Do you think the FAQs are really asked by lots of people?

i guess so. most of the companies hire telemarketers who does surveys about their products or conduct studies to know what people needs or tends to ask about a certain situation wherein their product is involved.

For the most part, I think the site administrators think of the questions to put in the FAQs. Some sites even acknowledge this by calling their FAQ page something funny like "Frequently Unasked Questions" or "Never Asked Questions." However, if a question does turn out to be frequently asked it'll often be added later to the FAQ page.

I think yes and at the same time no. There are a lot of those questions that are on there that I am sure that have been asked. Over and over again, to the point of the utter irritation of the people in charge of the website. That is part of the reason why FAQs have been created in the first place. Administrators get tired of answering the question. However, I think a lot of the information is just general knowledge and information about the website. There are questions that you figure are bound to be asked, so they answer them right away. Therefore, they do not have to deal with answering said questions later. Something that is a great idea in theory but perhaps not as much so in practice. In the end, the Frequently Asked Questions are a combination of questions that will be asked and a combination of questions that have been asked mostly. A combination only half of the people on the website will end up reading to begin with. And we wonder why the moderators and the administrators tend to get a bit snippy when a question that is in the FAQ has been asked. I would be sick of hearing about it as well.

When a site or compnay comes out with a new product or service, they have people who sit back and think 'What would I want to know about this product or service?" They gather the most common and compile a list. If they aren't able to adress every possible question they have a "contact" option in order to futher assist people in finding what they are looking for. When I need help, I first look for an FAQ. If I can't find what I'm looking for, I look for a "contact" option.

the idea of FAQ is started with a good idea to help users without wasting much time in waiting response.... but in some sites FAQ are meant to promote their product....that is what happening with most of sites these days.