I got the FAQ updated to tonight.

Please let me know what you think. I think it makes finding useful information easier, even though it's mostly forum posts. It doesn't have the Forum search limits, and it has the category organization.

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POSTCARDS.COM -- Everything Postcards on the Internet www.postcards.com
LinkSQL FAQ: www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/

Hi, I'm surprised no one's commented yet... I haven't been checking on the SQL forum until just recently, so I wasn't aware of the excellent FAQ you've been assembling. I had several questions I was thinking of asking about my potential upgrade to Links SQL, and most of them were answered by the FAQ.

Some are out-of-date, but I don't think that's a big deal. The dates and version numbers (assuming they are correct) give a nice progression to follow -- helpful when dealing with changes to mods.

Thanks, and good job!

Dan

Thanks!

The problem with out of date answers is due to the rapid progression of the program. I try to go back and annotate when an answer has been rendered moot by the new release, and I hope to have the search by "version" installed early next year, so you can limit the responses to the most current version and "all"

I'm going to install the "bad/dead" link mod, which if you find an out of date answer, you can flag it to me, and I'll change/delete it. As the FAQ gets larger, it will make more sense.

I find the FAQ is easier to find threads in than the FORUM mainly because the search capability is much greater.

I've linked to the threads rather than pasting them in, so that if they are updated (like they often are weeks or even months later) the new data is not lost.

I'm still hoping to get the most basic list of questions down to a standard Q&A format, and to get some of the docs on searching and templates finished. It's a learning experience for me, since the more I do, the more I understand about what I'm trying to do.

Thanks again!



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POSTCARDS.COM -- Everything Postcards on the Internet www.postcards.com
LinkSQL FAQ: www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/

You're very welcome!

I agree that using Links in conjunction with the forum is a very good way of keeping the FAQ a "living language," so to speak. I also agree that searching for answers in the forum can be a very tedious and unrewarding process. After all, how many of us post messages with the intent of someone finding an answer several months later?

This got me to thinking of a mod which may have already been done, but I haven't noticed it. I think it would be equally feasible in 2.0 or SQL.

How about a "report dead links" mod that allowed the admin to place a dead link into a holding position of sorts. There could be a field in the database that is either blank, or has a "dead link" or "inactive" image. If a link is inactive, the image could be turned on. This would accomplish several things:

1) users would know that you're aware of a dead link and it doesn't look unmaintained

2) you don't delete links that might be temporarily unavailable (server or dns problems, for example)

3) gives users a chance to notify you of an updated link that the admin might not be aware of

To make it even more functional, the dead link image could be a link to a comment form in case a new URL has been found. Has anything like this been done?

Keep up the great work!

Dan

I did something sort of similar, I created a dead link table, and inserted the URL and such informatin there. If another user reported the same link, they were notified the link was already reported, otherwise they they were thanked.... I didn't want dozens of the same reports... but I didn't put a "dead" flag either, since I didn't want to hit the same problems that cdrom.com and other places that tried to report the status of a download site got into -- ie: transient problems, and the need to re-check/rebuild to put all links on equal footing.

I guess at some point someone will combine all 3 mods into one <G>

Got the FAQ updated to about the 17th, that's less than a week, so I'm doing good!

I've tried to excerpt the important parts in the short or long descriptions, and hopefully the site links to the thread or the long description properly if it exists.

Let me know of any problems!

I'll try to get the user-logins and such working this week too, and offer alternative templates so people can get a feel for how they work in the "real world" (sort of <G> )


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POSTCARDS.COM -- Everything Postcards on the Internet www.postcards.com
LinkSQL FAQ: www.postcards.com/FAQ/LinkSQL/










[This message has been edited by pugdog (edited January 20, 2000).]