You know. I still think the best answer is if you don’t want to answer a question…,don’t. Nobody forces you to. I mean, if you don’t want to watch a movie again or at all, you just don’t watch it. You don’t say they can’t show it, or that no one can go do we? Or do we.
Honda car enthusist forums often have FAQ section at the beginning of the forum and it works real good.
To be very honest and frank, pretty much all of the common questions newbies ask here could be best addressed with the single bit of advice of: “If you are just starting out, you really need to invest in a modest selection of the hobby guide books such as those offered by Kalmbach. Therein you’ll find all your questions answered fully.” No one can possible function in this hobby based solely on the advice given on entry-level forums, as too much of it turns out to be largely ambiguous.
This newbie advice may not sound very helpful, or friendly, but overall it is far and away the best sort of advice for the newbie, who is usually in need of a very wide range of basic hobby info.
CNJ831
[quote user=“jwhitten”]
How do I get started?
What do you think of (fill in the blank-- locomotive, company, product, etc)
Which is better, DC or DCC?
What is the smallest radius I can use to run (fill in the blank-- locomotive, passenger car, whatever)
What is the REALLY smallest radius I can use to run (yada yada)
How do I weather a building, locomotive or piece of rolling stock?
Why is everything so expensive?
How do program my DCC system?
Is (item A) better than (item B) ?
My P2K locomotive makes a grinding noise, what can I do?
Should I pre-order (fill in the blank item)?
Is (fill in the blank item) I found on ebay worth the money?
Why won’t my train run?
How do I clean dirty track?
How do I fix Atlas switches?
How do I change out (fill in the blank-- couplers, wheels, motors, whatever)?
How do I install a DCC decoder in (fill in the blank locomotive)?
Where can I get (fill in the blank item) in bulk quantities?
What kind of track is better?
Which is better, code 83 or code 100 track?
How do I handlay track?
How can I make switches?
How do I ballast track?
How do I use ground foam?
How do I build benchwork?
How do I set up staging for my layout?
How can I build an empire on a 4’x8’ sheet of plywood?
What scales are there?
Which scale is best?
Where can I get (fill in the blank scenery item-- plaster, hydrocal, pink foam, cardboard strips, etc)?
How do I paint a backdrop?
What material can I use to make a backdrop?
How can I build a double-decker layout?
How do I solder track?
How should I hook up power to the track?
How do I solder wires?
How do I set up a (fill in the blank-- track power, DCC cab, etc) buss?
How do I paint the scenery?
How do I use decals?
How do I
No wonder there is no FAQ section.
Mark
Is there a way to avoid having solder drop into my eyes while I’m laying on my back under the layout working on the wiring?
Can you use HO scale in an outdoor garden layout?
I’m modeling the surface of Mars in the year 2316. What should I use to simulate low gravity?
If Tiger Woods gets an invitation to play golf with OJ Simpson, what course should they play? (Oh wait, that’s one of them Trackside Diner questions…)
I can’t keep my cats off the layout. Should I try using something other than catnip for foliage?
What is the ideal diet to prepare for your operating crew to avoid environmental unpleasantness in the train room?
Where can I find a Big Boy that looks like Big Boy?
(I want to run it with my Thomas set!)
Give me a minute, I’ll think of a few more…
Shecky
How do you pronounce the following:
Athearn
Mallet
Maerklin
Sperandeo
Gorre
Kato
Cajon
Daphetid
?
Yes, but the beauty of having the FAQ is if a newbie posts a question that’s already covered sufficiently in the FAQ, you don’t have to feel guilty for not responding. 
You missed Tehachapi; we had a Captain at Sembach in Germany in the early '70s who was always referring to Tay-ha-chap-ee. At first everyone thought that he was engaged in an attempt at humor with a deliberate mispronunciation but one day some one referred to the famous loop and he asked, “Is that really the proper pronunciation?” From there on he pronounced it Ta-hatch-ah-pee. I don’t know if he ever did become aware that behind his back he was referred to as Captain Tay-ha-chap-ee.
When I came up on the forum four years ago a couple of times a month–at least it seemed like a couple of times per month–someone would inevitably raise the quest “Which is best, Atlas or Kato?” I’m not sure whether that question ever got answered or not because, with inevitable certitude, within a half dozen or so responses the topic would turn into an Anti-Bachmann tirade. If the question was raised as an N-Scale querry I always responded that I had had very good service from my Spectrum dash 8s, doodlebugs, and lone 2-8-0 steamer. I wasn’t going to pretend that Bachmann put out as high a quality product as Kato and Atlas but then again neither Kato nor Atlas manufactured any doodlebugs.
I don’t recall having seen a “Which is best, Atlas or Kato?” querry in quite a while.
As a corolarry to this querry however one could expect a 'Should I by an X-loke or a Y-loke?" question to crop up on a regular basis.
Almost as frequent as these inquiries is “Will my Big Boy negotiate 18” radius curves?" The answer to that one is simple: yeah! . . . . . . . . . . in Z-Scale . . . . . . . . . . if you don’t want your loke to look like a Sherman tank in the high-speed lane.
You are kidding, of course!
Buying books requires an investment not only in monetary assests but in time–the time necessary to read said publications. Remember, the money spent on books cannot be spent on trains. And, unfortunately, there are those out there who, having read a book on benchwork, would immediately come up on the forum and ask “What is a screwdriver . . . . . . . . . . and should I go to Lowe’s or Home Depot to buy one?”
To which, of course, the correct answer is “Yes”.
[:D]
I don’t know guys…
If there’s only a dozen or so newbie questions that are driving you to distraction, then it seems like some reference to a standing reference thread would be helpful.
Instead of a new poster getting the impression that the answer is " JEEZ-LOUSE MAN!! LIKE WE HAVEN’T HEARD THAT QUESTION A MILLION TIMES !! LOOK IT UP ON THE INTERNET AND QUIT WASTING OUR VALUEBLE TIME !!!" ( Remain calm- it’s an exaggeration to make a point. [:-,]), there would be a helpful alternative. “Welcome to our forum. That question has been asked a lot over the years. As such, there have been several good discussion threads concerning that, and other popular beginner questions. Please check out ( this link in blue). There, you will find links to those threads. If you have further questions, please feel free to ask, as there are a lot of experienced modelers on the forum who would be more than willing to help”.
Which would you, as a new poster, find more helpfull?
On the other hand…If that 12 or so FAQ that drive people batty is more like 50 or 60 FAQ, I’m not sure what that says about the forum. There are a lot of curious people out there looking for help?
Note: I drifted over here from the Trains Magazine Forum to read what all the fuss was about regarding the foums being slower. I saw a familiar issue about newbies and FAQ. We have the same thing. Why are railroad tracks 4’-8 1/2" apart? etc… As long as you’re getting new people involved in the forum, that’s good-right?
I belong to several racecar forums. They are going through the same type of thing. I don’t hink it’s just hobby type forums that are ex
I don’t know if you guys got some of these ones
-
What about P2K locos with craked axles?
-
DC or DCC?
-
How much does such and such cost?
-
Why is such and such so expensive?
-
Which is better?
-
Is the hobby dying?
-
Will _____ go around 18" (or smaller) curves?
-
Questions about couplers
-
Kits / RTR questions
-
How to do _____
MHO:
Generally, I’ve found that a poster who is conscientious enough to check a FAQ list is someone who’s also savvy enough to search before they post, thus discovering that their question is indeed a FAQ. So I come down on the side of the folks who posted above that developing a FAQ list might not change a whole lot in the end.
My attitude on FAQs has changed over time. Back in the dialup days on usenet, you’d see posts from people complaining that FAQs were hogging the bandwidth, taking too much time to download into their readers, or polluting their digest e-mails, etc. Online fora are different animals, where it’s much easier to ignore FAQ threads and much easier to search. Granted, many new FAQ threads do push other items off of page 1, but I’ve become adept at going to pages 2 and 3 to find threads that interest me.
Dialup users still have speed issue though. I was dialup for a looong time (with a crappy connection that seldom got over 28k), so I know the pain.
If a FAQ list/topic is created, I would suggest making its focus narrow and its contents brief and to the point. A huge list with lots of text will probably just result in glazed eyes from many newbies.
I’m also wondering about how the accepted answers will be generated by our membership, and approved, and amended, etc. I’m getting visions of congress here… [xx(]
I like the approach Murphy Siding mentioned - if you’re in a helpful mood that day, kindly direct the newbie to a related thread.
O Dave- I wasn’t thinking FAQ section on the forum. I was thinking more along the lines of a Frequently Answered Questions guide. You could direct someone to a post or thread that had, say, the top 5 most popular threads about the best way to get model glue out of your mustache, as well as the 5 most popular on other re-occuring basic questions.
That way, without talking down to anyone or being short with anyone, the questioner could be directed to a spot where all the good answers and opinions are already out there.
I just don’t know if it’s right, to give new posters the impression that they shouldn’t be asking such basic questions. If that’s the case, then a maybe we need a retired question rule. [:O] Once the questions have been asked and answered too many times, they’re off limits. [xx(] And after all questions are off limits, all the posters will have left. [}:)]
I agree with O’Dave and (surprisingly) CNJ831.
The “right” way to get into something is to read up on it. Yes, it’s a 4 letter word – R E A D. Seems to be a surprisingly common issue these days. No one wants to take the time to actually read anything! Books from Kalmbach (or anyone else); pages of forum postings, on-line Newbie guides. Doesn’t matter what it is, a lot of people just don’t want to take the time to do it. It’s all about instant gratification.
I have often seen posters who clearly don’t even read the responses to their own posts. Or just read until they see the thing they want to see and then quit.
So, people SHOULD read first, ask second. But as long as they are people, they will avoid doing so.
“Human beings are almost unique in their ability to learn from the experiences of others, and remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” – Douglas Adams (I’m quoting from memory – don’t nit pick the exact wording).
I don’t know if I agree with that… P-O-S-T is also a four-letter word and they don’t seem to have any aversion to doing that…
John
There is a surprising amount of information on the website. Each magazines’ menu bar has information headings. MR’s is called Articles.
Enjoy
Paul