beef up the faq

darcs-hash:20080630161024-84dde-6afe93a69b91af9270b9e0536dea0e6c17ae2297.gz

1 files changed, 44 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/doc/faq b/doc/faq
index 905c1ab77..0f59f4c63 100644
--- a/doc/faq
+++ b/doc/faq
@@ -1,6 +1,47 @@
-FAQ
----
-
 These are some *Frequently Asked Questions* about this service, with
 some answers.
 
+What is %%site.name%%?
+----------------------
+
+%%site.name%% is a [micro-blogging](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micro-blogging) service.
+You can use it to write short notices about yourself, where you are,
+and what you're doing, and those notices will be sent to all your friends
+and fans.
+
+How is %%site.name%% different from Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Plurk, others?
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+%%site.name%% is an [Open Network Service](http://opendefinition.org/osd). Our main
+goal is to provide a fair and transparent service that preserves users' autonomy. In
+particular, all the software used for %%site.name%% is [Free Software](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software), and all the data is available
+under the [%%license.title%%](%%license.url%%) license, making it Open Data.
+
+The software also implements the [OpenMicroBlogging](http://openmicroblogging.org/) protocol, meaning that you can have friends on other microblogging services
+that can receive your notices.
+
+The goal here is *autonomy* -- you deserve the right to manage your own on-line
+presence. If you don't like how %%site.name%% works, you can take your data and the source code and set up your own server (or move your account to another one).
+
+Where is feature X?
+-------------------
+
+The software we run, [Laconica](http://laconi.ca/), is still in its early stages,
+and many features people expect from microblogging sites are not yet implemented. Some important ones that are expected "soon":
+
+* [SMS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS) updates and notifications
+* A Twitter-compatible API
+* More [AJAX](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AJAX)-y interface
+* Maps
+* Cross-post to Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, etc.
+* Pull messages from Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, etc.
+* [Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/) integration
+* Hashtags
+* Image, video, audio notices
+* Automatic url-shortening
+* Multilingual interface (using Gettext)
+
+There is [a list of bugs and features](http://laconi.ca/PITS/) that you may find
+interesting. New ideas or complaints are very welcome.
+
+