Re: Harmonigopher FAQ

[haandruss@xxxxxxx (Harvey A. Andruss, III)]

William Lippe offered:

>        Some other FAQ's I've seen have been arranged like this one you
>speak of, but others (this would be easy for us, having the archives) are
>no more than collections of posts with headers. The information is just
>gleaned from the archives, and whatever has been discussed fairly well is
>given a question and number to go with it..

I did this on one subject that was giving me trouble (overblowing, but now
doing much better, thank you) and ended up sending it out to about 15
people.  It wasn't pretty, but it worked.

Blues-l is probably a good model for an outline, as is rec.music.bluenote.
in addition to our subject list below .  Usually these FAQs also have a
bunch of resources listed at the end of related material, ftp sites, other
e-mail lists, etc.  I don't see supplanting anything, but just appending.
Seems like we do this anyway every time someone asks about bending (notice
I freely use the words, we, us, etc. -- we are in the process of building
it as we speak :)

People voluteering to work on modular portions is how I envisioned this
thing happening, and then an editor-type pulling it all together (hmmm,
seems like we have a few of them around here :), or at least doing a final
read and comment.  Then the thing becomes a living document, being
updateable whenever there is a  need and a consensus between Chris Pierce
(or whoever owns the server host for the FAQ) and the contributer.  This
could be the chance for others to contribute also.  Kind of a collective
thing.  It can then be posted to the newbie lists and the faq archives.
BTW, if thee are obvious voids that no one signs up for, I think we can
still call it a FAQ and just have TBD (to be determined) sitting in the
spots unitl someone has time to write something up.

One thing I have always wondered about is how to properly answer a FAQ that
has been 'published' already, eg.in Kim Fields book.  Obviously you quote
sources, but I'm a little fuzzy on how much to regurgitate for something
like this.  Probably not a biggie, but worth clearing the air.

So far I see we have suggested:

HARMONICA TYPES/History
PLAYING TECHNIQUES
PLAYING STYLES
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
ARTISTS AND RECORDS
PRODUCT SOURCES (global, mfg. and distr.)
Magazines
Venues / contacts  (global, build on the open jam listings?)
REPAIR TECHNIQUES

How about some sub sets, since each of these is pretty large, then
volunteers to work on each (really easy if you have access to the gopher!!)

Like the stop signs in Italy, it's only a suggestion :) I gotta go.
Probably won't be back on-line till next week. Ciao.

PS: What goes "Draw 3, Bark" 8 times in one bar (pun intended)?  Christian
Michalek, during a set at the Rockin' East Side in that rockin' town of
Pigseye, Minnesota (that's St. Paul's original name, for all you non-beer
drinkers).  Keep the faith.

Regards,                  haandruss@xxxxxxx
Harv                      *Opinions my own*