It's occured to me recently:

1) loads of really good stuff has gone into the forums - great advice on all sorts of things.

2) it's well known that most people don't search forums before posting (if you do that on an IT/computer based forum you get really 'flamed')

3) our windsurfing glossary has a small amount of information (lovingly typed in by Ernie at the cost of Unilever's IT systems architecture ? Slander !)



Should we be creating a knowledge base from the forum posts ?



When a post gets some good information in it we put links in the faq to it - a bit of a cheat in some respects - people go into the faq expecting a page full of info only to get a link to the forums BUT that info will be honest opinions given by 'the public' ?



I'll see if I can do a few example ones....



To start I thought I'd copy the menu tree from a windsurfing shop site I saw recently (2xs) as this covers all aspects of windsurfing equipment so would be a good start.



any thoughts ?

As it's written in black and white - it's liable - it's when your just badmouthing me down the lake it's slander !

Occassionally, I have tried to find some old information I knew it had been discussed in the forums, i.e. where to windsurf in Fleetwood, but found it difficult to find. I think the idea of links sounds great. Would it be too complicated to create a searching engine within the forums???

Spoke to Max a while back about co-ordinating news from Crosby - shall I ask him again ?



Ern.

I know what you mean Jose. However other web sites I participate (even comercial sites) on have exactly the same problem and discussions start up again on a similar / same topic months later. Usually a well informed user links to the old thread when responding

For me, the best way to do it - admitedly a little more labour intensive - is for each topic that springs up that lends itself to a FAQ - for us to enter it into the FAQ section rather that put a link into it, for a number of reasons,



1. discussions frequently go off topic

2. Some people , however well meaning, talk crap

3. When it comes to FAQ we should have editorial say.

4. as experienced sailors we will generally know whether something is correct.



On the Max point again, we've talked about location reps before, and I believe that this admin forum is the vehicle to make this work. So unless anyone has _object_ions I'll ask Max if he's interested and if he is we'll add him to this forum.



Reckon we should also do this with others we identify from other sailing locations too.



Ern.