Modern Developments
Originally the term FAQ referred to the Frequently Answered Question itself, and the compilation of questions and answers was known as a FAQ list or some similar expression. Today FAQ is more frequently used to refer to the list, and a text consisting of questions and their answers is often called a FAQ regardless of whether the questions are actually frequently asked, if they are asked at all.
In some cases informative documents not in the traditional FAQ style have also been described as FAQs, particularly the videogame FAQ, which is often a detailed descriptions of gameplay, including tips, secrets, and beginning-to-end guidance. Rarely are videogame FAQs in a question-and-answer format, although they may contain a short section of questions and answers.
Over time, the accumulated FAQs across all USENET news groups sparked the creation of the "*.answers" moderated newsgroups such as comp.answers, misc.answers and sci.answers for crossposting and collecting FAQ across respective comp.*, misc.*, sci.* newsgroups.
The term FAQ, and the idea behind it, has spread offline as well, to the point where paper instructions for products may contain a FAQ.
Read more about this topic: FAQ
Famous quotes containing the words modern and/or developments:
“Most modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“The developments in the North were those loosely embraced in the term modernization and included urbanization, industrialization, and mechanization. While those changes went forward apace, the antebellum South changed comparatively little, clinging to its rural, agricultural, labor-intensive economy and its traditional folk culture.”
—C. Vann Woodward (b. 1908)