Creating an Everything Treo FAQ - Need Your Help - Treo Forums

chris · 01-30-2006, 03:20 PM

One of the great things I often hear about this site is how members are willing to help new and prospective Treo owners. It's great because these folks eventually learn about their Treo and end up contributing down the road. I've noticed there are common questions that are usually repeated here in the forums and that's natural. My thought is to create a new section on the site that helps address Frequently Asked Questions. Palm has their knowledge base - which is quite good, but I figure the addition of FAQ's here at Everything Treo will just make it a better resource for everyone. It will make it easier for new people to find answers to common questions and also provide a "quick reference" for Senior Members answering a question that's been tackled previously.

This new section will be accessible from the main navigation bar and will "live" outside of the forums. This will enable new visitors to find answers to their questions by simply searching the site.

Given the complexity of the Treo and the amount of possibilities for FAQ's, I'm reaching out to members of the community who'd like to chip in. If you would like to contribute to the FAQ, please send me a PM or email me at info at everythingtreo dot com.

Thanks!

-Chris

Kreth · 02-10-2006, 11:55 AM

Chris,
Have you thought about having the FAQ section as a sub-forum? It would be fairly simple to add threads and lock them once they're "finalized." That way, a forum search on a topic would also include relevant links in the FAQ section.

chris · 02-10-2006, 05:13 PM

Quote:

That way, a forum search on a topic would also include relevant links in the FAQ section.

I'm not sure if I want to put them in the forum or the main site. In my experience, the site's search feature is more robust than the forum software. I also think some are a bit intimidated by message boards/forums. I find them extremely useful and not just for the Treo. Whenever I need information on a topic, I seek out the forums discussing that particular topic. It's like having your own private meeting with people who have first hand knowledge of the topic you're researching.

I will keep it in mind. I'm still trying to get the FAQ's rolling. I'm always looking for submissions.

-Chris

rouxster · 02-11-2006, 11:59 AM

Either place would be nice, but if you did put it on the forum, you could put it as a sticky or an annoucement and that way, it always stays up top, it's always in bold and it is the first thing everyone sees. I do agree about the forums being itimidating (not your forum in particular, but all forums), but you could do an FAQ for each Treo model. Really, each treo's FAQ's could possibly be vastly different. It also may prevent some users from posting questions that are already on the site. One disadvantage to a sticky or an announcement, is that it could potentially grow into a beast with all of the replies that you would get. Unless vBulletin has a feature to disable replies to a post. Just my opinion.

Kreth · 02-11-2006, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rouxster

One disadvantage to a sticky or an announcement, is that it could potentially grow into a beast with all of the replies that you would get. Unless vBulletin has a feature to disable replies to a post. Just my opinion.

You can lock a thread, and then only the forum staff can add to it.

chris · 04-08-2006, 12:24 PM

Well, I'm finally getting to implement all of this fun stuff. Customer Reviews section and the long awaited Knowledge Base which I've dubbed Treo Support. There are some pretty major template issues that I'm looking to resolve, but overall I believe this software I purchased will do the job quite well. I'm going to start adding to the knowledgebase from the submissions I've recieved over the past few weeks.

The software allows me to set up categories. The first (and only FAQ) that I have listed is under the category Treo Software. For me, this is a logical category that covers any topic/article/FAQ related to software ON the Treo. I think a category for Desktop Software - PC, Desktop Software - Mac might be another way to further break out the categories.

As I read the submissions, I'm sure it will provide ideas for categories. I'm open to suggestions. Here's the main Treo Support page (complete with broken template

) where the categories will appear. I can set up keywords for what Treo smartphones the specific article references. Yet another way is to associate articles to multiple related categories. For example, an article that is related to the Treo 650, Treo 600 and Treo Software will appear in all of those categories.

If you have ideas, let me know..

Thanks.
Chris

Stillrockin · 04-11-2006, 05:24 AM

Chris, the new section looks really great! Nice Job!

chris · 04-11-2006, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Chris, the new section looks really great! Nice Job!

It's coming along. I ended up setting up categories for the specific Treo models (Treo 700w, Treo 650, Treo 600) and relative categories such as Software, Email, Bluetooth (and more to come). Let's say the article is relative to Bluetooth headsets, the Treo 650 and Treo 700w, then it will belong to those categories. If a visitor goes into Bluetooth, they'll find the article. If they go into View Treo 650 or View Treo 700 articles, it will appear there as well.

I thought this made the most sense for the typical visitor looking for help with a problem. They can either:
- Do a search of the knowledge base
- Click on the Bluetooth category and browse articles
- If they own a Treo 650, they might click on that category to find the article

The search feature works well -- and I think there are some tags in the backend that will make this even more powerful. I'm also conversing with the developer of the software on whether "tags" will do a similar job as the 'Treo model' categories.

I've had some experience with databases and the one BIG thing it taught me was to be sure your structure was correct before entering your records/data. Once it gets grows, you're stuck with the structure.

Thanks for noticing the upgrade.... and your contributions!

-Chris