zoom44

I have finally managed to get around to updating the FAQ. you can find what i have done so far here . If you see any corrections that need to be made or have a suggestion for a Qand A post it here. Please feel free to write an actual QandA with links if you have/want them and submit it here. i will conntinue to work on it as time permits and fix/add anything posted here that i can and that is relevant. After a few weeks, once its all compiled, this will get turned from a series of posts into a more official looking vb page FAQ. thanks all -charlie

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"Shanika"

I'm a new 8 owner, great help.

zevans

Brilliant.

I've just been looking for factory suspension settings and I found about 20 posts saying "search for them" in various impolite ways :D and not quite so many posts that actually gave the numbers...

Dark8 posted them here...

Alignment settings for street/track use - perhaps put links to the JPGs in the FAQ?

zoom44

thanks i couldnt find them either

Krankor

Well, this forum is supposed to be for suggestions, so here's one:

While a *magnificent* source of RX-8 info, this site is very poorly set up for the new user. There's an absolutely OVERWHELMING amount of stuff to trudge through, or try to search through, and so people *don't*, they post their questions to new threads, and then get flamed for it. And the flamers aren't at fault either because they have a right to be tired of seeing things come up that have been discussed to death. This is, of course, the common problem in all on-line forums, and the standard solution is the FAQ.

The problem on THIS site is that the FAQ is squirrelled away in a filing cabinet in the basement behind the sign that says "Beware The Leopard". It's ridiculously hard to find, given its central importance. The FAQ that the newbie finds easily is the one about the site itself, what the rules are and all. But if you want to find the topical FAQ, it's *somewhere else*, quietly tucked away under one of the *forums*, off to the side, and even then, you click on that, and its not a FAQ at all, it's a bunch of threads, most of which don't look vey FAQ-y at all, and there's one that IS labelled FAQ, and you go to it and it's this antique relic from 2002, and its not even a FAQ, its just a lot of data.

If one has the perseverance to keep looking, one might *eventually* find the "FAQ Update" that this thread refers to, which finally ends up being the exact document you were looking for. But that was just too hard, and its unreasonable to expect newbies to find it, and flame them when they post things because they didn't.

In short, the "FAQ Update" should in fact be *the FAQ*, it should be a text document (not a thread), that has its own prominent banner right at the top of the home page, in large, friendly letters.

And it should be *much* more complete. Anything that anyone would ever get flamed at for bringing up should be in the FAQ, and nobody should EVER get flamed for asking something that's not in the FAQ. This business of expecting people to SEARCH for everything in this behemoth set of posts is absolutely lame.

There, I've said it.

Astral

Hey Charlie,

I do like what you have started to do with the FAQ. By the way, everyone on this site is an RX-8 enthusiast and all the mods, like you Charlie, are putting in a lot of great time in keeping this forum straight.

So thank you for all the work on the FAQ so far! There's already a lot of good questions (also thanks to Markd and all others who contributed so far)

These are my recommendations:

1) Positioning of the FAQ

The FAQ, in my opinion, must be a top-top-top sticky on the RX-8 Discussion forum. Forget the sub-forum: we don't really need a subforum.

Just have:

RX8Club.com > General Topics > RX-8 Discussion

Sticky: RX-8 Frequently Asked Questions -- LOOK HERE FIRST

The RX-8 Discussion forum is where everyone goes, it's where everyone posts all the n00b questions.. so you know that a sticky there, front and center, with a clear name like that, will get way more traffic than in the subforum.

2) Ditch the outdated FAQ -- rename the sticky to "car pre-release FAQ", and unsticky it. Link to the old FAQ from the new FAQ, or migrate any content still relevant to the new FAQ.

We only need one FAQ.


3) The FAQ button on the top nav bar of the site (I assume this is the vbFaq?) doesn't contain any useful information on the car. It's just how to use the site. That button should link directly to the RX-8 FAQ or have the page that it links to refer the users to the RX-8 FAQ thread.


4) Format of the FAQ.

Looking at the new FAQ thread, I see the following weaknesses (please don't take this as a flame, I am trying to constructively criticize):

* the subject grabs no attention! "Faq - Update" doesn't seem to imply that it's the main FAQ. Is it an updated FAQ, or is it an update (=news info) about the state of the FAQ, or is it a notification that the main FAQ was updated? So it's kind of unclear... is there really a FAQ in that thread?

* the first post of the thread doesn't look like a FAQ. Instead, it's an acknowledgements paragraph and a "read the manual and search" paragraph, plus a funny "related" link that I was initially confused about: related to what? the car?

* the 2nd post is the abbreviations listing, so:

* there's no emphasis, or any indication of structure or any life signs of a FAQ in the first screenful, and even the 2nd one... when I first saw the "Faq - Update" thread, I was confused: where the heck is the FAQ? Sure, abbreviations are nice, but there's no indication that there are questions coming. Only if you scroll down past the abbreviations post do you start seeing the actual questions and answers.

* there's no table of contents/categorization of the FAQs... so I have to scroll through every question and answer to find the question that I have on my mind.. that's a lot of scrolling and a lot of scanning for the right question

* the 2nd paragraph in the 1st post with site use suggestions (e.g. "search", "bring up older thread instead of new one") is a wall of text. it needs to be bulleted, with the main points easily highlighted.

So basically, things aren't at a glance. It's not immediatley clear that the thread is the real/new FAQ. It's not immediately clear where the questions are. It's not as easy to skim through all the available questions.

The nature of people is to skim skim skim. Only read if something grabs the eye.

I mean.. think of someone who's in a hurry, or new to the forums and is a little flustered by the wealth of all the random info on the site... they go to the "Faq - Update" thread, they may conclude that it's just abbreviations and leave... they may not realize that scrolling will get them the questions: they may think that there's just the discussion of the abbreviations below that post (because often the meat of the thread is in the 1st post, and the rest of the posts discuss that original post).

Also, people start reading a paragraph.. and if the first few words or first sentence don't indicate that the paragraph is useful, people skip the rest... again, skimming skimming skimming...

5) So, my suggestion for the format of the FAQ is as follows:

* Table of contents with all questions itemized and clickable in the very first post
* Categories, to separate questions, say, related to boosting performance from "daily use" questions... we just need four or five categories...
* Post everything in one huge post OR one post per category
* Abbreviations list can still be its own post, but needs to be linked as a "Q: What does this abbreviation mean?" and answer...
* Use a lot of bulleted-style markup, try to avoid long paragraphs of text (unless it's a detailed explanation of some sort).

Here are my suggestions for categories (broken down by, unsurprisingly, the same subforums that we have)

* General info
* Rotary engine
* Maintenance, daily use
* Performance & aftermarket parts
* Exterior and wheels/tires
* Interior and in-car entertainment

*shrugs* I say the categories are there just tentatively.. the most important thing is the questions... we can always reshuffle the questions into different categories later.

Astral

OK, so I just realized that you can't really link to individual paragraphs within posts. So I guess it's better to stick with a couple of small questions per post or one large question per post, just like you already have done in that thread.

Astral

So... talk the talk, but let's walk the walk.. but only like a foot of it

We already have questions in your Faq - Update thread, and they are pretty decently compartmentalized with a few questions per post (for easier linking)... I would suggest numbering the categories and questions within categories...

So here's my attempt at rewriting the first post, plus I added one more question and answer, to rewrite the 2nd paragraph... ...

many links in the table of contents are FAKE (as in, don't actually point to the right post, but look like links), but of course they will be real links in the real thing... the fake links link to post 100... so any question with a link to "post 100" is a question that I think should be asked, but we haven't written an answer for yet...

(maybe these shouldn't link to post, but link to thread and use the "anchor" to scroll to the post? hopefully would give the user more context)

of course, the actual posts would be in the same thread, not a different one, and the "Q:" portions would be updated with the numbered question...

so here it is, to get some starting ground:

______________________________________


RX-8 Frequently Asked Questions

Many common questions are answered below--please read before posting your question!

1. General Questions

1.1. I can't find an answer to my question. Where else can I look?
1.2. What do all these acronyms mean?
1.3. What's new in the 2006 model year?
1.4. What's new in the 2005 model year?
1.5. What are the regional differences in the options and features?


2. Rotary Engine Info
2.1. Where can I find more info on how the rotary engine works?
2.2. How do I break in the rotary engine?
2.3. What is the rotary engine's reliability? I heard bad things from someone.

3. Maintenance and Daily Use

3.1. Why do I have to add oil to my car and how often should I check it?
3.2. Can I use synthetic oil?
3.3. What is a flash?
3.4. Do I have to use premium (91-octane or above) fuel?
3.5. How do I store my RX-8 for the winter?

4. Issues and Concerns

4.1. What kind of gas mileage should I expect? My mileage seems low.
4.2. I have a check engine light. What do I do?
4.3. How can I find out the check engine light code?
4.4. Where can I find information about TSBs and Recalls?
4.5. I stalled my car before it warmed up and now it won't start. Did I flood it? What do I do?
4.6. What is flooding, and how can I avoid it?
4.7. Why did my TPMS light come on in the morning but later go out? Is something wrong?
4.8. Why is my A/C so weak? (not cold enough)
4.9. When I parked my car and shut it off, why did it sound like the engine or the fan was still running?
4.10. When I sit in neutral with the foot off clutch, what is this rolling noise I hear?

5. Performance and Aftermarket Performance

5.1. How fast is the stock RX-8?
5.2. Is there a turbo or supercharger available?
5.3. What exhaust should I get?
5.4. What are some of the basic performance upgrades available?

6. Interior and Electronics

6.1. When I locked the car with the remote, the lights didn’t flash. What’s wrong?
6.2. Why is the Rear View Mirror so low? It blocks my view!
6.3. When I shut off my 2005 RX-8, I often accidentally pop the trunk. What can I do?

7. Exterior and Tires/Wheels

7.1. Can I drive the RX-8 in the winter?
7.2. What snow tires should I get? What size? What wheels?
7.3. What tires can I get to replace the stock tires?
7.4. What are clear corners?
7.5. Where can I buy rotary accents and other accessories?
7.6. How should I wash my car? Any suggestions on waxes?

8. About this FAQ

8.1. Who contributed to this FAQ?
8.2. How do I contribute to this FAQ?
______________________________________

the next post would start here, with the general questions... here's the rehash of the old intro paragraph:

1.1. Q: I can't find an answer to my question. Where else can I look?

If you have looked through this FAQ, but your question is not addressed:

• search! - use the search button above to look for terms related to your question. You will often find older threads discussing the issue.
• have you checked your owner's manual or quick tips booklet? You can find out what the dash lights do, how to operate the radio, where the oil filler is, and many other things that new owners ask over and over.
• check the sticky threads in each forum. These threads contain common information to the topic of that forum.
• it's better to post to an older thread on the same topic, instead of starting a new thread.

Astral

Hmm, looks like the links to posts directly work well: they show the whole thread, instead of just the single post.

Krankor

Great stuff by Astral, he said everything that was on my mind. I will differ in one regard:

The thing shouldn't be done as threads, it should be done in the same way as the current site FAQ, that has the button along the very top. Either split that button into two buttons (Site FAQ, RX-8 FAQ), or make the one button a pull-down with those two choices. And indeed, you might consider making that button the *first* one in the row instead of the last. And make it stand out, in red or something. Should definitely catch the newbie's attention. People should see the FAQ before they even go into the general discussion section.

The only thing that should be threads is that the very debatable, debated issues, like what-happens-if-you-use-89-octane-gas, might have pointers into the appropriate threads, so that people can actually read the various sides of the arguments.

Krankor
05 Shinka 6MT

zoom44

i agree with everything and thats a great effort ASTRAL. thank you.

on the format- you are correct its not in an "FAQ" style format because at the time i was unable to make it that way. it was done just as posts in a thread to get things started. afterm that atempt i started making a faq "how to" for the virtual garage and made that in a more of the faq style with all the questions in th efirst post lining to the later post with the actual answer. now i am an ADMIN and can actually make an FAQ.

i will include what you have done in the current faq update thread and follow that style format wheni construct the actual FAQ thanks for your efforts:D

Astral

Glad to help!

Ok, so will you be making the actual FAQ in vbGarage style then? Because if I can help you with that somehow, let me know... a lot of those "new" questions I added to that list.. i can probably find answers for.

Astral

suggestion: reword question from "When I locked the car with the remote, the lights didn’t flash. What’s wrong?" to "Lights don't flash when I lock the car with the remote. What's wrong?"