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I used to maintain fan-generated FAQs for a couple of game systems on my website. I plan to no longer maintain them. None of the information is proprietary.

Rather than have the information cast to the winds and only accessible via the internet archive, I have considered taking the most helpful/useful system-based questions and creating community-wiki-style questions on the rpg.stackexchange.com website.

This is information I am relinquishing that others have found valuable in the past.

Is this considered acceptable behavior or is it frowned upon?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Of note, the systems in question are not D&D or related. \$\endgroup\$
    – JoshDM
    Feb 11, 2013 at 21:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ How many questions are we talking about? We don't like list questions, but representing them as real questions with real answers strikes me as ... probably fine? So long as you don't flood the front page. \$\endgroup\$
    – Brian Ballsun-Stanton
    Feb 11, 2013 at 23:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ @JoshDM As long as it's a Role-playing game, the system isn't really relevant. \$\endgroup\$
    – C. Ross
    Feb 12, 2013 at 13:22
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    \$\begingroup\$ I assume you mean http://w3.one.net/~joshdm/dch.html, which is sadly not in the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine for some reason. (Well, it is sorta, but the correct content is missing.) Is there another link that's live, or was properly Wayback archived? \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Feb 12, 2013 at 19:09
  • \$\begingroup\$ That is an extremely old edition of the document from before it was on my own website. My current site got trumped at some time and I just kind of "gave up". I have the proper edition(s) on my home computer. I planned to parse only those items which were relevant to the game and only those which seemed most intelligent to do. +1 to you for being an actual investigator (checking out my profile, backtracking, etc.). \$\endgroup\$
    – JoshDM
    Feb 12, 2013 at 20:37
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    \$\begingroup\$ A clarification. Are you intending to put the question and answer up at the same time and immediately accept the answer? If so, I would be opposed to the idea. If however you were to post the question, the FAQ answer and give some time for others to answer, THEN choose the best answer I think this would be fine. \$\endgroup\$
    – Wibbs
    Feb 15, 2013 at 20:59
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    \$\begingroup\$ Are you still planning on posting some questions, or has this hashing it out put you off? \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Feb 16, 2013 at 19:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yes to all answers; also busy with work and school and home life. I'll try to get something tonight or tomorrow. \$\endgroup\$
    – JoshDM
    Feb 16, 2013 at 19:54

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Looking over the comments and replies and etcetera, I'm going to say go for it on a trial basis. It sounds like you have enough familiarity with the format that inexperience isn't actually an issue we need to worry about, so it will come down to nuance in how it's done rather than clumsy inappropriateness like a new user might do. To judge nuance, it's probably necessary to have some live examples and the natural reactions of the broader user base.

So do two in the tempo you're intending (without unnecessarily marking them as tests, though you might link to this Q with "see here for meta discussion") and then check in on Meta again: ask a followup meta question (or edit this one) to ask if it all looks OK. We can ask for all the examples we like, but until we see it "in the wild" we can only really speculate about whether the hypothetical questions are going to fit the site.

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If the questions you have in mind are legitimate, answerable questions that meet the standards of any other question on the site, then go for it.

I would recommend moving slowly. As @Brian noted in a comment, you don't want to annoy people by flooding the front page.

I would caution against using Community Wiki's ... they tend to congregate around questions that are not as good a fit for this kind of Q&A site. (If CW is to avoid charges of reputation fishing, don't worry - if your questions and answers are good they will get upvotes and you deserve the reputation for improving the community, and if they are not good, no votes means no rep...)

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    \$\begingroup\$ I think it would be reasonable to CW the answers if he didn't come up with them (if they were from some other external community). \$\endgroup\$
    – C. Ross
    Feb 12, 2013 at 13:22
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    \$\begingroup\$ I don't usually like CWs, but for this purpose they would seem appropriate. I would mark the answer CW and not the question though, so that others may submit answers and garner rep if they have better ones. JoshDM would get the rep from question then, but that should be fine: as the maintainer, he kept them alive, and if there are a bunch submitted, few will attract very many upvotes individually anyway. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Feb 12, 2013 at 19:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't plan to flood; maybe throw one up every 12 hours or so till the list is exhausted, and only work with the relevant ones. I'm unconcerned with my reputation here (I've got enough on SO prime so far for my own good), and more concerned with the preservation of information. \$\endgroup\$
    – JoshDM
    Feb 12, 2013 at 20:46
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    \$\begingroup\$ Of note, my original plan was to not even bother asking this question and simply seed the site once every day or so with a self-answered question, but I believe having this question asked is valuable to future users. \$\endgroup\$
    – JoshDM
    Feb 12, 2013 at 20:49
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Well, I'm torn on this one. On the one hand, "question seeding" is usually not good - that is, asking a question you don't really want the answer to. But this seems like a generally good use. It should properly be Q/A, Q/A however, which concerns me about how many questions this faq consists of. If you actually linked it we'd be able to better guide you.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I've got over 1K on StackOverflow, with one of my highest reputation Q/A being a deliberately self-answered one; if you look it up, you'll see I'm fairly capable of formatting them properly for Q/A. \$\endgroup\$
    – JoshDM
    Feb 12, 2013 at 20:44
  • \$\begingroup\$ Link me la-z-boy \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Feb 12, 2013 at 23:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ The ones I plan to write for here would be a bit more passive than this one, as I wrote it with the definite intent to prevent additional answers: stackoverflow.com/questions/11235578/… \$\endgroup\$
    – JoshDM
    Feb 12, 2013 at 23:32
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    \$\begingroup\$ I definitely wouldn't try to block other answers, saying one is from a FAQ is OK. \$\endgroup\$
    – mxyzplk
    Feb 12, 2013 at 23:54

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