FAQ candidate

[npc]

In this forum I had proposed a FAQ that contained no explicit endorsement of any particular publications in accord with Mason's reservations. Here is a first pass at such a document. First, a couple of notes.

I did not include any external references to collections of book reviews, not Mason's, not my own. For me to put that in would seem rather self-serving. If the folks in this forum think it should be added, I have no problems with that.

If someone creates (and keeps up-to-date) another FAQ that references threads about commonly asked books/questions, then that should also be referenced in this document.

Two considerations are foremost: Is a document like this useful, and if so, what alterations should be made to it to make it more valuable. Note, aside from completeness, I believe that a compact document is more likely to be read.

------- Draft ---------
What is the purpose of this document?

This is the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions list) for the 2+2 Books/Publications forum. The forum is dedicated to discussions of gambling books, magazines, articles, and other publications. The topics discussed in this forum tend to focus on poker, but any gambling-related publication issues would be on-topic. It is on-topic to discuss books peripherally related to gambling here as well. Some of these topics include relevant mathematics texts, investing, etc.. Basically, for any on-topic discussion in any 2+2 forum, discussion of anything written down on that topic is fair game here.


Why doesn't this FAQ actually mention which books and magazines are worth reading?

The forum sponsors are concerned that any recommendations in this document may be construed as endorsements by 2+2. Consequently, no specific recommendations are made here. Needless to say, most of the regular contributors to this form have no such reservation and are more than happy to share their opinions of specific sources of information.


What should I do before posting a question about a specific book?

A large fraction of the posts on this forum ask a question that has been recently debated. Before posting a question on this forum perform the following actions:

1) Look at the most recent page (or two or three) of posts to see if your topic is currently being discussed. If you see that an on-topic thread already exists, read that thread. It's entirely possible that your question has already been answered. If it hasn't, ask your question in the existing thread.
2) If you don't immediately see threads concerning the topic you wish to discuss use the forum search function. Suggestions on making good searches are provided below.
3) Post your question. Put either the title of the book or its author as appropriate in the Subject line of the post. This makes it easy for those with an interest in your topic to find your post.


How can I search more effectively?

Click on the Search link toward the top of the page. Select the "Books and Publications" Forum on the top left hand side of the Search window. It is located toward the bottom of the list under the heading of "*General Gambling*". Under "Keyword search terms" put in the title of the book or publication and, if applicable, the author. Under "Date Range" select 1 Month. If a given book hasn't been discussed in the last month, it's fair enough to bring the topic up again. Click on "Submit" at the bottom of the page.

You can greatly improve your search results by using the "+" sign and quotes in the "Keyword search terms" box. Try putting the title of the book within quotes, e.g., "Theory of Poker", to improve the relevance of your hits. To lower the number and raise the relevance, put a plus sign, "+", before the author's name. Some good searches:

"Gambling Theories and Other Topics" +Malmuth
"Theory of Poker" +Sklansky
"Small Stakes Hold'em" +Miller Sklansky Malmuth

If this search technique results in no on-topic threads, remove the plus signs and quotes and try it again. After this if there are still no hits, then it's probably safe to ask the question in its own thread.

If you go back to enter a second search, make certain you verify all fields are as you like, some of them may have been reset by the forum software.


What do the abbreviations in this forum stand for?

Many of the more popular books are referred to by abbreviations. This is a list of just some of the more common ones:

ToP -- "Theory of Poker" by Sklansky
HPFAP -- "Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players" by Sklansky and Malmuth
7CSFAP -- "7 Card Stud for Advanced Players" by Sklansky et. al.
GTaOT -- "Gambling Theories and Other Topics" by Malmuth
SSH -- "Small Stakes Hold'em" by Miller, et. al.
GSIH -- "Getting Started in Hold'em" by Miller
WLLH -- "Winning Low-Limit Hold'em" by Jones
LGB -- "Phil Gordon's Little Green Book" by Gordon
S/S2 -- "Super/System 2" by Brunson, et. al.

[Gelford]

That is fine


Although I must admit that at the end it should have something in the style of


And the most most asked question in this forum are usually, what are the best books for xxx kind of poker, so to save you some searches here are some post


LHE
LINK(S) to some kind of 'what are good limits books' post

NLHE
LINKS

STUD
LINK

OMAHA
LINK


TOURNEYS
LINK



Then it is not 2+2 recommending books, but 2+2 directing the reader to some discussions about book by impartial 2+2 poster (which is acceptable)

[New York Jet]

[ QUOTE ]
That is fine


Although I must admit that at the end it should have something in the style of


And the most most asked question in this forum are usually, what are the best books for xxx kind of poker, so to save you some searches here are some post


LHE
LINK(S) to some kind of 'what are good limits books' post

NLHE
LINKS

STUD
LINK

OMAHA
LINK


TOURNEYS
LINK



Then it is not 2+2 recommending books, but 2+2 directing the reader to some discussions about book by impartial 2+2 poster (which is acceptable)

[/ QUOTE ]

I think it would be more beneficial to have the links automatically open a search of the related keywords. That way they would be dynamic and would not link to any one post in particular.

[deacsoft]

I appreciate your efforts and agree with many of your points. However, much of your FAQ does not directly relate to this forum. Therefore, it would not be appropriate.

As far as recommendations go (as you stated) they are deemed inappropriate by Mr. Malmuth on an "official" level. Members are free to make their own but are in no way speaking for Two Plus Two Publishing. I feel it's up to Mr. Malmuth and the rest of the administraion to list their reasons for this if they wish.

What to do before posting a book related questions shoud be obvious. It is the most common problem in this forum but is nothing that can't be dealt with. They should be looking at previous threads and using the search function, but this does not pertain to the Books/Publications froum only. It is an issue for the entire site.

How to use the search function is not something that directly relates to this forum. It also relates to the entire site and would not be necessary in a Books/Publications FAQ specifically.

There is already an Abbreviations section on this site. It is listed slightly below the the Other Other Topics forum. It is fairly disorganized and is missing a lot of book titles. This is something I'm currently working to revise.

*I think a "How to Use This Site" form would be a nice a nice addition to 2+2 and a couple of your suggestions would be fitting for that.

[Eratosthenes]

This is good.

I think I would add a sentence to the 2nd paragraph informing the reader that reviews and discussions of most current (and not so current) poker books can be found in the older posts and archives. These can be found by searching, see below.

There are also some questions that are frequently asked that would not involve reviews or recommendations, such as:
1. To what limits does SSH apply?
2. When to use HEPFAP and when to use SSH?
3. Others, I'm sure.
These could be linked to existing threads. I'm not sure this would be worth the effort.

thanks for your efforts on this

[SheridanCat]

[ QUOTE ]

How to use the search function is not something that directly relates to this forum. It also relates to the entire site and would not be necessary in a Books/Publications FAQ specifically.


[/ QUOTE ]

One note on this, deac. While there should be some high level FAQ on using the search, there just isn't a good one I'm aware of. We put a section on this in Beginner's FAQ because it really should be somewhere. It actually makes sense to me to put a "how to use search" post in every single forum here, in my opinion.

Of course, the answer to the question is "use Google" to search 2+2 instead. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Regards,

T

[Gelford]

I do not get you Deacsoft


Are you telling us, that you wish to make the 2+2 forums a difficult place to navigate

Do you really mean that user of this forum have an obligation to check all FAQ on all forums to find their information ??

Have you noticed that most FAQs in other forum contain the same information over and over again .. forexample how to use the bison converter

By your logic shouldn't imformation like the above only be found in one forum (forexample either the beginners forum or the general texas hold'em forum)


Most of the post that annoy is are posted by 'strangers' with very low or practically no postcounts. They are interested in hearing about books on a particular subject (NL cashgames being the usual suspect) and therefore go directly to the books and publication forum and post

Do we not all have an interest in limiting the noise to signal ratio ?

Since Mason and the official body of 2+2 already have stated that linking to post that discuss certain books is acceptable, their is nothing in a FAQ like the above that in my (and I wouldn't be surpriced if most posters here feel the same way) opinion doesn't belong in the books and publications forum.

You are not asked to set up a digest .. just a nice little dish of basic guidance and regular questions, so we will get much more interesting forum


We are a lot of regulars who can navigate these forums quite easily, but do not forget that this forum in particular attracts a lot of new posters, and why you want to make it as difficult for them as possible I do not understand

[deacsoft]

I'm certainly not trying to make anything more difficult for anyone. I can't seem to understand how entering a variable or two in the search function or clicking on Page 2 or 3 or 4 of a particular forum is hard in the least.
Furthermore, I think any redundancy in FAQs for the different forums is a waste. It would be much more efficient to have a "How to Use This Site" forum to provide a FAQ for repeated information in various FAQs and to cover anything that is not forum specific but rather for general use on the entire site. This is something that I've brought to the attention of the other moderators and the administration. Oddly enough, I'm not doing it for my own personal amusement but to make the site more "user friendly" (easier) for long time members and newbs alike.

[Gelford]

My view is that people do not start of by reading the, how to use this site forum or the beginners forum


Instead they start posting, but hey ... I can live with the 'What is the best book for NL Hold'em' question being asked over and over again. (And to be frank, I have a feeling that many of these posters wouldn't even bother reading a books and publications forum FAQ)

But still if we can reduce the number of post that would be nice, untill then those post will be ignored by most or answered by recommending 'play poker like the pros'

[maurile]

[ QUOTE ]
I can't seem to understand how entering a variable or two in the search function or clicking on Page 2 or 3 or 4 of a particular forum is hard in the least.

[/ QUOTE ]
Trust me. It's hard.

Sometimes it seems like half the posts in this forum consist of telling somebody to use the search forum. If we can put the search forum stuff in the FAQ, then we can instead spend half the posts telling people to read the FAQ. At least it'd be a change.