I notice a constant flow of "you're looking for x" questions.
Those are questions that describe some kind of scenario, to which there usually is one solution in the form of a technology or method.
The new tag pages feature was requested by some users (including myself) to provide an opportunity to list common "you're looking for x" and other frequent questions (see e.g. per-tag FAQ preparation thread.)
The per-tag Wiki is now there, but it is still little used. The way I see it, it should be a repository of links to the most authoritative, very best, most upvoted, and most detailed answer to generic questions so that voters to close can quickly find the best original.
What is illusionary is to expect from newbie askers to check out the FAQ before they post. The way I see it, a FAQ list is for experienced users to help them with their bits and pieces of janitorial work.
It's just not coming along much yet, at least not in the tags I frequent. It has been started in a few tags, but not to a great extent. Finding these authoritative answers (and their questions) is hard, and at the moment, I can see no encouragement to do this, no official policy saying it is desired, and nothing in the GUI nudging me towards doing it (I forgot about the whole feature!). Each tag is left alone to sort out their tag wiki page. (If I'm overlooking some recent essential SO question or blog entry where this has been done already, forgive me.)
So my questions:
Is the idea of building FAQ lists with authoritative answers a good idea? Is this a desired use of the Per-Tag Wiki? What is the community's, the moderators', and the owners' view on this?
If it is, shouldn't there be a official policy - either by community vote or official edict - that this work is desired and actively encouraged for everyone able to edit the wiki pages?
Should something be done to encourage and incentivize the finding of that authoritative content?
Wouldn't a well-groomed list of tag-specific FAQ deserve to be integrated into the closing process, e.g. as a clickable "Frequently asked questions for this question's tags" menu in the close dialog? Would this raise awareness of the FAQ feature, and generate interest in having a say in what gets listed there? Like so:
[regex]
, is a great idea. Been meaning to start my own, actually. See also meta.stackexchange.com/questions/55943/…