StevePavlina.com FAQ (Blog)
 

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

StevePavlina.com FAQ

This is probably the best FAQ that can be found on the net... it might be interesting to have a look..

Hope I'm not out of line here... if so... I will ask the mod to delete this post...

Shamou: Apart from being very comprehensive, I'm not sure I see what's so great about that one. Perhaps it even suffers from information overload; I know I would find it slightly off-putting if I were a newbie to that sight.

But as for Steve's FAQ, I think it's a good companion to his previous post about dealing with the high volume of communication that heavy traffic bloggers like himself get. I've recently been trying to write an interesting and readable, yet still informative enough, "about me" page for my blog, and there's a couple of lessons in succinctness that I can take from Steve.

And oh, to be at the stage where my blog attracts people to send me free products in the hope of getting a mention! :p

Were you being facetious? That mostly looks like the built-in VB FAQ with some additions. These forums have one too, although I haven't added anything to it:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/forums/faq.php?faq=vb_faq

I can see your point about newbies... however that site has over 200,000 members... it deals in a great many subjects... so, for the regulars... it is quite handy to have all the info that you need in order to keep within the rules and stay out of trouble...

As, for the newbies... they can post their questions in almost any thread and receive the answer within minutes...

But, I am not advocating anything for this site... the FAQ here are very good and I have found all the answers that I needed...

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I've always thought it would be nice to be able to download entire archives of the site, but then I thought, 'That would eliminate a lot of ad-clicking'. But according to the FAQ, you don't mind them being printed.

Slightly off-topic here, but what I'd like to know is how many people actually use the (Pavlina) forum FAQ page. (I guess I could just ask Steve for some traffic numbers instead of aimlessly wondering.) Do people see it as a useful resource, or just another crazy link that the vBulletin software offers that nobody ever looks at or really understands?

Personally I think FAQs are great, but I very much like static sources of info, so that's no surprise. (Why are static sources of info good? It's an efficiency/leverage thing. Eg. Steve doesn't reply to every individual question he gets because it's too inefficient. It's better for him to simply write about the answer in a blog post and have it there. That way it's always there, so instead of constantly repeating himself, people can just look on his blog. Saves time for all involved.)

There's a whole lot that I could add to the forum FAQ to flesh it out more (no offence to those who write the vB FAQs, but it's not very detailed, nor does it cover enough topics), but I've been hesitant to do so because I'm concerned as to how many people would actually read it vs how many people would actually ignore it and just make a thread or post asking about what they want to know instead.

In the past I would have resisted the notion of people making such threads/posts, but now I embrace it. While post clutter/overlap are something you want to try to minimise wherever possible, the collective forum member base as a whole will generally cover anything that comes up much more efficiently then an FAQ will. Think of the forum member base as a sort of living, real time FAQ that responds to what is needed on a moment to moment basis.

But that said, it’s good to have options, so having a decent FAQ can’t hurt. If it needs more exposure (ie. if nobody ever uses it and just asks questions in the forum instead) I’m sure we could figure out a way to do it (maybe link to it on the forum sidebar to make it more obvious, etc).

Hmmm... this may be worth considering, especially given how effective Steve’s new website FAQ has been.

I personally don't think anything can have too much information, so long as it's structured properly. I'm all for being succinct, but only when it doesn't detract from detail. Ultimately you want whatever you are creating to serve its purpose without overextending itself.

But in terms of information overload, if people are finding something off-putting there's probably a good reason why. Eg. If newbies find a forum FAQ to be overwhelming, a more simplified FAQ isn't the answer. You need to address why they are feeling overwhelmed. While “too much info” can appear to be the problem, it’s more likely to be a case of an unclear, unintuitive, confusing layout/navigation or a lack of the proper tools to perform necessary functions.

Most people will look at an FAQ for some specific information, and the amount of information will only become a problem when it makes the information they are looking for hard to find, at which point they might say, “I can’t find what I’m looking for, there is too much info”. People often only describe the symptom of a problem and not the problem itself, so you need to trace the symptom back to the root and ask why it’s coming up in the first place.

Basically you need to target your audience in a way that they are comfortable with. I think when you’re clear about (1) what you want to do (ie. the purpose), (2) what resources you have available, and (3) what particular audience you are trying to reach/cater to, the rest falls into place (maybe after a bit of refinement). Steve’s website FAQ is a good example of this. I can't speak for Steve, but I think this would be pretty accurate:

StevePavlina.com website FAQ

(1) Purpose: To store and answer frequently asked questions about Steve and his website (not just "general", "not so frequently asked questions", such as those about Steve's religion, as they'd be outside the scope of the FAQ).
(2) Resources: HTML, hyperlinks, formatting, etc.
(3) Audience: Visitors/readers to/of StevePavlina.com, business clients/press, as well as those who wish to email Steve.

Steve,
Your FAQ has information on your policy for republishing articles, but nothing about the restrictions for personal use.

What is your policy on taking copies of your articles for personal reference?

Thanks.

I'm pretty sure personal copies would fall under fair use.