Editing FAQ

{{short description|Answers to common questions on a topic}}
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{{for|Wikipedia's FAQs|Wikipedia:FAQ|selfref=yes}}
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A '''frequently asked questions''' ('''FAQ''') list is often used in articles, websites, [[electronic mailing list|email lists]], and online forums where common questions tend to recur, for example through posts or queries by new users related to common knowledge gaps. The purpose of a FAQ is generally to provide information on frequent questions or concerns; however, the format is a useful means of organizing information, and text consisting of questions and their answers may thus be called a FAQ regardless of whether the questions are actually ''frequently'' asked.<ref name="faqsaboutfaqs" />

Since the acronym ''FAQ'' originated in textual media, its [[pronunciation]] varies. FAQ can be pronounced as an [[initialism]], "F-A-Q", or as an [[acronym]], "FAQ".<ref name="pron">{{cite web|url=http://www.faqs.org/faqs/faqs/about-faqs/|title=About FAQs: Pronunciation|publisher=Faqs.org|access-date=2013-06-13|archive-date=2022-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123062535/http://www.faqs.org/faqs/faqs/about-faqs/|url-status=live}}</ref> Web designers often label a single list of questions as a "FAQ", such as on [[Google Search]],<ref>{{cite web
| title = FAQ
| url = https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/government/faq/
| access-date = May 30, 2013
| archive-date = May 30, 2013
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130530163329/http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/government/faq/
| url-status = live
}}</ref> while using "FAQs" to denote multiple lists of questions such as on [[United States Department of the Treasury|United States Treasury]] sites.<ref>{{cite web
| title = OFAC FAQs: Question Index
| url = https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Sanctions/Pages/ques_index.aspx
| publisher = [[United States Department of the Treasury]]
| access-date = May 30, 2013
| archive-date = May 13, 2013
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130513214136/http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Sanctions/Pages/ques_index.aspx
| url-status = live
}}</ref> Use of "FAQ" to refer to a single frequently asked question, in and of itself, is less common.

==Origins==
While the name may be recent, the FAQ format itself is quite old. For example, [[Matthew Hopkins]] wrote ''The Discovery of Witches'' in 1648 as a list of questions and answers, introduced as "Certaine Queries answered ...".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hopkins |first1=Mathew |title=The Discovery of Witches: In Answer to severall QUERIES, LATELY Delivered to the Judges of Assize for the County of NORFOLK. And now published By MATTHEW HOPKINS, Witch-finder, FOR The Benefit of the whole KINGDOME. |date=1648 |page= 1|publisher=Angell in Ivie Lane |location=London  |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951000896825x&seq=11 |access-date=30 December 2023}}</ref> Many old [[catechism]]s are in a question-and-answer (Q&A) format. ''[[Summa Theologica]]'', written by [[Thomas Aquinas]] in the second half of the 13th century, is a series of common questions about Christianity to which he wrote a series of replies.

===On the Internet===
The "FAQ" is an [[Internet]] textual tradition originating from the technical limitations of early mailing lists from [[NASA]] in the early 1980s. The first FAQ developed over several pre-Web years, starting from 1982 when storage was expensive. On [[ARPANET]]'s SPACE mailing list, the presumption was that new users would download archived past messages through [[File Transfer Protocol|FTP]]. In practice this rarely happened, and the users tended to post questions to the mailing list instead of searching its archives. Repeating the "right" answers became tedious, and went against developing [[netiquette]]. A series of different measures were set up by loosely affiliated groups of computer system administrators, from regularly posted messages to [[netlib]]-like query [[email]] [[daemon (computing)|daemons]]. The acronym ''FAQ'' was developed between 1982 and 1985 by Eugene Miya of NASA for the SPACE mailing list.<ref name="faqsaboutfaqs">Hersch, Russ. [http://www.faqs.org/faqs/faqs/about-faqs/ FAQs about FAQs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123062535/http://www.faqs.org/faqs/faqs/about-faqs/ |date=2022-01-23 }}. 8 January 1998. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/faqs/about-faqs/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123062535/http://www.faqs.org/faqs/faqs/about-faqs/ |date=2022-01-23 }}.</ref>
The format was then picked up on other mailing lists and [[Usenet]] [[newsgroup]]s.
Posting frequency changed to monthly, and finally weekly and daily across a variety of mailing lists and newsgroups.
The first person to post a weekly FAQ was [[Jef Poskanzer]] to the Usenet net.graphics / comp.graphics [[newsgroup]]s.<ref>{{cite newsgroup |title=Frequently asked questions - weekly automated posting |author=[[Jef Poskanzer]] |date=Oct 31, 1989 |newsgroup=comp.graphics |message-id= |url=https://groups.google.com/g/comp.graphics/c/8eud8W8qUHk/m/M2jHKdSJlP4J |access-date=May 20, 2022}}</ref>
Eugene Miya experimented with the first daily FAQ.

==Modern developments==

===Non-traditional FAQs===
In some cases, informative documents not in the traditional FAQ style have also been described as FAQs, particularly the [[videogame|video game]] FAQ, which is often a detailed description of gameplay, including tips, secrets, and beginning-to-end guidance.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-09-09-what-the-faq-article |title=What the FAQ? |last=Teti |first=John |date=9 September 2010 |work=[[Eurogamer]] |publisher=Gamer Network |access-date=21 July 2014 |archive-date=22 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140722051854/http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-09-09-what-the-faq-article |url-status=live}}</ref> Rarely are videogame FAQs in a question-and-answer format, although they may contain a short section of questions and answers.{{citation needed|date=February 2012}}

Over time, the accumulated FAQs across all Usenet newsgroups sparked the creation of the "*.answers" moderated newsgroups such as comp.answers, misc.answers and sci.answers for [[crossposting]] and collecting FAQ across respective comp.*, misc.*, sci.* newsgroups.

===In web design===
The FAQ has become an important component of websites, either as a stand-alone page or as a website section with multiple subpages per question or topic. Embedded links to FAQ pages have become commonplace in website navigation bars, bodies, or footers. The FAQ page is an important consideration in web design, in order to achieve several goals of customer service and [[search engine optimization]] (SEO), including

* reducing the workload of in-person customer service employees
* improving site navigation
* increasing the visibility of the website by matching/optimizing for specific search terms
* linking to or integrating within product pages.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Kumar|first=Braveen|date=Aug 3, 2016|title=The Benefits of an FAQ Page (And How to Do It Right)|url=https://www.shopify.com/blog/120928069-how-to-create-faq-page|access-date=February 16, 2019|website=Shopify|archive-date=February 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190217113824/https://www.shopify.com/blog/120928069-how-to-create-faq-page|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Criticism==
Some content providers discourage the use of FAQs in place of restructuring content under logical [[subject heading|headings]]. For example, the UK [[Government Digital Service]] does not use FAQs because the service believes that their form primarily serves writers' needs and creates more work for readers.<ref>{{cite web |website=Government Digital Service |url=https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2013/07/25/faqs-why-we-dont-have-them/ |title=FAQs: why we don't have them |first1=Sarah |last1=Richards |date=25 July 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200301081100/https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2013/07/25/faqs-why-we-dont-have-them/ |archive-date=2020-03-01 }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|FAQ|frequently asked questions}}
*[http://www.faqs.org/topRated.html Original USENET examples]
*[http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/F/FAQ.html FAQ definition], [[Jargon File|Jargon7767819960]]


[[Category:Technical communication]]
[[Category:Initialisms]]