FAQ Maintenance 2023

Question

Our FAQ has become quite cluttered and convoluted. There are many issues with it, but among the most pressing I currently see:

• There are 3 questions about recommendation questions, which is a mess. We might want to have one that covers all those types and points to specific sub-types of why those are banned.
• 2 different FAQs on Frame Challenge. Again, unifying them into a top one and branch from there seems to be in order.
• The Editing section might need serious updates, as we got multiple tools since all those in there were written.
• We have three FAQs that concern spam and trolls... Might we cut those to one somehow?
• Several of the FAQs are linking to a later part in a series of discussions, which makes them appear misplaced... status-completed as trivial.

All these issues might need to be addressed separately, but in general, it seems housekeeping is in order. For some of these issues, writing a special new faq-proposal might be the best way to get the best of two worlds - retaining the old discussions and questions as well as incorporating the current stance on topics where it has changed due to the realities of the stack changing.

Answer 1

Frame Challenge FAQ

We have What's a frame challenge? and How do we handle a desire to challenge the frame of a question?

Both of them are last updated in 2018 and 2019 respectively, so might warrant a look if everything is still ok. They are very close to one another in topic and might or might not need a slight touchup.

As far as the FAQ page goes, at least they are listed in the wrong order on the FAQ (definition after use), and the use example might benefit from being indented as a lvl-2 bullet point.

Relevant discussion

I don't think it's unreasonable, for frame-challenges (or any particular jargon topic) to have separate "What is it?" and "How do we do it here?" entries. I don't feel strongly about it. If we do, I will volunteer to write something up for consideration. – Novak Feb 5 at 22:14

Answer 2

part X in titles - status-completed

• Are campaign research questions on topic? [2012]
• How should we use Community Wiki? [2016]

These had a part number in the title. We might want to rename them to a year of when the consensus came along, removing clarity problems from the previous items.

Answer 3

Trolls and canned meat (SPAM)

We got at least two questions on those (I thought it was three a few days ago...):

• Eek! A troll in the Stack! What do I do?
• What should I do about spam questions?

Both might need a touchup, for example how to deal with a serious returning troll.

Joinder of those two seems very hard, but if someone is up to the challenge, it could shorten the FAQ a tad.

Answer 4

Recommendation Questions

Apparently, recommendation questions need a total revisit - Is that still the stance of the stack? At least 5 people voted on a comment to the opener, that they'd like to discuss the topic of topicality.

• Are Game Recommendation Questions On Topic, Revisited
• Are tool recommendation questions on topic?
• I want to ask for recommendations, but that's off topic. Is there any way to ask my question?

All of these have different nuances, the stance might be outdated on some points. A standalone question should be asked:

Are Recommendation Questions on Topic? [2023]

relevant discussion:

5 - Potentially unpopular opinion: I think it's worth revisiting the ban on recommendation questions instead of just cleaning the FAQ. I understand and at one time agreed with that reasoning behind the ban. Based on experience in other stacks, I increasingly disagree. – Novak Feb 5 at 22:16

1 - FWIW, I've actioned some of the clear FAQs from the proposal index and also added all outstanding proposals. Once there has been some voting on those I will action the rest. – linksassin Mod Feb 7 at 3:59

2 - @Novak: Given that the ban was put in place before I was even active on the site, I do think it's worth discussing, at the least – the community now isn't necessarily the same as the community when it was put in place. Even if the community decides to keep some or all of the ban in place, I think there is value in having that discussion again (as long as the discussion remains respectful and understanding). – V2Blast Staff Mod 2 days ago

@V2Blast I was coming to the same conclusion. Going to mull what I want to say until (at least) the weekend, when I will have the time to put effort into a longer post. – Novak 2 days ago

@Novak I like the idea of putting forth one update question, which then encompasses all recommendation questions and replaces them on the FAQ. – Trish 2 days ago

@Trish Updating and polishing sections of the FAQ is quite different from a major modification of site policy. – Novak yesterday

@Novak identifying the need for it is part of maintenance. – Trish yesterday

Answer 5

The Editing Section

At the very least, the order of the points in the Editing section is convoluted. I propose the following re-order, pretty much sorting from top level "style in general" over "specific points"

• Is there a style guide for posts?
  • The top answer also needs a serious update due to formatting changes.
• Use real headers instead of fake headers
  • Do we have any accessibility updates here?
• MathJax guide for RPG.SE: How to format pretty tables and equations?
  • This is new, little action needed.
• Is there a functional purpose to putting things in code text here?
  • I don't quite think this needs updates, but at least a look might be warranted.
• Don't signal your edits in text
  • I haven't seen a single edit in text in a long time. Retention as separate item is warranted, but pushing it to the last point of the editing and formating FAQ seems like the thing to do.