Wikipedia talk:Reference desk/FAQ

It's a start
This was asked for several times, lastly at Reference_desk/Miscellaneous (19 september 2006), so I have made a start, Googling 'asked before' on the ref desk archive, resulting in 26 hits. I have gone through them all, and included most. Others could try variations of this, like 'asked here before', 'some time ago', 'previous thread' or whatever (think how yo might phrase that). I didn't analyse them yet, though, just gave the raw links, to make a start. And most importantly, I didn't search for other answers to the questions if a link was not given. Its a start, though. Funny thing is, I am frequently the one who points out that a question has been asked before. No wonder I started this faq page. :) DirkvdM 08:06, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Not yet archived threads
A problem I always have when making a link to a reference desk thread is that the url changes when it gets archived. So I added one link to a thread that has not yet been archived (the first one on cutting up worms), but formatted it such that it will work once archived. In the meantime, however, it doesn't work. Still, this seems like the best way to do it. DirkvdM 10:07, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

I have placed a few links to the original threads, with the note "Not yet archived, so the link will have to be adapted when it is". But that isn't too clever because the date info is missing. Working the other way around makes more sense, making a link to where the thread will end up once it has been archived. Especially now that threads are archived every 5 days. In case anyone wonders how this is done, take, for example, this (made-up) link:
 * Reference desk/Miscellaneous

Just add 'archive' and the date (in big endian order) in the right places, like this:
 * Reference desk archive/Humanities/2006 September 11

Note that before June 2006 questions were archived per month, and the date is put in little endian order:
 * Reference desk archive/Humanities/January 2006

Alas these links don't light up red when they don't work because they're not to articles but sections. But ultimately they will only be needed as a reference to actually write out the answers. DirkvdM 06:49, 2 October 2006 (UTC)

Move
Could you move this to a more correct title, i.e. FAQ, just in case people do start using it? freshofftheufo ΓΛĿЌ  18:14, 23 September 2006 (UTC)


 * Yeah, after I created it, I noticed the language ref desk faq is spelled as 'FAQs'. Capitalised and plural, as, strictly speaking, it should be. You can trust the language 'referees' to get the grammar right. :) DirkvdM 18:58, 23 September 2006 (UTC)