Any suggestions for our new FAQ?

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Several of you have, uh, gently reminded me that the Welcome! page on this site has become rather dated. It was written specifically to help Windows S
[See the full post at: Any suggestions for our new FAQ?]

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[geekdom]

Keep this from Welcome page, but tighten it and make applicable depending on whether or not a member (patch list):

General layout
The blog is the part you see running down the left side of the site — it concentrates on tech news.

The Lounge (bulletin board) takes over much of the right side. There are different Forums for major areas of concern — Windows 10, for example, or Browsers or Mac. Within each Forum is a bunch of Topics, each corresponding to a question or answer. Within each Topic lie Replies, which are the messages people post back and forth.

To follow along with the latest news, read the left side of the page. To ask (or answer!) questions, start on the right.

Up at the top you’ll see my warnings about the current state of Windows and Office patches — the MS-DEFCON number and recommendations for installing or holding on the latest patches. If you’re interested in more detail, and want to take on all the tech stuff, check out Susan Bradley’s Master Patch List. Follow those instructions and you’ll have far fewer Winthings go bump in the night.

INCLUDE or NOT?
Make your questions count
If you are asking for assistance in this forum, here are a few suggestions that may help those who are providing assistance:

• Make sure your topic is in the right place.
• Provide your operating system and version.
• Write a complete description of the problem.
• Include complete error messages.
• Present remedies attempted and the results.

Italics are my comments.

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by geekdom.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by geekdom.

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Charlie, Myst

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The first half of that I tried to cover with this:

Why the hokey old-fashioned site?

A friend of mine, who passed away many years ago, created it. We’ll update it one of these days. In the meantime, up at the top you see my current recommendation for installing patches, using the MS-DEFCON system. On the left side of the main page, you see tech news; on the right, you see pointers into the Lounge — the question-and-answer part of AskWoody.com. To follow along with the latest news, read the left side of the page. To ask (or answer!) questions, start on the right.

I just added a section on Susan’s Patch Watch.

Extended the “post” section to include the tips.

Keep ’em comin’!

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geekdom

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End every paragraph with Contact Details for those who can’t find, or won’t look for it, as
https://www.askwoody.com/posts-and-privacy/
https://www.askwoody.com/posts-and-privacy/user-account-general-rules/
https://www.askwoody.com/faq/ < (newly edited and the subject of this very Topic )
don’t appear to be enough?

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CADesertRat, Myst

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Great idea. Lots of links added.

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[geekdom]

– The posting editor is on a 15-minute egg-timer.
– There are no deletes.
– Some instructions for toolbar, visual, text, attachments are needed.

Perhaps a link to a usage topic that covers the above information?

Look, ma, I’m bold.

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by geekdom.

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Several other topics come immediately to mind, including using bbcodes, smileys, quoted text, “program listings” and the like. Is there a good single point of reference for all of that? (Doesn’t have to be on AskWoody – WordPress should have something, shouldn’t they?)

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[geekdom]

Other than here, I don’t use WordPress and I don’t know what’s available in the documentation. From the way I see things working, I think certain switches can be set to enable certain features and whoever owns the site where WordPress is installed can set the features.

Edited to add: I’ve also fumbled around quite a bit while trying to play beat the clock and implement some of the old stuff in new ways… such as link.

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by geekdom.

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link?

We had several people who became quite proficient in using the editor on this site. (Yes, there are options that I can set – but I’ve opted for very few bells and whistles, to lower our attack surface.)

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geekdom

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Here’s the unedited link to a post:
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/any-suggestions-for-our-new-faq/#post-1946611

Here’s the link to the post as I would like it to appear:
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/any-suggestions-for-our-new-faq/#post-1946611

Unless you know to go to Visual, select the link, select the chain symbol in the bar, and select apply, you get the top link.

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If by Link? you mean include a link to documentation how to use use BB code, 100% right

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[geekdom]

No, I’m referring to “link” under the WordPress editor. It works a bit differently than in the past.

Good old copy-and-paste to a particular post — removes the post information:
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/any-suggestions-for-our-new-faq/#post-1947699

Highlight text, select link in toolbar — keeps the post information:
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/any-suggestions-for-our-new-faq/#post-1947699

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by geekdom.

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woody wrote:

link?

We had several people who became quite proficient in using the editor on this site. (Yes, there are options that I can set – but I’ve opted for very few bells and whistles, to lower our attack surface.)

Rather unfortunate I used the word link in two different ways:
— Topic link to WordPress usage explanation.
— How to create a link under the WordPress editor.

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Here’s one.
Not saying it’s the best, but it’s a start.

Re the draft FAQs, you might consider making the questions clickable links, leading to the answers. As it stands (and I’m trying to think as a first-time visitor would), it’s rather a lot of info all in one go. And you could get more stuff on the page.

I don’t know if that’s too much work, as I realise you’ve said you’re going to be modernising the site some time in the future.

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I wanted to do that, but it’s hard to implement. Great idea, though.

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[geekdom]

Information is needed on how to use the WordPress editor including the toolbar:

and attachments:

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• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by geekdom.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by geekdom.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by geekdom.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by geekdom.

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[Matthew]

On the one hand, I know Woody likes using “slang” words.  On the other hand, he wants these FAQs to be “relatively easy for non-English-speakers” to use.  So perhaps these FAQs should skip terms like “salty” and “hokey” and “gigabucks.”  Once the visitor decides they’re willing to come back again and again, then they can get used to Woody’s terminology.

P.S. What’s up with everything turning to a bold font?

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Matthew.

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samak

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Naw, the folks I know who use English as a second (or third or fourth) language enjoy salty, hokey gigabucks.

The bold font was some sort of weird character that I managed to delete. Somehow.

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Well, I’m English, and I understand it.

*runs out of the room*

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Please translate “hokey” to something other than “mawkish”.

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Your wish is my command.

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I was trying to test tonyl to see if he really understood it!

(I wasn’t sure without a dictionary.)

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Sorry, I was doing other things. I’m not sure how you’d translate it, but think of C&W music. Now if anything’s hokey, that is.

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Re: MS-DEFCON system

Over the years, I’ve seen occasional confusion about how it works for different OSes: Win7, Win8.1, Win10.

It might be helpful to state (in the FAQ and in the MS-DEFCON tab) that the DEFCON system is not delineated by OS version and that AskWoody doesn’t raise the DEFCON rating unless and until all OSes pass Woody’s sniff test and all are more or less ready for patching. (Even if, for example, Win 8.1 patches are problem-free, but Win 10 patches are not.)

The Master Patch List by Susan, seems a better reference in that regard – for those so inclined to patch earlier.

Win10 Pro x64 22H2, Win10 Home 22H2, Linux Mint + a cat with 'tortitude'.

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woody

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True in all regards.

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Maybe it’s me who has a color perception problem I don’t see any blue ribbons on Avatars. I see gold with a blue cross.

How do I preview what I write before posting.

Lose the phrase ‘Good question’. It is not needed.

The question ‘Should I update or not’ does not specify that you are talking about Windows. It might be talking about updating from a free account to subscription.

Add ‘How do I get email update to questions’ – explain different levels of subscription and how to manage them via your account. Start  that you can’t get email advice without subscribing (obvious but spell it out as another reason to subscribe).

 

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b

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Under the Question “How do I post a question (or answer)?” you might want to include how to “Search the Lounge” box as a subtle (or not) way to encourage folks to use that first before posting their question.

Win 7 SP1 Home Premium 64-bit; Office 2010; Group B (SaS); Former 'Tech Weenie'

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b

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woody wrote:

The first half of that I tried to cover with this:

Why the hokey old-fashioned site?

A friend of mine, who passed away many years ago, created it. We’ll update it one of these days. In the meantime, up at the top you see my current recommendation for installing patches, using the MS-DEFCON system. On the left side of the main page, you see tech news; on the right, you see pointers into the Lounge — the question-and-answer part of AskWoody.com. To follow along with the latest news, read the left side of the page. To ask (or answer!) questions, start on the right.

I just added a section on Susan’s Patch Watch.

Extended the “post” section to include the tips.

Keep ’em comin’!

“Hokey and old Fashioned,” eh?

What a “Ween of Blathers!” (Scottish-look it up.) Bananas!

How about “Conservative”, “Universally Accessible,” “Low Attack Surface” and “CPU/user efficient and friendly?”

Honestly, when HTML 5 first came out of a thoroughly industry-whipped W3C, I was running into sites that sucked 90% of my CPU on the index page, and was intended to make two guys in a rented broom closet with a high-speed connection look like The Next Big Thing. “Now Hiring!!”

Two months later, the “company” folded, and all 5 employees were let go.

Moral: When building a website, if deciding whether to ram the throttle to the firewall or ride just below cruising speed, do the latter. “Them’s that knows don’t have to bleat and holler.”

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330 ("The Tank"), Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Newbie
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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Tom-R, geekdom, woody

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Yup, something that works is preferable to bells-and-whistles.

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<hr />

Can I ask just a general question?

Because the volume of “general” is unmanageable, it is best to post in a topical AskWoody forum.
Look at the Forums list (the tab at the top), or search the Lounge using the box on the right, or with Google using site:askwoody.com.

<hr />

Why the old-fashioned site?
A friend of mine, who passed away many years ago, created it. We’ll update it one of these days.
In the meantime, up

Site Layout

At the top you see my current recommendation for installing patches, using the MS-DEFCON system. On the left side of the main page, you see tech news; on the right, you see pointers into the Lounge — the question-and-answer part of AskWoody.com. To follow along with the latest news, read the left side of the page. To ask or answer questions, start on the right.

<hr />

 

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woody

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You should expand on the answer to What information do you keep? a bit more. “The bare minimum necessary to keep the site running” isn’t too reassuring to many users (what constitutes as “bare minimum”? for Google it would be keeping your IP address indefinitely and assigning you a tracking ID). Perhaps try to sum up the gist of the privacy policy in a non-legalese sounding way (e.g. “We automatically keep things like your IP address, browser info, operating system, and the date and time you accessed the site. We only use this to see how many people visit our site and from where, and we will never use it to track or identify you. We will only keep other information if you want us to keep it, and we will keep it for as long as you want us to.”).

Edit: HTML removal

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woody

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Hey, lookie, there’s FAQ across the top bar:

https://www.askwoody.com/faq/

Thanks!

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woody

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And what does visual mode do and how does one use it!!
I have tried and I get nowhere

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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By “visual mode” are you referring to the Visual text editor box, for posting into the fora her at AskWoody? Your recent topic Visual Tab gave some of the reasons some people choose to use the Visual tab, in favor of the Text tab. It’s a matter of personal preference and need.

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