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Meta Stack Exchange has a nice side bar over when you are on the main page (the one you hit when you go to the 'meta' link, not the 'questions' tab).

Frequently Asked Sidebar

It's great. You can see there is a 'faq' section, it's right there when you go to meta, and you can then go and dig into more faqs if you need to.

Per-site metas don't have this faq sidebar. A new user going to meta would have to know that such a tag exists and dig into the tags tab:

tabs

Then look around and see that faq isn't on the first page

tags

and either type it in, or go to the second page to see it.

tags page 2

Many of you probably got bored looking at the pictures above. So do most users who should be reading the FAQ.

Make it easier for these users to find the FAQ posts. Put that 'Frequently Asked' sidebar on per-site metas too.

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  • One could go to Questions / frequent, which is different from faq, but has an overlap with the latter. But yes, this is still too non-obvious clicks away from an inexperienced user. – user259867 Sep 29 '14 at 18:21
  • @CareBear votes though again, that doesn't always match faq either. Note that for some reason the +277, 6k view "Open Letter" doesn't show up doesn't show up in the frequent tab but does show up in the votes tab (that might be a bug?). Very few of the P.SE FAQ questions have significant views (the FAQ Index for example only has 246 views... I didn't even know it was there... and given that its last activity was 2 years ago, I'm not sure many mods did either). – user213963 Sep 29 '14 at 18:27
  • "Frequent" tab orders by the numbers of links (duplicate or otherwise linked), not by views or votes. Despite the popularity of your letter, only six questions are linked to it. – user259867 Sep 29 '14 at 18:29
  • @CareBear ... so the controversial posts ones from the past and the 'which site do I post on' show up there, while the 'this is part of the FAQ that people should read and isn't controversial' get completely missed. – user213963 Sep 29 '14 at 18:32
  • Well, FAQ means "frequently asked", not "important to read". – user259867 Sep 29 '14 at 18:34
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So, this can be enabled on a per-side basis... The only downside I see is that by default the meta homepage sidebar features chat:

123 PEOPLE CHATTING

The bulk of meta sites are relatively quiet, with chat being a somewhat more informal place to introduce yourself to the regulars. However, on sites where meta does actually attract a large volume of frequently asked questions, showing the FAQ probably trumps this need.

If you believe your site would benefit from this feature, I recommend proposing it on your site's meta (post a there) and letting the community decide which they'd rather promote: chat or FAQ. Note that it's also possible to rotate between the two (chat 50%, FAQ 50%; chat 30%, FAQ 70%; etc.)

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