Ok, so let's talk about Frequently Asked Questions or "FAQs".  Almost every web site has them.  They span the usefulness spectrum from completely pointless to being a lifesaver.  Most of the time, however, these are created by marketing folks in anticipation of what you, the customer, want to know.  Periodically they get updated with fresh information, but they're generally behind the user's curve and not answering the questions user's really want to ask and have answered.

In working on a new feature we have coming soon called Sweeps University, under which our FAQs were going to reside, it dawned on me that it would be much more useful if the actual users were asking the questions.  The SweepsU.com team know the system and makes assumptions of your needs based on our perspective.  This is often not the most accurate way to go.  After a little research I found something that would fit the bill AND I didn't have to write it.

So I'd like to introduce our FAQ:

You will find the link to the FAQ in the top navigation bar on the right.  If you click on this, you will see a list of categories and subcategories of questions, pretty standard fair.  However, you will also see, in the upper right-hand corner of the FAQ, a New Item button:

Click this and you will be taken to the following screen (abbreviated):

As you can see, I've outlined the steps required to submit a question, and I THINK it's pretty self explanatory.  Tags are basically just words that are somewhat related to what you're asking.  You'll have a small number to choose from now but the selection will grow as time goes on.

When you save your question it goes to a queue for the SweepsU.com team to look at and answer.  After we answer it's pushed out to the FAQ for the world to see.  You guys are building your own FAQ.  Nifty, huh?

The screenshot just above shows only the top half of the screen.  The bottom half allows you to actually answer the question as well if you're posting something for the benefit of your fellow users.  If you have questions and answers you'd like to post, please feel free.  They will still go to the SweepsU.com team's queue and as soon as we look them over they'll be pushed out to the FAQ with you getting the credit for creating it.

Finally, sticking with the theme of SweepsU.com of encouraging strong community participation you can also comment on, rate, print, email, create PDFs of,  and bookmark (favorite) any of the FAQs.

I think that's it in a nutshell.  The SweepsU.com team will, of course, add stuff as we think of it and/or as people as us questions.  But we think the FAQs being driven by you will be much more useful for the entire community.

Let us know what you think!