Is It Time for a FAQ Yet?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Saunders
  • Start date Start date
J

John Saunders

The good news is that, in recent weeks, we seem to be getting a lot more
questions from developers new to ASP.NET.

The bad news is that, in recent weeks, we seem to be getting a lot more
questions from developers new to ASP.NET. :-)

There seem to be some basics which aren't being communicated to these new
developers before they're being required to write ASP.NET code. Although we
can help them individually (and I've tried to do that recently), perhaps it
would be better to help them collectively, with a FAQ?

I'm especially concerned that there may be new developers we're losing
because they _don't_ ask questions at all and just give up, and some we're
going to lose because they're not going to ask questions until they're in
way over their heads and have developed mistaken ideas about how ASP.NET
works.

I don't have enough "copious spare time" to write such a thing, though I'd
be glad to contribute to a list of questions which should be answered in a
FAQ. My question for today is, "Can I do <some client-side thing> from the
server?", and the corollary, "Can I do <some server-side thing> from the
client?". These are questions which should be answered by someone with more
patience than I have. I'm too likely to answer, "usually not, because the
client is not the server". A better answer might include discussion of
stateless client-server programming. ;-)
 
John,

Where should it be located? Should we have a database? Who will check if my
submissions are correct?

I'd be happy to contribute and help out in any way possible.

Sincerely,

--
S. Justin Gengo, MCP
Web Developer

Free code library at:
www.aboutfortunate.com

"Out of chaos comes order."
Nietzche
 
S. Justin Gengo said:
John,

Where should it be located? Should we have a database? Who will check if my
submissions are correct?
Click to expand...

I hope I didn't give anyone the impression that I'd be responsible for a
FAQ! Any FAQ maintained by me is DOA - I have no time.

The right way to be responsible for a FAQ is to write one and tell people
about it, then see if anyone uses it. Note that I haven't written one.
 
John,
There are several ASP.NET FAQs on the Internet.

http://www.able-consulting.com/dotnet/aspnet/aspnet_faq.htm
http://www.aspnetfaq.com
http://www.wintellect.com/resources/faqs/default.aspx
http://www.aspnet101.com/aspnet101/faq.aspx
http://www.aspfaqs.com/aspfaqs/ShowCategory.asp?CatID=22
http://www.aspalliance.com/kenc/

I'm sure there are more, but you get the idea.

A lot of folks who answer posts in the newsgroups get tried of answering the
same questions over and over again. And hence they create a FAQ web page
on thier site. Then when they see a FAQ question posted in the newsgroup,
they just point the user to the FAQ web page.

e.g.
Whenever I try access data in my SQL Server database, I keep on getting
"SQL Server does not exist or access denied" error message . Why?
http://www.able-consulting.com/dotnet/aspnet/aspnet_faq.htm#Q3

;-)

--

Thanks,
Carl Prothman
Microsoft ASP.NET MVP
http://www.able-consulting.com
 
Carl Prothman said:
John,
There are several ASP.NET FAQs on the Internet.

http://www.able-consulting.com/dotnet/aspnet/aspnet_faq.htm
http://www.aspnetfaq.com
http://www.wintellect.com/resources/faqs/default.aspx
http://www.aspnet101.com/aspnet101/faq.aspx
http://www.aspfaqs.com/aspfaqs/ShowCategory.asp?CatID=22
http://www.aspalliance.com/kenc/

I'm sure there are more, but you get the idea.

A lot of folks who answer posts in the newsgroups get tried of answering the
same questions over and over again. And hence they create a FAQ web page
on thier site. Then when they see a FAQ question posted in the newsgroup,
they just point the user to the FAQ web page.
Click to expand...

Carl,

I just thought that if there were some smaller number of FAQs (and perhaps
one semi-official one), then people would feel more comfortable responding
with a link to one of those FAQs. I might even add a link in my signature,
for instance!

Clearly, for reasons I don't understand, there are a lot of people who
either don't know about the FAQs you listed, or who don't find value in
using them as a first reference.
 
What if there was a link to an FAQ posted to the group, dated a ways in the
future, so it would stay at the top? If the ng admin approved of it ...

Justin Dutoit
 
Hello All,

Thanks very much, John, Justin, Carl, and Natty. This is an excellent feedback and I will forward it to someone appropriate.

Thanks again for your active participation in the group. We appreciate your advice very much.

Best regards,
Yanhong Huang
Microsoft Online Partner Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

--------------------
!From: Natty Gur <[email protected]>
!References: <#[email protected]>
!X-Newsreader: AspNNTP 1.50 (ActionJackson.com)
!Subject: Re: Is It Time for a FAQ Yet?
!Mime-Version: 1.0
!Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
!Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
!Message-ID: <[email protected]>
!Newsgroups: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
!Date: Sat, 09 Aug 2003 20:23:09 -0700
!NNTP-Posting-Host: actionjackson133.dsl.frii.net 216.17.147.133
!Lines: 1
!Path: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP08.phx.gbl!TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl
!Xref: cpmsftngxa06.phx.gbl microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet:166502
!X-Tomcat-NG: microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.aspnet
!
!Hi,
!
!I think it’s a good idea. Many questions are mutations of already asked
!questions. If MS willing to participate in such an effort for newsgroup
!FAQ (100% netiquette compatibility ;-) ), I’m willing to donate my time.
!
!Natty Gur, CTO
!Dao2Com Ltd.
!34th Elkalay st. Raanana
!Israel , 43000
!Phone Numbers:
!Office: +972-(0)9-7740261
!Fax: +972-(0)9-7740261
!Mobile: +972-(0)58-888377
!
!
!
!Don't just participate in USENET...get rewarded for it!
!
 
Back
Top