A Giant Japanese Culture/Language/Life FAQ?

[Tamayo]

Has there ever been any talk of compiling a huge list of FAQs about Japan, with corresponding answers? For example, A page with a load of topics, and sublists of links to the threads which have been dedicated to, or discuss the topic? It sounds like a huge job at first, but it could be organized into larger categories. As for the actual questions, you could open that up to the members to suggest.

I feel like it would be advantageous to make the site more user-friendly for people who are just beginning to learn about Japan. I understand just as much as the next person how a forum functions and how we should use its features to our advantage, but I still find it to be a pain sometimes to have to search for topics which discuss a point of interest, and/or to post a thread to ask a really simple question. Being that I have well over a decade of experience being a part of countless forum communities and still sometimes find myself feeling inconvenienced by it, I could only imagine how someone might be pushed away from ever participating if they were new to this.

The answers to FAQs don't necessarily need to be in black and white, but I don't think it would be a huge deal to try and at least give a general viewpoint on them so that people could come to Jref for quick, easy answers to quick and easy questions. I really love the community here at Jref, but I don't think it's much of a secret that the forum isn't booming with posts and activity. I've also seen a lot of really, REALLY good threads that have died off years ago, and therefore aren't looked at as useful/relevant to a lot of users. Maybe a system like this would pull in more traffic and resurrect a few really good threads that have died off a long time ago? I myself have quite a few questions about Japan that I still haven't asked about, or seen discussed on Jref.

 

[thomas]

That's actually a brilliant idea, Tamayo! It's been considered, shelved, reconsidered, and reshelved, mostly due to lack of time.

What we, the members and the forum team, could do is to start compiling a list of the most common questions. If you have some ideas, please post them here. I shall be posting a new thread later today.

Thanks again!

 

[Tamayo]

I'm glad it was received well! I'd really love to see this community thrive, and I honestly believe that easily-accessed information could be a huge selling point to people when they're trying to dig up info on Japan, especially since Japanese culture can be such a difficult, obscure thing to study in America. I can't speak for other countries, but otaku culture here is looked down upon, and therefore makes any sort of interest in Japan, otaku or not, a very niche interest.

My own questions about Japan (at least before I knew much about it) almost always involved the stereotypical view of Japan from America, such as wondering how often kimono are seen, how tall most people are, how relationships work, how the "chan/kun" suffixes worked, etc.

As for what sort of questions to focus on, I think that Yahoo Answers would be a great place to refer to. Have a look at this gold mine of questions, all particular to Japan. Also, I'm not sure whether you're familiar with the big names in Japanese culture on Youtube, but users like Hikosaemon, Gimmeaflakeman, TheJapanChannel, tkyosam, kawaiijutsu, MyHusbandisJapanese, ComicalReina and many others sometimes make videos to respond to the questions they're frequently asked. I feel that the sort of topics they usually discuss would be invaluable here.

Anyhoo, I'd be thrilled to help if and when you start working on a page like this. I'm not sure how helpful I could be, but I'm decent at organizing topics and lists of subtopics, and I also have a lot of experience with graphic design if images were necessary.

 

[thomas]

I really appreciate your impetus. I'll take a look at how to (technically) implement a system similar to Yahoo Answers.

Should we just link each question to the appropriate thread in the forum or actually provide concise answers? I do realise that the latter, while requiring more effort, is of course more useful to our members.

 

[Tamayo]

I really appreciate your impetus. I'll take a look at how to (technically) implement a system similar to Yahoo Answers.

Should we just link each question to the appropriate thread in the forum or actually provide concise answers? I do realise that the latter, while requiring more effort, is of course more useful to our members.

Either way would work, I think. I'm sure that there could be plenty enough consensus among our members who live in Japan or have spent enough time there to give a definite answer to a question if the context allows for it. I do think, though, that we'd have to provide links to the discussions on the topics with more depth.

I actually didn't have anything specific in mind when this idea came to me the other day, but whatever we/you do, you can be sure it'll promote a lot more participation if we essentially do the visitors' "work" for them by digging up the discussions. You see, the problem I've noticed with things like Yahoo Answers and videos on Youtube is that, regardless of the fact that the content is archived and always available, it comes and goes (damn fast, too). It's a pain to sift through thousands of videos and questions on Q&A sites when you can take a couple seconds to repost the same question and have it answered that way. On the other hand, the problem with forums is that reposting those topics is either considered a forum noob thing to do, or just spam since that discussion is viewed as much more permanent, conclusive information for whatever reason (probably because forum discussions tend to be a lot deeper and more detailed).

You could essentially combine the great things about the two different models and leave out all the bad parts since:
1. Having the topics archived and organized means that they'll always be in plain sight and never forgotten, eliminating the need to repost or look them up.
2. People will have a lot more incentive to participate in old, sometimes dead threads. A lot of people are reluctant to pick a conversation up where someone else left it off years before them, whether it's because they feel like they're beating a dead horse, or they think the information could have "gone bad" over the years. If it's sitting on an FAQ page, it'll feel more like a chat room than a 10 year-old transcript.

At least, that's what it seems like to me. You'd need a second opinion on this.

 

[Tamayo]

By the way, just as an extension to this idea, I'd like to add that it might be more manageable if you organize the FAQs similarly to the way the forums are set up with sections specific to practical things, every day life, current events, entertainment, etc. so that you could open threads asking for suggestions in each respective part of the forum. (Threads like the "learning resources something or other" topic in the Learning Japanese section come to mind)

Now that I think of it, it might also be helpful to start off small by compiling each section of the FAQ in the forums themselves, for the people who browse them most often. That wouldn't be quite as advanced as one giant FAQ directory, but it would definitely make things easier for the people who want the info.

 

[thomas]

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

I have been pondering the idea and believe that setting up a dedicated "Japan FAQ" forum similar to the regular discussion forums here would be the best solution.

Each FAQ section would be organised topically, with the most common questions first, a concise answer and with links to either more in-depth threads here at the forum, to related links in our directory or to other external resources.

 

[thomas]

Update: I have just found a Wiki modification that integrates seamlessly into the forum using the current user permissions. Taking a closer look at it now.

 

[Tamayo]

Awesome! I'm pretty excited to see if this goes anywhere. Please, keep me posted.

 

[thomas]

Just a little heads-up in order not to create the impression we're not following up on this issue... ;-)

I am currently looking at this script. It integrates into the forum, but is still in beta stage. It looks promising (disregard the style and the design), but the development seems to be a tad slow.

 

[Tamayo]

Just a little heads-up in order not to create the impression we're not following up on this issue... ;-)

I am currently looking at this script. It integrates into the forum, but is still in beta stage. It looks promising (disregard the style and the design), but the development seems to be a tad slow.

I think it's a faulty link. I'm pretty excited to hear that this is being considered seriously though! What exactly does the script do?

 

[thomas]

Sorry about that, I have edited the link in my original post. It's a Wiki that integrates into the forum. Looking at it, it's actually quite confusing and not too user-friendly.

There is actually a second option: the forum software has a FAQ section (linked in the menu above), i.e.

Japan Forum Rules

Japan Forum FAQ

General Blog FAQ

We could create another FAQ section and regularly update its content. That

a) wouldn't require another add-on and

b) is * cough cough * cheaper.

 

[Tamayo]

Sorry about that, I have edited the link in my original post. It's a Wiki that integrates into the forum. Looking at it, it's actually quite confusing and not too user-friendly.

Ah, I see what you mean.

a) wouldn't require another add-on and

b) is * cough cough * cheaper.

Haha, I can definitely sympathize with you there!



You know, I'm a little embarrassed to say it, but I never saw those guides that you can click on from the general Jref home page such as the culture section. How (and by whom) were those created? Maybe, if at all possible, you could build on it and make it a more central part of the forum? The information section doesn't answer many of my questions, but it DOES indeed lay out a LOT of information in a very easy-to-read fashion. The real strength of those pages is that the links are laid out in lists, which make them much easier to find individually. The issue (aside from my own stupidity) is that I don't feel like they drew enough attention to be used much.