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New feature - a real Frequently Asked Questions system!
Authored by: JohnnyMnemonic on Aug 18, '03 01:18:01AM

I don't know if it should, or is, included with the FAQ--but I think it would be handy to have a Top 10 (or 25, or whatever) greatest hints. You could even have subscribers or registered users vote on the hint they find the most interesting, useful, or obscure.

There are A LOT of hints here. I've read most of them, but not every one--and I would be interested to know what others think are the most interesting hints. Also, a "greatest hits" would give a newbie a place to start with customizing their work environment, rather than having to search for their solution--since searching requires that they already know the right question to ask, and the right vocabulary to use (which many don't).



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New feature - a real Frequently Asked Questions system!
Authored by: jimhill on Aug 18, '03 02:29:55AM

A Greatest Hi(n)ts would be kinda nifty. Don't know how much work coding a dynamic one up would be, but two quick thoughts come to mind, each of which would require implementing a per-hint user feedback mechanism.

The simplest would be "Was this hint useful to you" with scores of +1, 0, -1 assigned to Yes, Neutral, No...Add the scores and the N highest-scored hints would appear on the dynamic page. I could see this breaking down, though, in the same way that the IMDB ratings is flawed: recent movies/hints get higher scores just because people rate while feeling warm and fuzzy or cold and embittered.

A more complex feedback mechanism would allow people to rank a hint from 0 (useless) to N (greatest hint ever in the history of great hints), and the list of greatest hi(n)ts would be formed from some numerical weighting scheme -- probably a simple mean.

Either of these is subject to deliberate skewing...sadly, most "rate this!" online stuff is. Given that we don't see competing hints here so much as we see "Here's a(nother| better) way to do it" in the feedback sections, perhaps it could work out.

Again, I don't know how much work it would be -- or how much time the new proud poppa has for feature-growth, but I really do like the idea of a greatest hi(n)ts -- maybe even one for each major section of the site: Classic, Networking, etc.


---
Mac OS X: Because making UNIX simple is easier than debugging Windows.



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New feature - a real Frequently Asked Questions system!
Authored by: samsprograms on Aug 18, '03 08:01:42AM

Click on Stats at the top and look around......



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