What should our FAQ contain?

Question

From The 7 Essential Meta Questions of Every Beta:

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What should our FAQ contain?

Much of the FAQ will be somewhat boilerplate: “be nice,” “how to create an account,” “how to ask questions” — it’s all pretty static. Even the sections about “what kind of questions should I (not) ask here?” comes primarily from the Definition phase of Area 51.

But the questions you want to discuss in meta are those issues specific to your site that need to be mentioned in the FAQ.

Take the Super User FAQ as an example:

Super User is for computer enthusiasts and power users.

If you have a question about …

• computer hardware
• computer software

and it is not about …

• videogames or consoles
• websites or web services like Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress
• electronic devices, media players, cell phones or smart phones, except insofar as they interface with your computer
• a shopping or buying recommendation

It took us almost a year to figure out the list of “we want these sort of questions” and “we don’t want these sort of questions” on Super User. Area 51 gave you a head start but you should also be working out other FAQ-related issues specific to your topic and your community.

Answer 1

I believe FAQ topics should include topics to do with being sustainable, both at home, at work and in the community.

Topic points should be built from frequently asked answered questions within the exchange, but can be started off with knowledge from exchange members.

eg.

Composting toilets, plusses and negatives Solar power configurations, 12v, 24v 48v etc. Wind power generation, when to use and when not to use. (more to do with location suitability) Building materials (environmentally friendly manufacturing, insulation properties to reduce heat loss and gain)

There are many other topics, its a matter of getting people to start asking and answering questions.

Answer 2

I really think this Beta should to significant extent facilitate dialogue and debate regarding climate change. There is a Climate Change topic now on Area 51, but it is likely going to be subsumed by Geo-Sciences - there is not a lot of activity on the Climate Change proposal itself.

I elaborated at length in my reponse to the above post why Climate discussion also belongs in the Sustainable Living site. There are a plethora of scientific issues surrounding CC and those discussions should have a place in Geo-Sciences. However, the social, political, ethical, and cultural issues also need to have a place. The most logical place to me would be Sustainable Living.

It would be a huge disappointment if climate did not have a discussion space on stack. With all of the bullshitty blogs out there, both from alarmists and deniers, I think it really important for information seekers to have a neutral, crowd moderated forum to seek answers from.

Therefore, under our 'If you have questions about' i propose we include the following (I don't at all intend this to be comprehensive):

• climate and other environmental policy
• the economics and environmental impacts of energy technology
• the socio-economic impacts of climate change
• environmental impacts of consumer decisions

It is not about...

• the physical science study of the climate system (see ... For those questions)