random suggestions

[plinsenmayer]

Hi everyone --

I'll be posting from webview all week, btw, as I'm visiting my 
parents (who also have a slooooow dial-up connection).  <g>

I also note that I responded to this yesterday but the message 
appears to have been lost while Yahoogroups performed "maintenance" 
work yesterday.  Grrr.....

--- In HP4GU-FAQ at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> Dicentra wrote:
> 
> > > Would it be at all helpful to organize the FAQs (some of them, 
at
> > > least) into two categories: What We Know and What We Want to 
Know.
> 
> Pippin wrote:
> 
> >Isn't "What We Want to Know"  the Mysteries and Inconsistencies 
FAQ?

Amy responded:
> 
> Yes, but there are questions/mysteries about every character.  Some 
clearly belong under the character ("Why isn't Hermione in 
Ravenclaw?") while others are easier to shunt over to you and Cindy 
<g>.

Yes, I agree with Amy here.  Take a look at the M&I FAQ -- there are 
tons of cross-references in it & can probably be even more once the 
other FAQs are completed.  I see M&I being more along the lines 
of "The Missing 24 hours," "The Wand Order," "Does Lupin see 2 Harrys 
& 2 Hermiones on the Marauder's Map?" etc.  

As for the character sketches, yes I think we do need to distinguish 
between what's known (through canon and/or JKR chat responses) and 
what's debated & speculative.  I footnoted factual propositions to 
canon & chats when I did the Hermione FAQ.  I put most of the factual 
stuff (maybe all of it actually) for Hermione near the beginning of 
the FAQ.  I did a section on "Background" & then started going into 
various questions relating to Hermione. 

Amy asked: 
> 
> How much *do* we want to standardize these things?  I say "very 
> little"--it's tough enough as it is.  Dicey's suggestion is a 
helpful one, though.

I agree that not much standardization is needed.  Each topic presents 
its own organization in my mind.  Even the character sketches 
probably couldn't necessarily follow any sort of strict template, 
though I do tend to think it's useful to put known factual info near 
the beginning & then start addressing questions in subsequent 
sections.  That worked for Hermione anyway.  Bottom line though is 
that the FAQ writer(s) should use whatever format makes the most 
sense to them.  <g>

Flexible!Penny