, diseases, specific breeds, etc. Sure enough, I discovered one about Maine coons that told me everything I could want to know. Since I’m more of a dog person, I’ve read other FAQs in rec.pets.cats and found them marvelously illuminating.
OK, so FAQs are worth reading. Where can I go to read one?
Where to find things is always the question on the Net. Fortunately, it’s not hard to find a good FAQ. First, look in the newsgroup you happen to be interested in; FAQs are posted periodically, and FAQ writers typically update them now and then. You can easily search subject lines using most newsreading software--using tin, for instance, just hit forward slash and type FAQ.
If you can’t find a FAQ in the relevant newsgroup, try news.answers. You might also try rec.answers, sci.answers, comp.answers, and so forth, depending on which FAQs you’re interested in.
Daniel Akst welcomes messages at akstd@news.latimes.com.
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Finding FAQs
Can’t find the FAQ you’re looking for? A great trove of Internet FAQs is maintained at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Internet users with ftp capability simply type ftp rtfm.mit.edu, log in as anonymous and change to the /pub/usenet/news.answers subdirectory, where a host of FAQs reside. (It’s best to try this after hours; if the site is busy, it will suggests others where the same archives are “mirrored.”)
If you don’t have ftp capability, you can always just e-mail mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the message HELP. You should get back e-mail containing instructions for accessing the archives by electronic mail.
