Pissed off with the same questions all the time

[Huw Powell]

It all sounds so easy on paper...

I actually *started* my web site so I could avoid answering questions over
and over again (and to experiment with stupid html tricks before wrecking
my humanspeakers site with them!), that is, once I reached the point where
I *could* answer questions.

In the end, while there is useful stuff there, it morphed into this huge
conglomeration of weird and strange custom stuff I did - there is a
critical point at which you need to catch people for this info - when
they've learned it well but before they have moved along and are bored with
it.  I have seen many people burn out on explaining the same things over
and over again, and drift away, heck, I did it once or twice myself.  New
people turn up and take their place, but the "institutional memory" is weak
and some great stuff in people's heads (and in the archives...) gets lost.

Example of what we need: I know CIS-E inside out and backwards, at least as
implemented on the 85-87 small Audis.  I have a file on my site that
supposedly will be a complete A-Z troubleshooting guide for the system,
prioritised by cost and likelihood of failure.  Trouble is, it will take
hours and hours of writing and thinking and new photos to finish it.  And I
have absolutely no use for it since I know what would be in it... although
I must thank the one lister who actually sent me $5 because, I guess, it
helped him even in its incomplete state!

And here we are, still telling each other not to use the "spare" fuse to
replace the blown one.

just my .02, devalued by burnout and inflated by ego...



>We could remedy this by educating a few people on how to use it, and make
>them "moderators" for certain areas. This is already the format I was
>thinking about. That way, people could send their favorite "tips" to the
>moderator and boom, the moderators would handle it. Yes, this is a lot of
>work for a moderator, but really, only in the beginning. After we get a
>critical mass of stuff in a particular section, that answers about 85% of
>the questions and the "new" stuff, well, hopefully that moderator will be
>an active participant (lurker or no) on the list and post things he/she
>sees fit into the knowledge base.

Huw Powell

http://www.humanspeakers.com/audi

http://www.humanthoughts.org/