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The /about page is a great intro to the Stack Exchange model, but pretty useless as an introduction to the actual site you're on. This makes the page useless for all SE regulars, as there's usually just a blub like "This is a free, community driven Q&A for database professionals who wish to improve their database skills and learn from others in the community."

How about allowing Mods to edit the first paragraph or so of the /about page just like they can with the FAQ? This way the community could decide on a nice little intro for the About page to be edited in by mods, just like the FAQ. It could help reduce scope confusion as in questions like It's not easy to know what each Stack Exchange site is for

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    What would you put there that you wouldn't put in the FAQ?
    – Michael Mrozek
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 21:35
  • @MichaelMrozek not too much (but there's plenty I would put in the FAQ I wouldn't put there), but the FAQ serving as the "About" is sort of weird. The FAQ is supposed to be more in-depth, while the About should be a quick blurb to let you know the 10,000 foot view
    – Zelda
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 21:38
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    The problem primarily stems from i.sstatic.net/yZdPg.png the About being next to the FAQ for new users. Maybe About needs to be moved elsewhere?
    – jcolebrand
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 21:52
  • @jcolebrand why? I don't really see what that solves, unless you just mean emphasize the FAQ and hide /about because it's kinda useless. They both serve useful and different purposes, but About only helps as a quick into to the model of the network, not so much the site.
    – Zelda
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 21:55
  • @jcolebrand IMHO, a new user trying to familiarize themselves with a site should look at both.
    – Gaffi
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 22:03
  • See: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/136082/…
    – jcolebrand
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 22:09
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    Agreed, you shouldn't have to hunt for what a specific site's based on. I've had this issue and often hunt on the meta for someone else who also had this issue. If nothing else, it can cut down on questions posted in the wrong SE.
    – Fewfre
    Commented Jun 15, 2012 at 2:22
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    Ditto, +1. Yeah, technically, "What is this site about?" is a FAQ, but in practice, if you're a user on an unfamiliar site wondering about that, and see two adjacent links that say "faq" and "about", which one are you going to click?
    – Ilmari Karonen
    Commented Jun 17, 2012 at 14:31

1 Answer 1

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In the new /about page, moderators can edit the first paragraph:

enter image description here

In addition, there are subsections titled “Ask about” and “Don't ask about” that moderators can edit.

screenshot from scifi.stackexchange.com/about

And moderators can choose the question used as the example throughout the page, subject to stringent constraints.

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