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There are some question-answer pairs where X poses a question and a few seconds later answers it extensively, such as this one (fair use), this (SCOTUS ties). I think more than one person has contributed such q-a pairs. I understand there is no direct SE mechanism for constructing a topic-specific FAQ, but the effect could be achieved by linking to such questions in a single Meta question, which could then be prominently mentioned somewhere in the help center (to encourage people to actually read those answers). Does such a thing already exist, or can it be created?

[EDIT]

To put a slightly finer point on the question and develop the suggestions by @feetwet, is it possible (for the mods) to modify the on-topic entry in the help center to direct users to one or two sacrosant (locked) posts on Meta, with suitable verbiage indicating what good they are? I recognize that many people don't bother to look at the help center, but admonitions to do so might have greater impact if there was a central repository of information identifying the good and the bad. "Possible" in consistent with a policy answer "We really don't want to get into that", so I don't just mean "physically implementable".

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  • Regarding the help center link to a FAQ post in Meta: Certainly. First let's see if we can create a (presumably community-wiki) Meta post worthy of such a link. (At that point I believe it would be easy and reasonable to point to it from the help center.) You seem to have a good idea for how this might work. Would you be willing to take a first shot at it?
    – feetwet Mod
    Mar 17, 2016 at 15:05
  • I can see if implied money can meet mouth. Now I see that "locking" is in fact the wrong concept since it's for purposes of historical preservation only.
    – user6726
    Mar 18, 2016 at 21:51

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For Meta there is a tag. That might require a moderator to use, but there is also that contains some FAQs.

One practice that I have occasionally employed on the main site is to list "canonical" answers in the detail of the associated tag. is a good example: presently the tag-info includes two canonical answers.

Granted, this has a few problems:

  1. To my knowledge this isn't a common practice, so I don't think many people delve into the tag info (which takes two clicks) to even discover such details.

  2. The list there is subjective, coming as it does from the whims of whoever bothers to edit the tag. If anybody cared I suppose it could become a point of contention.

One alternative mechanism for finding the best answers on a FAQ is to pick the relevant tag and search for it with the search limiter is:answer, then sort by Votes – e.g., [contract-law] is:answer. That will give you the highest-rated answers for that tag, but as you can see, that doesn't necessarily yield the best answers for the tag's FAQs.

Finally, I personally appreciate a good list or two in Meta. We have one for legal references. We could certainly start another for main-site FAQs.

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  • Just a caveat - the lists on Meta are probably just as subjective, albeit more open to scrutiny; people are more likely (though I'm unsure how much more) to notice a bumped meta post than an edited tag wiki.
    – jimsug
    Mar 15, 2016 at 5:01
  • See also discussions on SE Meta about "canonical answers".
    – feetwet Mod
    Aug 24, 2019 at 19:12

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