Chris Abbott wrote:I think the nay sayers are probably right, though: the FAQ wouldn't prevent the visceral emotional reaction they might get from the site: and once they'd decided that way, mere facts might not put a dent in their armour of self-righteousness.... positive confirmation bias rules, OKOKOKOKOKOKOK! But thanks for the thoughts everybody... and Bog, did you get that link???
No, they're wrong, and I really don't know why they'd encourage you not to when there are good benefits to having an FAQ. They're being short-sighted and flippant when they need to step back and think about how to help C64Audio.com become stronger.
I mean, you can't help some people being ignorant and mailing you thinking C64Audio.com is illegal, but some end up very apologetic when you reply and they realized they flamed you for no reason. If anything, you should have an FAQ there, because you never know if you've actually
lost a sale, lost word of mouth, or received
negative word of mouth because someone thinks you're profiting off unlicensed arrangements. On the flip side, I don't think anyone would decide they don't want to buy because you're doing things on the up-and-up.
No musicians who sell grey market, unlicensed arrange albums trumpet that they don't pay the copyright holders. They generally keep it quiet, and the ones that actually pay licensing fees promote that as a important selling point. So by C64Audio.com having 0 legal information, you inadvertently give off the impression that the music is unlicensed, and the
logical assumption is that you're in the same boat with 95% of the other fan-made albums being sold.
Think beyond the fact that angry emails are annoying. That guy who wrote you, he was passionate enough to bitch at you when he thought the products were illegal. Passionate enough that he might have bought an album or two (or more), or at least mailed you positive comments on you doing the right thing had he
known the site was doing things legally. That mail should be setting off a red flag of "why didn't he see that while looking at the site?"
"If he was a scener he would have already known...," is exactly the kind of problem that needs to be fixed, because your customer base is not just the scene. You can't fault the guy who emailed you for ignoring "mere facts."
You've ignored those facts by not properly promoting them on the actual website.
An FAQ wouldn't be there to answer just one question; any common questions about C64Audio's history, store interface, products, professionalism, and legality could be addressed, further defining the site's identity and making that info more readily available to potential customers, even media. You should even integrate comments from C64 composers endorsing the site and the work you do for the scene. These are things a lot of causal visitors don't know about that you're taking for granted.
I'm not seeing the downside of adding an FAQ link to the bundle in the top right of the site. You've put in too much work having the rest of the site look polished and organized to just be comfy having potential customers (in a niche market, no less) walk away due to lack of info. If writing an FAQ is a time thing, that's also where the help and support of the community comes in.
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Dunno why people are saying there's almost no point in doing that. Once you have a FAQ in place, you can always link to it in response to ignorant emails. I would make a preliminary list, post it in a thread, then get feedback as to what else to add.