A question arose in Literature chat recently about the use of the meta FAQ tag, what goes in there, and how best to curate it. After looking into this, we realized that there doesn't really exist any centralized resource or guidance on how people have used this in the past, what sites have found works for them, and what specifically to avoid.
What I'm interested in knowing is:
- What was the FAQ system on meta actually designed for originally? (I ask this, because it informs the way it was supposed to be used.)
- Who ultimately are the target users of a per-site FAQ, and how should we be thinking about organizing the FAQs in order to maximize their efficacy?
- What sorts of questions does it work best for nowadays?
- What sorts of questions do not belong in a per-site FAQ, or are intrinsically bad fits?
- Who on a site should (usually) be responsible for determining whether a post qualifies for FAQ status? Does this usually just follow the standard "ask for it, vote for it" process, or is there a better process for determining whether a post should be added to the FAQ?