FAQ's

[Simon Branford]

"Now I will start work on my FAQs but I'm still waiting for some guidance on
what we want to include, etc. My two are people so do I include some basic
background like job, physical description, place in the story? Then a list
of FAQs or discussion points? Do we just summarize the thinking or include
specific messages? Do we need to note the message numbers? HELP!"

I have quite a lot of people FAQ's to do (Weasley's, Dursley's, Riddle's and
Harry, not mentioning the pets); therefore I have been giving the format
much thought. I was planning to give a quick outline of the character, maybe
including a physical description or the person (if a good one can be found),
and then discussing some of the theories that have appeared on the group. I
was planning on quoting messages (giving an indication of message number and
author) where it seems appropriate. In the event that we have discussed
something that is answered in one the books then I will quote small amounts
of the messages and then the relevant bit from the books (again indicating
which book and chapter [1]).

"Tables are quite nice for presentation of links, as in the discussions
table Melanie has on her site, because they look more interesting than just
a long list of links."

If we are trying to avoid frames, for simplicity and ease of viewing
reasons, then we should try to avoid tables as well. The simpler the HTML is
the more people that can view the web site.

"Having said that, my experience is limited to writing a bit of HTML and
maintaining a few web sites from a Java-ignorant standpoint, so it may be
more complicated than I think."

I have written and maintained a few web sites but have no idea of how to
write in Java. I, of course, use the standard web site production technique
[2]. It is worth noting that many people have Java turned off in their web
browser.

Simon [3]

[1] I think chapter numbers is more appropriate, as page numbers vary across
editions and versions.
[2] That is to borrow anything that looks good from other web sites!
[3] I hope people understand the idea of footnotes