FAQ (Frequently asked Questions) clearly isn*t clear enough

Wordsmiths, people, clever folk - I need help.



For years now that FAQ has been ignored, and by ignored I mean that people email me all their questions, rather than look at the Frequently Asked Questions for an answer to their question. Back when you could submit a question on the FAQ-page, people would submit a question at once without checking if it was aready answered in the FAQ (which is why that feature has been removed). I thought perhaps the word FAQ was going out of style. Too nerdy? Too early Internet? Too Obvious? Your questions Answered Here (YQAH) might be better? Maybe it needed more sections - so I sectioned everything into bite-size bits of FAQ. I keep trying to fix this, I just don*t know what is wrong.



Who knows, every time I*ve thought of it being the names fault I checked other sites to see what they named their FAQ, and guess what, they call it a FAQ. So I left it. *shrug*



Well, this week at least once a day the very same question has been emailed to me or PMed to me over and over (at one point I thought people were having me on).

It*s the same question everyone always asks, "How do I download?". (The second most popular being "why cant I see the movie WTF!!!??" from people who don*t have Quicktime installed.) Well, since they aren*t looking to the FAQ for the reply, it must be because calling it FAQ in the top menu and " the FAQ << help!" in the side-menu isn*t signalling "you can get help here" clear enough, right?



So, does anyone here have any good suggestions to what I can re-name that button to make people click it, and find their questions answered? "Hot kinky porn" would make people click it, sure, but I want people to know that there are answers to their questions behind it. Should I just re-name it "HELP!"?

>>I guess there will always be the people who ask before doing research or thinking.



aye, sadly I think this is he case far too often amd have to have an autoreply which directs people to the FAQ that they all get when emailing the hostmaster.



Maybe I*ll change it to HELP then...Even though nerd that I am, I find "frequently asked questions" to be more correct. (I*m getting a new look for summer, happens every year as I get sick of the old, might as well deal with the niggly bits while I*m at it) Any other input?



Thanks Marv. grin

Actually, though, I think think that "Q&A" might be the answer. People might think that "help" means you want them to help you, and it*s a little clearer to Internet neophytes than "FAQ."





--ac

sex. very funny indeed.



For all the Brazilians, French, Danes, Swedes, Dutch, Slovakians, Germans and Spanish folk around here I think that HELP might be clearer than the Q&A. Q&A isn*t commonly seen in non-english speaking countries (while FAQ is frequent on non-english speaking sites).



Tough call. More input? It*s really helpful to hear what others think, I*ve been building on my own for years here so I*m happy to hear peoples suggestion, even if we end up with ten names. ;9



While I*m at it asking for help clarifying that FAQ button.... Do y*all have some suggestions in making this "quicktime only" more obvious?





Clearly, it*s not clear enough. (see this http//ad-rag.com/119460.php#comments) At the same time, wasting a lot of front page space on it isn*t good either. It*s pretty clear in the FAQ... .Mayeb I could make a special page dedicated to explaining that we only have quicktime somewhere too, and link that button to it?

>>1) People wanna know how to download - but never visit the FAQ



Rename it to "Help", "Guide", "Manual" or something like that.



>>2) People seem unaware that this is a quicktime only site, sign up, go watch ads,, and are rudely awaken by the smell of quicktime in the morning. how/where is the best place(s) to alert them to the fact that this is a quicktime only site? [excluding the FAQ of course].



"Quicktime rulez!" is too nerdy = not widely understood. Make a big graphic stamp on the white bar on top of the site (next to the adland logo) that says "Quicktime needed" or "Quicktime necessary".

Like someone stamped it there as to classify it.



>>3) Members engage sporadically. I do often wonder if people know that we can check out other members by clicking on their names in articles and in the comments under articles. The idea is that you can be anonymous here, with a name like "TheWonderWriter" and still actually gain "cred". Since your user page (here*s mine http//ad-rag.com/~Dabitch ) shows us what smart quips you have shared before, if you posted any front page news, what ads and articles you rated up and down and so on.



Make another stamp that says "Forum system".

What? I like stamps. grin



I*m gonna see Star Wars Episode III in 1.5 hours!!!



marv

Dabitch,



I once took a computer class where the instructor had a wonderful piece of advice, spelled out in big letters, up on the wall that read



Hint Read The Screen!



As already touched on, some people just don*t want to take the few seconds it takes to read the screen, to see if the answers to their questions are within easy navigation. They would rather send an email and wait for response, in which time they could have read the FAQ and found what they were looking for multiple times. Changing FAQ to another word or acronym, I think, would not do much to get these people to take the hint. You can lead a horse to water (but a pencil must be lead.)



Perhaps you could make it a requirement that every new user read the FAQ and acknowledge that they have read it before they are granted access to the site. However, I suspect you would still get the emails in spite of this, so that does not help in solving your problem.



The answers are all out in the open, they are not hidden in any way. The answers are easy to find, and sending you an email is not necessary. If some people want to ignore the obvious, then there is nothing you can do about that, except reply to their emails with a link to the FAQ, and let them figure it out from there.



Or you could just change, "Frequently Asked Questions" to, "Frequently Annoying Questions" (Thanks, Ian Anderson).

You could have an AutoReply message that instructs people to check the FAQ (and disregard the message if you aren*t asking a question).



It would irritate a great many, but what*s wrong with that? wink

Aha, that*s interesting I didn*t know that. I*ll put that in the FAQ! smile)



anothercopywriter - yup, I*m now sorting out an autorepply that points people to the FAQ in a friendly-as-possible way (even though they might find it annoying to get that autoreply).

I tested the iTunes v4.8 QuickTime movie playing feature on my Mac, which meets just a little bit more than the minimum requirements for iTunes v4.8.



There were no problems viewing the downloaded AdLand commercials I have on my hard drive. Everything worked fine.

Going back to simple changes instead of "FAQ!", perhaps "HELP! (FAQ)" would work? I think people see "FAQ!" and for some strange reason don*t realize they might just actually find help there.



And perhaps once in the FAQ section, you can put the most commonly asked questions in RED so they*re more likely to catch the eye of someone wanting answers fast (who might otherwise not have the patience to search through the FAQ).

Ah, I should have been more clear. I was referring to the top bar where it only says "FAQ!" (along with "home," "commercials," etc.). I noticed "the FAQ <<help!" link on the left panel, but for me, the "FAQ!" link on the top bar was what I noticed first.



Yes, I have been to the FAQ and read much of it; and I*ve explored the site -- but I*m still a new member, so don*t expect me to have seen everything. wink



And I agree I think people do tend to be lazy. But perhaps if they found their question in a fairly short time (i.e. because it stood out), at least they*d be less likely to email their question to the hostmaster.

alexsosa said

Quote

Place it first on the left side menu

Ok, hey all. This has been oneofthosedays. wink

So, yeah, I just placed the fat FAQ >> help! link first like alexsosa suggested. Lets see how that one works.

theemperor176 said

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for me, the "FAQ!" link on the top bar was what I noticed first.

Ah yes, me too, I*m a top bar kinda gal really so those are the buttons I naviagate with. You reckon it should say "help" there as well then huh?



Ok, I know that I will hate the way that looks but fine, lets do that too then.



Some people do everything to avoid that FAQ though, a recent case clearly seeked out lots of other things, starting at my userpage (where they dodged the big bolded line about reading the FAQ before trying to contact me) and dug down deep only to find a way of contacting me from my personal homepage (unrelated to this place) and ask some random question that they could have cleared up themselves had they only read the FAQ.... .But the best part was, they didn*t leave an email addy (so that I could reply and help them) only a phone number in California.



I*m in Denmark.



I mean, wtf, people. Stop making it so damn hard.



One can lead a horse to the FAQ.... razz

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And perhaps once in the FAQ section, you can put the most commonly asked questions in RED so they*re more likely to catch the eye of someone wanting answers fast (who might otherwise not have the patience to search through the FAQ).

Ok, uhm... The way the FAQ is sectioned it does have the most commonly asked question listed right under it*s bolded "category" headline-link, so I*m not so sure I*m understanding you right here... example under the category called 3. QUICKTIME 6 - the only plugin you need here you see the most commonly asked Q*s How do I Download a commercial? · I can*t see the image on commercials - help! linked. I*ve re-sectioned the FAQ a few times in hopes that it would be easier to get an overview of. If anyone has any suggestions that might make it easier for newbies to see it all "at a glance", I*m listening.



Also, there is a search that searches only the FAQ - nobody ever uses it. See here, select only FAQ and search.



Anyway, the FAQ! (Help!) link in the top bar and the the FAQ << help! that we moved up in the left navigation box didn*t seem to help much at all. Sadly. I still get the same questions emailed pretty much every day.

frown



I*m due to give birth in a few weeks and my patience is wearing very thin indeed - if someone else emails in a "how do I download" tomorrow .. ArrrrgH!



I do appreciate your help all. I guess it*s like Caff says, some people are just lazy.

Thanks mate. smile