Journal ultraexactzz's Journal: (In)Frequently Asked Questions on Slashdot 1
I'm going to propose a small project for someone to tackle. It might be me if I get no response, but - quite honestly - I don't have the time to do it proper, and I suspect it would be a much simpler task for 10 or 20 Slashdotters to handle than it would be for one.
The FAQs need some TLC.
In most cases, I'm seeing answers to Frequently Asked Questions that are dated in 2000. No problem, as they're likely still accurate - for all of our progress, not a whole lot has changed as far as the fundamental design philosophy of this site. But there are some items that aren't exactly accurate anymore.
For example:
-- The Editorial FAQ still lists the Submissions Bin as the queue for submissions, when the system now uses the Firehose. There's a Firehose FAQ, and it is up-to-date - but perhaps the two should be cross-linked.
-- The Comments and Moderation FAQ (here) discusses flat, threaded, and nested comments, and includes a helpful example image - which uses the interface from several years ago. The page also notes that "it's pretty tough to post a comment that breaks Netscape."
-- The images for Friends, Foes, and the like are also shown, when I notice that we've moved to a text-based relationship system - that's why I checked the FAQ, I figured I'd missed something.
There are others out there, I'm sure - and I mean this not as a criticism of the site or the FAQ, but merely as a "Hey maybe this is something simple that we can help with" thing. If not, then at least I've noted the problem, and maybe someone will fix it. Either way, the world will continue to spin.
The FAQs need some TLC.
In most cases, I'm seeing answers to Frequently Asked Questions that are dated in 2000. No problem, as they're likely still accurate - for all of our progress, not a whole lot has changed as far as the fundamental design philosophy of this site. But there are some items that aren't exactly accurate anymore.
For example:
-- The Editorial FAQ still lists the Submissions Bin as the queue for submissions, when the system now uses the Firehose. There's a Firehose FAQ, and it is up-to-date - but perhaps the two should be cross-linked.
-- The Comments and Moderation FAQ (here) discusses flat, threaded, and nested comments, and includes a helpful example image - which uses the interface from several years ago. The page also notes that "it's pretty tough to post a comment that breaks Netscape."
-- The images for Friends, Foes, and the like are also shown, when I notice that we've moved to a text-based relationship system - that's why I checked the FAQ, I figured I'd missed something.
There are others out there, I'm sure - and I mean this not as a criticism of the site or the FAQ, but merely as a "Hey maybe this is something simple that we can help with" thing. If not, then at least I've noted the problem, and maybe someone will fix it. Either way, the world will continue to spin.
CSS Sprites (Score:2)
The friend system now uses javascript and CSS to load a single giant image containing all the different icons, then duplicates and crops that image down to just the part that should display in each place.
What the FAQ needs is the name and version of the one browser they test all of this stuff on, along with all applicable settings required to make the damn site work right.