Lau, Gary wrote:
The trouble with collaborating on an FAQ is that for some topics, there are as many different opinions as there are collaborators, even amongst seasoned coilers. Witness the endless debates on issues like NST protection chokes, secondary coatings, use of baffles, etc., with strong opinions on all fronts. I worry about building a tower of Babel.Another aspect is that materials and sources for things (which constitute a LARGE amount of what would be in a FAQ) are always changing. If someone is looking to build a tesla coil and googles "tesla coil design" pretty much every hit on the first page will have useful information, and if they do look at all of themThe Pupman site DOES in fact have a list of commonly used abbreviations and an FAQ, but honestly, if that FAQ was on my web site, the stuff on chokes wouldn't make it. While it would clearly be great to have an FAQ to refer newbies to on often asked questions, I don't know where to draw the line, between common issues with >99% universal agreement, and more controversial, nuanced issues. I think that such a document requires one person to take ultimate editorial control of it, and it would feel awkward deleting well-intentioned submittals of others. Regards, Gary Lau MA, USA
a) They'll find out about TCML b) they'll see that there are differing opinions on optimum designc) they'll wind up asking a question on the list anyway, the answer to which is always situational.
The situation is WAY different than back in the 80s or even early 90s, when there was precious little information on the web on this kind of thing. Heck I started my webpage (http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlux/hv/hvmain.htm) to provide a on-line compendium of basic HV design info, and by now, it's really superfluous.. there's tons of better sources out there, especially if you know the right search terms, and that's something the TCML can help with.
FAQs also have difficulty with maintenance. Lots of folks say "heck, I'll maintain it", but really, that doesn't happen... Take a look at rev dates on most FAQs. They're old.. mostly because the underlying material hasn't changed. But the same is true of TCs.. the basic design isn't changing, and why not point folks to wikipedia (and then take on the reponsibility of editing wikipedia, to keep *it* up to date).
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