Build an FAQ list from resolved questions

[scottmac]

Some flavor of FAQ list, IMO, would be a Very Good Thing ... if only to point to for the twenty-seven thousandth iteration of (for example) "What's the best CCN{x} book?"

Since we have an indication of resolution (the red check mark), couldn't "we" also copy that thread into yet another forum / topic / category of "Resolved Issues" that is indexed by the same topic as the primary board, maybe a secondary index by date, or product (group, class, type, model number, IOS version ... something).

With a liberal sprinkling of keywords, maybe with an optional "Resolved Issues Only" filter ... someone that searches could find an asked and successfully resolved topic a little quicker.

Certainly, some topics are "timeless" ("I accidentally blew away my IOS, how do I get it back?") and others only last for a couple months ("When is the deadline for version x of the CCNA exam?") ... but maybe rev2 of the FAQ could be ARP-ish and expire after some period of time, or drop in priority, fall through to another archive list ... something to keep the "active" list as scant as possible / practical.

Maybe migrate some part of the forum into a wiki?

If the goal for the ratings is to provide some indication of a solution and a more rapid path to a known resolution, then gathering all the solutions, or at least offering them as a collection seems like a natural extension.

I'm looking forward to discussion ...

Thanks to all who participate in Cisco NetPro, I've learned much from you all.

Good Luck

Scott

Edit: I just noticed that Dandy already posted something similar in this thread:

http://forum.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/NetProf?page=netprof&forum=Idea%20Center&topic=NetPro%20Ideas&CommCmd=MB%3Fcmd%3Ddisplay_location%26location%3D.2cbf05ff

Sorry.

[Jaime Valencia]

Hi Scott

I'm sleepless and just passing by but i really like the idea of having a FAQ for some things that you see on the forums all time, compared to some of you guys i'm really new on this but i'm already lovin' this because i get to learn a lot

I've been doing this since mid December 2007 and i've already answered the question "how can i block incoming calls?" about 5 times, i just answered that one yesterday again.

i agree there are some immortal topics and maybe the FAQ won't be exactly the answer but might give them some pointers on what they're looking for and then they could ask just the specifics they're looking for.

i would also suggest some links for general or newbies to use, i use the UniverCD a LOT and also the links that get you to the documentation of all the UC products and i usually post them if they ask for information and there is some good doc

i would encourage anyone who uses this to dig a little bit before just posting the question and also to try a little search on CCO before. i know some of the documents are not easy to find but if you use the right words you can find almost anything in CCO.

in any case using the resolved status would also be it's own topic because even some of them already have the answer they do not set the resolved status on it, but i'm sure there is a thread about that at NetPro hehe

just a thought before i go to bed =)

regards

javalenc

[Danilo Dy]

No problem Scott...

This makes me think of another idea, which is for the Forum Administrator;

1. To edit the Original post title to relate to the body of the post or the problem more closely and meaningful.

- This is because some original poster I noticed that the title of their post and the body or problem are not even closely related.

2. To move some reply/post to a new original post.

- This is because some poster instead of answering the original poster question, they post their own problem which they think are similar to the original post but actually NOT. When they received a perfectly correct answer to their problem, nobody knows that this kind of problem has a solution because it was buried under another post.

...more work for Forum Admin :)

Regards,

Dandy

[Daniel Bruhn]

Dandy,

Let me try and respond to your two points…

1. I completely agree many subject lines don't accurately represent the post. I fear this task would be impossible for me to do on my own. Do you think something like user generated “tags” would help properly identify the content?

2. Unfortunately it's impossible to move a single reply within a conversation. Often if you move a reply within a conversation many of the remaining posts don't make sense. Our software application only allows us to move entire conversations.

I'm always open to more work so any other suggestions are welcome :-)

Cheers,

Dan Bruhn

NetPro Community Manager