The Heretic Knowledge Vault talk:FAQs

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Let's do this methodically

Before plunging in on this page, let's try to get a few things worked out regarding format, content, and so on. Consensus at the outset will make the process of developing this page more painless. SL, want to create a straw-man template for FAQ entries or some such? -- Graybeard 08:59, 15 August 2007 (CDT)

Let's see here... Jim's suggestion of About the Comic Universe, About the Comic Itself, and About the Company sections seemed like a pretty good one to me. The real question is how do we organize it beyond that... do we create a page for each section that looks similar to, say, the Chapter Summaries page? Do we create one giant clusterfuck of a FAQ page? Do we give each question its own article, and then just collect them all in one place? I'm open to any of the methods, but I think I lean more towards creating three pages like the Chapter Summaries page, and one grand directory that lists all of the questions as links. We should also make it so that anyone can add a question to the appropriate section of the FAQ, so that it'll stay up to date.

I'm thinking that each question should go something like the chapter summaries:

Question
Brief but thorough answer
See Also: Links to relevant articles

--Impy 03:45, 16 August 2007 (CDT)

The question content looks right, although I'd collapse the "See Also" into the answer itself, as in the example below. I'd add "About the Artist" (who is distinct from the "business") and "About the Wiki" as sections. As for hierarchical structure, for the moment I'd recommend staying with a single FAQ page, until it gets long enough to be unwieldy, at which time it can be segmented into sub-pages. What constitutes "long enough to be unwieldy"? A pretty good guiding principle is the "Rule of Nine." Psychologists say that humans tend to lose track when examining a group that contains more than about 9 members. As soon as a section gets to where it has 8 or 9 FAQs in it, it'll be time to make sub-pages. That's still a fair ways in the future, so for now, let's keep it simple. -- Graybeard 21:31, 20 August 2007 (CDT)

Sample

OK, so here is a sample FAQ question to start getting the formatting bugs worked out. Feel free to hack away at it ... -- Graybeard 17:18, 18 August 2007 (CDT)

Q. So who is this Impy or Imp-Chan person, and what does he or she have to do with Errant Story?

A. "Impy" and "Imp-Chan" are handles used here and on the Forum by Hilary Hatch, owner and president of Caffeine Angel Studios, the outfit that produces Errant Story. She's also married to Michael Poe. See the Hilary Hatch page for more.

Looks good!

Where should this article be found?

I personally really like the wiki FAQ, because it's flexible and easy to keep current. Should I link to it directly from the main navigation menu on the Errant Story site? Should there be a link on the main page of the wiki? -- Impy 23:05, 18 January 2008 (CST)

There's already a link on the HKV front page (about two thirds of the way down, on the left). If you want to re-format that, do so with my blessing, not that you need it. :-) As for a link from the Errant Story site, your call; it might be useful. -- Graybeard 23:24, 18 January 2008 (CST)

I didn't say so...

Erm... the one and only time we added anyone to the comic, they didn't ask to be. We offered, because we had basically nothing else with which to thank him that he didn't already have (he was a very major supporter). If people ask us, the answer is and shall remain no. That one time was to honor someone who'd been incredibly supportive... it would degrade that if we did it for anyone who just asked, or who just paid out of pocket for the privilege. --Impy 13:22, 6 February 2008 (CST)

It might be worth pointing out that I, Forum Admin / FwF Artist and Author / Assistant Booth Monkey / ACEN 2007 Survivor / Poe's Best *friggin* Man, haven't even warranted a likeness cameo in the comic yet. Just so that people get a scope of how rare this sort of honor occurs. Viking-Sensei 05:16, 7 February 2008 (CST)

I'm not the best qualified to judge such things, but might it be that that other guy is better looking than you? :-) -- Graybeard 08:27, 7 February 2008 (CST)
Oh man, that was harsh! ^-^--Impy 02:38, 8 February 2008 (CST)

Adding Questions to the FAQ?

I would love to see an introduction or something at the start of the fAQ section that clearly explained how to add questions, and maybe listed any questions that are pending answers. --Impy 19:15, 21 May 2008 (CDT)

Reasonable enough. Anybody have suggestions on how best to do this? I'll work on it but would value input. -- Graybeard 19:55, 22 May 2008 (CDT)
I think adding a section to the top of the main FAQ page for "Pending Questions" would give people a simple and non-confusing place to list their questions. I also think I need to set up an e-mail for FAQ questions, since there's quite a delay for joining the wiki to ask them here.--Impy 15:06, 23 May 2008 (CDT)
Hm. You're giving me an idea. I modified the FAQ article to point to this talk page as a place for asking, but there's a better one yet, if this old version of MediaWiki supports it. Let me work on that a bit. -- Graybeard 12:35, 24 May 2008 (CDT)
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