FAQ/ archive for AFL knowledge

All of the posts are archived by folks like Google, and quite a lot of other 4x4 related websites.

Try

for a start.

Steve

Re Google groups, it is not really organised or filtered. Some messages are only kept for 6 days.

Re LrFAQ... while I found it very useful, my envisaged site would complement it not compete with the information it covers ... no use in reinventing the wheel...

steve Taylor wrote:

Thats when we choose to tell it to not archive them. Its very impressive that google actually honours it! I try to remember to turn it off when i do purely technical posts but I seem to stay OT most of the time now! :)

Those marked "no archive" in the meta tags usually, which is the personal choice of the poster, so be a bit careful around them.

Precisely. There's no point duplicating the effort.

Most faqs for newsgroups like this lay down the generally accepted use for the group - like no blatant commercial advertising - you'll see guys like Richard from Beamends have a discrete sig and are willing to help, but don't plaster "buy all your stuff from Beamends" everywhere.

As far as I know, the rules of AFL don't actually exist in writing, except probably in the charter.

Maybe thats the first thrust of a group FAQ - what is acceptable and what's not ?

Steve

On or around Thu, 23 Nov 2006 23:19:12 +0000, steve enlightened us thusly:

that's a part of it.

There's a good FAQ for the LPG group that I (partly) wrote.

I reckon a group FAQ should be a monthly posting, text-only, and should cover all the basic questions that keep cropping up like "what size tyres can I fit to my discovery?" and so on. a monthly posting like that absorbs very little bandwidth.

hmmm. I seem to recall someone did the automating for the LPG group FAQ. AndyC? someone like that.

OK...

here are some topics I think should be in:

"what is AFL?"

"what's OT and what isn't?"

"what are the basic LR models?"

"what are the differences between early and late $VEHICLE ?"

"what size tyres can I fit on $VEHICLE?"

"what size tyres are the same height as $TYRE?"

"What happens if I lift my suspension?"

"I've heard that $ENGINE is a good option to fit $VEHICLE, is it?"

Answers as succinct and to the point as possible, so the question about "what models" doesn't go into long detail about each one - it should be a list more or less like this:

"Series III: 88" or 109", made from 1971 to 1983, 2.25 petrol or diesel or

Any volunteers to write some? I'll have a go at co-ordinating it, if you want. I can write "what size tyres are the same size, I've been studying it recently...

BTW: to Richard Azzopardi - I'm not pouring scorn on your thing nor trying to horn in. Once the thing's complete you can webify it - that was what we did with the LPG group FAQ, in addition to posting it.

have a hunt for it in uk.rec.cars.fuel.lpg and follow links to the web version, have a look and probably contact the chap who did it for hints.

As you describe it, you are tending to re-invent the wheel - there are web knowledge repositories already - but we could do with a FAQ, nonetheless, for the questions which crop up every few months, and it doesn't hurt to have it on the web as well as a regular posting.

Austin> hmmm. I seem to recall someone did the automating for the Austin> LPG group FAQ. AndyC? someone like that.

Yes, that was me. I can easily collate information for an AFL FAQ as well.

Austin> here are some topics I think should be in:

An excellent list!

Austin> Any volunteers to write some? I'll have a go at Austin> co-ordinating it, if you want. I can write "what size Austin> tyres are the same size, I've been studying it recently...

I'll contribute some Range Rover stuff.

Austin> have a hunt for it in uk.rec.cars.fuel.lpg and follow Austin> links to the web version, have a look and probably contact Austin> the chap who did it for hints.

The FAQ there is compiled using some software I found on the internet.

Essentially, the input is a file of questions, and I generate the web and text posting versions from that whenever there's a change. Extending what I have to do the same for AFL is a relatively trivial exercise, doubly so if people can contribute information in the right format.

The file is in the format

Category Name Question Answer

So, for example,

Introduction What is AFL? alt.fan.landrover is probably the most active usenet forum relating to Land Rover vehicles and their use (and abuse). Off-Topic posting is generally permitted as long as you don't mention J**ps or other inferior makes.

Introduction What does OT mean? OT is an abbreviation of "Off Topic", a warning to people who don't want to participate in the friendly banter and cut and thrust of intellectual debate about non-LR topics.

I know there is a web based FAQ already, and a number of other resources related to the list, and we should reference those in the FAQ as well as other clubs and internet resources.

If people agree, I'll set up the initial version of the FAQ to be an online one with some placeholders in there, and you can mail questions (perferably with their answers) to me for updating.

I'll include a "questions that don't have answers yet" section so that we can identify things we should answer.

Andy

On or around Mon, 27 Nov 2006 10:58:12 +0000, AndyC the WB enlightened us thusly:

sounds good to me. Let us know where it is.

On or around Mon, 27 Nov 2006 21:43:15 +0000, AJH enlightened us thusly:

aha, I'd forgotten about that - seems to cover most things so not really necessary to repeat the exercise.

can it produce a text version to send to the list, say every month?

alternatively, a message with "here be FAQs", as is done over at UKRMC? Personally, I don't see a problem having a regular FAQ posting, doesn't absorb much bandwidth and means it's there to be looked at without having to go off and hunt it.

In theory, an "expires" header should mean that the faq stays around for a while so that it should be there for new users when they log on, in practice they'll ignore it anyway ;-)

Is there a charter for this group?, I can't seem to find one. Greg

On or around 28 Nov 2006 00:35:51 -0800, "Greg" enlightened us thusly:

Dunno. not sure if alt. groups have charters. If they do there'll be a central site somewhere with 'em all on. all the "official" groups have charters but I can never remember where they're kept.