One of the seven essential questions is: what goes in the FAQ.
We should bear in mind that no-one ever reads these things first off. Their purpose is so that when someone takes some action (like closing a post) then they can point to the relevant place in the FAQ.
So, what should go in the FAQ?
FAQ entries in other questions
Several FAQ entries were proposed in other questions. Here is a list of them (please add any new questions)
We should try to preempt questions about how to typeset specific characters (e.g. Does LaTeX support the sarcmark?) by putting links to Detexify and the Comprehensive Symbol List in our FAQ (and encouraging people to consult those first).
I'd very much favour something like the "include a minimal example" injunction that comp.text.tex tries valiantly to enforce.
(I do, however, absolutely see that this is partly a matter of taste, and that some will think minimal examples heavy handed even for many syntax-related questions.)
Here's another thing that's just occurred to me: the SE platform is extremely good at what it does, but is completely rubbish at what it isn't designed for (seems obvious, really). However, one common experience from MathOverflow is that when closing questions that don't really fit the platform, the questioner complains "Well, where should I have asked it then?". So I think that in the FAQ there should be a list of other places to find resources on TeX etc (or, a list of a few of the most likely and a link to a longer list). I'm not sure what those are, presumably others do. Linking to CTAN is an obvious one, as is tugboat and the TeXFAQ. The tex-users mailing list should probably also be on it.
Another suggestion is to ask users writing answers to provide enough information in the answers themselves. I've seen many answers of the form of "The solution to your problem that has been posted at this other random blog, here is a link.", and I think it's great to attribute where the solution comes from, but enough information should also be given in the proposed answer so that even if the external resource is gone the solution can still be reproduced.
This is very closely related to the need to store images in the site itself.
One thing I think should go in is a tagging guide with a list of what are considered the main tags; that is, the tags such that every question should have one of - whatever they may be!
I think that whatever the image storage solution ends up being, we should have the recommended behavior mentioned in the FAQ.
Currently, since there is no better solution than having to put the image online somewhere and then link to it, we should say that this is the situation, and give 2-3 free and stable sites for people who have no other option (and perhaps even for people with another option).
(currently stable image hosting sites that don't require registration and with which it is easy to upload images include imageshack.us and imgur.com)
The FAQ should include commenting etiquette, for example the fact that preceding the post with a @: will effectively notify the user of that comment is subtle and might not be noticed by a beginning SE'er. Is it true? are there other mechanisms that cause the envelope to change color? What I am and someone writes @First: ? what about @first:? @firstlast:? etc. can I "pull in" someone unrelated by sticking their username in the begining of a post? Seems a little strange to me..
We should probably say that answers involving a LaTeX package should always link to the package on CTAN. As discussed at Automatic links to the CTAN catalogue? it would be nice to do this automatically, but for the moment we should encourage answers to include
[`package-name`][1]
[1]: http://ctan.org/pkg/package-name
the first time a package is mentioned.
The mods can now edit part of the FAQ page, but only the top section 'What kind of questions can I ask here?'. So I guess we need to decide what goes there specifically, rather than the entire page in general.
I'll make a start with the first FAQ section. Here is my proposal, following the FAQs of SO related sites:
What kind of questions can I ask here?
tex.stackexchange.com is for TeX and LaTeX enthusiasts and users. If you have a question about ...
... then you're in the right place to ask your question!
The best questions contain some code. Their answers will most likely give concrete code back to you.
The FAQ continues:
Please look around to see if your question has already been asked (and maybe even answered!) before you ask...
I omitted the word 'expert', as I believe this site supports new users as well.
Further, I know that this site is not the perfect place for very specific questions regarding a certain editor or software. Though possibly help is available here because many of us use some of the common editors and tools. It might be hard for a new user to find the correct forum, mailing-list or wiki for a very specific piece of software. If a question is hard to answer here, we know where to lead the questioner as we know the resources. That's the reason why I included such related software: we don't sent the questioner back just because his question concerns a LaTeX IDE feature but not LaTeX itself.
Another FAQ entry or link could write that clearly. Remember the venn diagram on the about page: if the sets stand for TeX, LaTeX and friends: related software, then tex.stackexchange.com could be the tiny asterisk in the middle, their intersection.
Here's another one: it's partly etiquette, I guess.
Quite a few answers are going to be of the form "run this command on your output". I've given a couple of those so far and gotten the response "how exactly do I do that?" in the comments. I actually started writing out instructions on one before I realised the impossibility of it.
I would like it to be clear in the FAQ that exact details of how to run a command are difficult to give and not really appropriate to ask for (going "beyond the call of duty", as it were). That, of course, does not preclude anyone from giving help when asked for it. Making this clear from the outset will, I hope, mean that people are more likely to contribute answers of this type and that people won't feel guilty (or get voted down) when they don't respond to such requests.
