I’m not really the most technical person when it comes to website software design so bear with me as I try to explain this 
Has anyone ever been on a website with FAQ, and when you try to ask a question via “contact us,” before it allows you to contact them, it says something like “here are some FAQ that may answer your question?”
If so, is that in the realm of possibilities on this site?
I don’t know any way to force people to do much of anything in Discourse. We have the system configured to display a banner post asking everyone to be civil, but I’m not sure anyone actually reads it before dismissing it.
A link to he FAQ shows up at the bottom of what Discourse calls the “hamburger” menu, the icon for which is three horizontal bars at the top right of the screen. There are also the “Resources” and the “Show Me the Science” forums, not to mention how good a job the search function usually does of turning up useful information.
Unfortunately, however, Facebook and Twitter between them appear to have trained everyone to ignore such resources, in addition to their basic strategy of encouraging rudeness and confrontation on the part of their users. From what I understand, Facebook is actually set up to make older posts difficult to find, so as to force the same questions to be asked repeatedly, rather than allowing users to look up already-posted information. That is one of the reasons the Dudes shut their Facebook group down and moved over to this site.
Do feel free to suggest to newbies that they avail themselves of the resources in the second paragraph, whenever you feel it appropriate to do so.
I would be nice if new members who try to post a new topic the first time were directed to the FAQ to read it and check a box at the bottom at least, along with the forum rules. Or maybe just as part of the joining process.
I know that when I’m typing on the computer a box shows up saying “your topic is/might be similar to these”
But I don’t recall seeing something like that when I’m posting from my phone.
from my laptop
