The Pathfinder FAQ is hard to find, and has a decoy


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Hey friends, a suggestion from the Evillest of Lincolns:

I know the FAQ is on the product page for the Core Rules. I think it should have its own page with a top level link.

A newcomer to the forum sees a bajillion FAQ links (one for each post), and might even mistake the FAQ markup link for the actual FAQ link and click it accidentally.

There are also 2 other FAQs that are more reachable: Pathfinder RPG FAQ (marketing material) and the Paizo FAQ. In my quest to find the simplest way from the forums to the rules FAQ, I ran across both of these first.

I can see you've put a lot of effort (both development and content) into the FAQ system, I would hate to see it frustrate users or be missed by them entirely.

Liberty's Edge

+1


+1
The Pathfinder RPG FAQ (marketing material) and the Paizo FAQ are MUCH more obvious choices, and though fairly obvious not the FAQ you were looking for (if looking for Core Rules Errata), it´s not clear where to go from that point.

I disagree a distinct top-level page is necessary per se, simply a more propminent LINK to the Rules FAQ would be helpful... But then again, a top level FAQ page could link both to the ´About Pathfinder´ ´faq´ (which seems less relevant now, most people who have been playing 3.5 recently are probably aware of PRPG by now), the FAQ for Paizo as a Company AND all Paizo Product FAQs.

But for alot of people, it´s probably not intuitive to navigate to the product page they normally go to TO BUY A PRODUCT, to view it´s Errata. Realistically, PRPG is now THE flagship product for Paizo, as all their adventures and companions are built around it. Having links to the Core Rules, and FAQ/Errata available easily from the front page seems like a good idea, as it´s something that nearly all Paizo customers should have a common interest in.


Evil Lincoln wrote:
I would hate to see it frustrate users or be missed by them entirely.

I still don't know where it is or how it works.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

We know the FAQ is hard to find... and it's intentional, for now.

As some of you know, the FAQ system is still young—in beta testing, really—and as a result, the FAQ doesn't *contain* much yet. So at this point, we don't want to draw a lot of attention to it, as it isn't putting our best foot forward. Once it has enough content that it's no longer so embarrassing, we'll do more to make it more visible.

With Bestiary 2 wrapping up, I've been assured that we'll be able to pay some more attention to expanding the FAQ in the very near future. Maybe by the time Gary gets back from his vacation, we'll be ready to make it a bit more prominent on the site.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Kirth Gersen wrote:
Evil Lincoln wrote:
I would hate to see it frustrate users or be missed by them entirely.
I still don't know where it is or how it works.

There are actually separate FAQs for the Core Rulebook, Bestiary, and Advanced Player's Guide. Right now, you can only see them by navigating to each product's page; under the description, you'll find tabs for reviews, discussion, and the FAQ.


Vic Wertz wrote:
There are actually separate FAQs for the Core Rulebook, Bestiary, and Advanced Player's Guide. Right now, you can only see them by navigating to each product's page; under the description, you'll find tabs for reviews, discussion, and the FAQ.

I would never have thought to look there... but, on your advise, I'll wait until there's something to look at.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Kirth Gersen wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
There are actually separate FAQs for the Core Rulebook, Bestiary, and Advanced Player's Guide. Right now, you can only see them by navigating to each product's page; under the description, you'll find tabs for reviews, discussion, and the FAQ.
I would never have thought to look there... but, on your advise, I'll wait until there's something to look at.

Oh, feel free to look—I've probably lowered your expectations sufficiently!

Grand Lodge

Hah! I was doing searches to find this mysterious FAQ. I couldn't imagine where it was hiding. Search turned up this thread (probably about 20 hits down), but not the FAQ.


If I can find only one complaint about Pathfinder so far it's the lack of a FAQ/Errata for AP books. Sure there are the threads on each product, which is helpful, but I do have to mine those threads to create my own FAQ.

Or at least I am for Howl of the Carrion King...which some have said is one of the worst for mistakes b/c it came out the same time the Pathfinder Core Rules came out. Understandable. But it would be helpful to have running FAQs/Errata for these products without the "junk" posts in between and organized in order of appearance.

But maybe I ask too much. :)

Liberty's Edge

Riggler wrote:

If I can find only one complaint about Pathfinder so far it's the lack of a FAQ/Errata for AP books. Sure there are the threads on each product, which is helpful, but I do have to mine those threads to create my own FAQ.

Or at least I am for Howl of the Carrion King...which some have said is one of the worst for mistakes b/c it came out the same time the Pathfinder Core Rules came out. Understandable. But it would be helpful to have running FAQs/Errata for these products without the "junk" posts in between and organized in order of appearance.

But maybe I ask too much. :)

They are working on it.

Graywulfe

Shadow Lodge

I was wondering as questions are answered on the FAQ's if it would be possible to have a thread to post that there are new answers? Right now it seems pretty random to me when questions are answered, and it'd be nice to know when new questions are answered.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
I was wondering as questions are answered on the FAQ's if it would be possible to have a thread to post that there are new answers? Right now it seems pretty random to me when questions are answered, and it'd be nice to know when new questions are answered.

Hmm. Update notification is a good idea... we'll think about the best way to implement that.

Liberty's Edge

Vic Wertz wrote:

We know the FAQ is hard to find... and it's intentional, for now.

As some of you know, the FAQ system is still young—in beta testing, really—and as a result, the FAQ doesn't *contain* much yet. So at this point, we don't want to draw a lot of attention to it, as it isn't putting our best foot forward. Once it has enough content that it's no longer so embarrassing, we'll do more to make it more visible.

With Bestiary 2 wrapping up, I've been assured that we'll be able to pay some more attention to expanding the FAQ in the very near future. Maybe by the time Gary gets back from his vacation, we'll be ready to make it a bit more prominent on the site.

Any chance we might get an update on the infamous FAQ???

Thanks!

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

The boys have been buried in Ultimate Magic and other pressing projects in the wake of the holidays. I will see that additional issues on the FAQ are addressed ASAP.


Dang, I did not even know they had an FAQ out. I can see what the OP means, it is hard to find as I am still looking for it.


eirip wrote:
Dang, I did not even know they had an FAQ out. I can see what the OP means, it is hard to find as I am still looking for it.

You have to go to the specific product page such as the core rule book, and scroll down.


wraithstrike wrote:
eirip wrote:
Dang, I did not even know they had an FAQ out. I can see what the OP means, it is hard to find as I am still looking for it.
You have to go to the specific product page such as the core rule book, and scroll down.

Ah, thank you very much.

Liberty's Edge

Erik Mona wrote:

The boys have been buried in Ultimate Magic and other pressing projects in the wake of the holidays. I will see that additional issues on the FAQ are addressed ASAP.

Thanks Erik!

I think my question really is do you guys know how long before these various stealth FAQs are going to become officially ready for prime time? You know, with one big FAQ link on the main page that goes to ALL the FAQ topics, compiled into one, well organized FAQ?

I know Vic said back in Sept of last year (see up thread) that the FAQ system is "still young—in beta testing". Any estimate on how much longer before we go from "still young—in beta testing" to "FAQ is final and ready to officially go live"?

Thanks!!!

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

At this point, I think the process is more or less what it's going to be... we're just waiting for the guys to have the time to populate the actual FAQ display before we point a whole bunch of people to it.


I have another question: A LOT of Errata issues were posted to the specific threads dedicated to that purpose BEFORE the FAQ system was started. The vast majority of those issues are not ´flagged´, but there´s also alot of serious issues exposed there, and those issues were all posted there because that WAS the Paizo-approved method at the time. Is this being dealt with? Do Paizo staff have the ability to ´super flag´ posts (such as in those threads) to push them to the ´active´ sub-list of Errata Flags?

Also, is there any sense of the number of Errata issues Paizo might ideally LIKE to fix, but feels it can´t for some reason, e.g. the Page Reference issue or other-wise requiring too much ´major surgery´? I mean, if those conflicts can´t be resolved, fine, but I wonder if you guys are at least keeping track of those Errata issues in a list of ´things you couln´dt fix because X´, either to re-evaluate the importance of X (e.g. Page References) at some point down the road, or to remember to deal with whenever you do a major over-haul / PRPG 1.5 / etc.

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