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How do we make a FAQ on iFixit?

Please tell me how, and I will start work on a FAQ today. I will include information on how to add to the FAQ in the FAQ!

And who has this power? I'm guessing more than 100 rep points are required to add a FAQ. This is information which should be on the long FAQ.

This question is in response to "Can we please have a FAQ?", and the response to that, wherein Adam Hintz says: "This whole site is a wiki! Why are you asking; you should just do it!"

OK Adam, I will. Please tell me how! I see no Edit tags/links in ifixit.com. I have contributed to several wikis.

Note: a FAQ is useless unless you can add links to it in many places - Can I edit the main iFixIt pages to add links to a new FAQ? I doubt that.

I have contributed to several wikis, Wikipedia.org, one at Sony SCEA, and one at Palm. I added and corrected information on all three. I added a page for myself on the Sony wiki when requested.

There is already a very short FAQ here: http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/About

It comes up when the About tab is clicked. Why not make this page larger to cover all issues?

It seems to me that here on the meta site, there should be information about who the ifixit architects are, and ways to ask them direct questions. If I somehow become an architect, I want to know about it. Being told, "go make a FAQ page" does not help me. Who knows how to do that?

For example, if I was told Kyle was the architect in charge of the overall structure, and I wanted to know how to best add-in a FAQ page to that structure, I might include Kyle as a keyword.

Thanks in advance!

--Dave

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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Let's start a meta-FAQ (how to use the system) here on meta, and eventually we can move it over to the Info namespace. Just tag questions about how to use the system with 'FAQ', and we'll all try to get a canonical answer to each.

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I got started on a GUIDE, so that ate the rest of my energy for today. Maybe tomorrow...

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Good question. I clearly need to do a better job of communicating how to get things started. Thanks for your enthusiasm!

We covered some of this in a How to Contribute blog post recently, and there's more information pages linked off /Info.

I'll answer your questions one by one:

Who has this power?

Our software development team includes myself, Chris, Dave, Shawn, Ben, Nat, and Sterling. We do coding and have admin privileges.

On the community moderation, photography, and writing side of things are Luke, Miro, Matt, David, Brett, Walter, and Andrew. In no particular order!

We all have admin-level privileges, which gives us access to some bulk edit tools. But aside from those, our user interface looks pretty much the same as yours. Changes to the software and UI need to be handled by someone in the first list.

Please tell me how to create an FAQ

There are seven types of information on iFixit.

  • Custom-coded pages: These pages are not wikis. Examples include the home page, the Answers index and /Answers/About. These require a programmer to change. We're happy to make improvements based on suggestions here in meta!
  • Wiki pages: There are four wiki namespaces (just like Wikipedia's namespaces):
    • Info: /Info/ pages are only editable by admins, and are general site policy pages.
    • Wiki: /Guide/Wiki/ This namespace is for general repair information that isn't photographic and needs a very flexible structure, like the device-specific troubleshooting pages.
    • Device: A device like 'iPhone 3G' is actually just a wiki page in the device namespace.
    • Area: A category of devices, like iBook or Sony Game Console.
    • Item: A tool, material, or part. Links to these pages are automatically created when you add a tool or part to a repair guide.
  • Step-by-step guides: Structured, photographic, step-by-step wikis. When you publish a repair guide, a link to it is automatically added to the device wiki page for it.

An FAQ would fall in the wiki namespace, so to create an FAQ about general iPhone issues, go to an url like http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Wiki/iPhone_... and create the page. Then add links to it from the iPhone area page and (possibly) the three iPhone device pages (2G, 3G, 3GS).

Why not make the Answers about page larger to cover all issues?

Sure! Because this is a custom coded page, we'd have to do the change on our end. The best way to suggest changes to pages like this is here on meta. Perhaps you should ask another question of the general community, "What should we add to /Answers/About to help new users?". Then everyone can weigh in, and I'll implement the consensus solution.

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I'd just like to say I think your Answer should part of the About page haha, has a lot of info I didn't know (or obtained by asking you guys at different times) and that is generally useful.

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you should mention thought that you admin guys are recognizable for the sepia photos

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Sepia *or* a cigar! The cigar is key.

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+ Just what I am looking for, but I got here too late in the day to digest it, so tomorrow will have to do...

Asking one more meta question, and off to bed...

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ideally probably everyone could add to the fact or the limit should be like 1000, with 100 might as well not have a limit. Maybe something about editing privileges.

But what Adam was meaning was that you can create a page about anything, so create a FAQ page or answer or whatever. But I'm told their working on ideas for a feature of sort for the "stock answer" functionality many of us have been wanting for a while.

I mean essentially the whole site is a FAQ, it's a living resource of questions and hopefully answers.

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With regards to the reputation required to edit various types of documents, if someone would ask a question like 'How does the patrolling system work?', it might get a useful answer. *hint*

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*check Meta home page*

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Dave will be eternally grateful.