How about making stickies where everything is explained for that forum... examples http://forum.doom9.org/ and another even better example of a Serbian forum http://www.elitesecurity.org where you can learn absolutely everything you need to know about any subject you are interested in. It is like all information is collected and organized in stickies...like how to start learning, best programs... - That way all knowledge is collected in one place and you wont see same stupid questions every day... - The quality of the forum would dramatically increase - It would give it more professional look and feel (now it feels more like a chatroom) - New users will get information more quickly and better explained ...the list goes on and on... example: Now I want to learn PHP, I go to the PHP forum and what do I see: no info at all, than I go to previously mentioned Serbian forum which isn't even specialized on internet and find info in stickies about PHP: how to start and complete info about PHP... What do you think? (I hope I will get some of the green bar for this )
It is a nice idea. Propably better than my suggestion (the e-book) as the information will be more up to date.
A lot of people don't like when the whole first page is taken up by stickies, especially long time members. A knowledge base is a good idea but as above, existing members don't usually like it and newbies never read anything like "Sticky: Please Read Before Posting" In theory its great but it can clog up a forum in some circumstances
This is a forum for discussions, not necessarily an encyclopedia on webmastering. The end result may be the same, you get a wealth of knowledge, but the approach is different. I don't think posting static content is the way forward, and definitely not in an industry as fast moving as this.
THats the other side of the coin....Who updates all that stuff I wrote the FAQ for SEOChat like 2 years ago and no one maintained it. Now half the stuff isn't even true anynmore (or has changed slightly) so it ends up being a negative.
Solution would be a wiki but why the hassle... All that info is available elsewhere. Just learn how to use Google effectively.
I find that forum members always say they will all participate and answer questions, make changes, etc but that never happens The Wiki usually starts attracting spammers