Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Frequently asked questions in a newsgroup tend to make the news hard to read. With more news traffic, there is more to sift through. Do everyone a favor, first try to find the applicable FAQs. Then read them. If you can’t find them, look for them. If you still can’t find them, ask where they are. Then read them.

– Russ Hersch; FAQs about FAQs.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) are concise reference documents in question-and-answer format written to answer most of the typical questions for someone new to a topic, hopefully before they start asking other people questions that have been answered over and over again. Once again, necessity is the mother of invention.

While originally started on the Usenet newsgroups, FAQ’s have proved to be such a good idea that they are now available on thousands of different subjects, about the Internet and non-Internet topics. FAQ’s are one of the most useful places to check when searching for specific information, and so are sometimes referred to as Frequently Answered Questions. This Living Internet site is kind of a large FAQ about the Internet. The following sections provide more information.