[docs] Add first draft of FAQ (#1086)

* Clarify that gotosocial doesn't use recommendation algorithms

It uses lots of algorithms.

    ~/src/gotosocial $ rgrep algorithm . | wc
        856    8971  143395

* Add first draft of the FAQ.

* Suggested FAQ changes.

Mention backfill of posts as not yet being implemented; link to FAQ
from readme/index.

Mention that GtS does serve up some UI; just not most interaction.

README.md

@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ If you've ever used something like Twitter or Tumblr (or even Myspace!) GoToSoci
 
 ![Screenshot of the web view of a profile in GoToSocial, showing header and avatar, bio, and numbers of followers/following.](./docs/assets/profile1.png)
 
-**GoToSocial does NOT use algorithms or collect data about you to suggest content or 'improve your experience'**. The timeline is chronological: whatever you see at the top of your timeline is there because it's *just been posted*, not because it's been selected as interesting (or controversial) based on your personal profile.
+**GoToSocial does NOT use recommendation algorithms or collect data about you to suggest content or 'improve your experience'**. The timeline is chronological: whatever you see at the top of your timeline is there because it's *just been posted*, not because it's been selected as interesting (or controversial) based on your personal profile.
 
 GoToSocial is not designed for 'must-follow' influencers with tens of thousands of followers, and it's not designed to be addictive. Your timeline and your experience are shaped by who you follow and how you interact with people, not by metrics of engagement!
 
@@ -81,7 +81,7 @@ This project sprang up in February/March 2021 out of a dissatisfaction with the
 
 It began as a solo project, and then picked up steam as more developers became interested and jumped on.
 
-For a detailed view on what's implemented and what's not, and progress made towards [beta release](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Beta), please see [the roadmap document](./ROADMAP.md).
+For a detailed view on what's implemented and what's not, and progress made towards [beta release](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Beta), please see [the roadmap document](./ROADMAP.md). The [FAQ](docs/faq.md) contains a higher-level overview.
 
 ## Features
 
@@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ These packages are not maintained by GoToSocial, so please direct questions and
 
 ## Known Issues
 
-Since GoToSocial is still in alpha, there are plenty of bugs. We use GitHub issues to track these. [Check them out here](https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Abug).
+Since GoToSocial is still in alpha, there are plenty of bugs. We use [GitHub issues](https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Abug) to track these. The [FAQ](docs/faq.md) also describes some of the features that haven't been implemented yet.
 
 ### Client App Issues
 

docs/faq.md

@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+# Frequently Asked Questions
+
+- **Where's the user interface?** GoToSocial is just a bare server for the most part and is designed to be used thru external applications. [Pinafore](https://pinafore.social) and [Tusky](https://tusky.app/) are the best-supported, but anything that supports the Mastodon API should work, other than the features GoToSocial doesn't yet have. Permalinks and profile pages are served directly thru GoToSocial as well as the admin panel, but most interaction goes thru the apps.
+
+- **What happened to the gifs?** While GoToSocial supports gifs, it doesn't support videos. This wouldn't be a big problem, except that Mastodon doesn't support gifs; it converts them into videos when they get uploaded. So if someone posts a gif from a Mastodon server, it won't be visible. At the time of this writing, the video will be dropped altogether, but [in the future there should be at least a placeholder link](https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/issues/765).
+
+- **Why aren't my posts showing up on my profile page?** Unlike Mastodon, the default post visibility is Unlisted. If you want something to be visible on your profile page, the post must have Public visibility.
+
+- **Why aren't my posts showing up on other servers?** First check the visibility as noted above. TODO: explain how to debug common federation issues
+
+- **Why am I getting frequent error responses?** GoToSocial is configured to use per-IP [rate limiting](https://docs.gotosocial.org/en/latest/api/ratelimiting/) by default, but in certain situations it can't accurately identify the remote IP and will treat all connections as coming from the same place. In those cases, the rate limiting needs to be disabled or reconfigured.
+
+- **My instance is deployed and I'm logged in to a client but my timelines are empty, what's up there?** To see posts, you have to start following people! Once you've followed a few people and they've posted or boosted things, you'll start seeing them in your timelines. Right now GoToSocial doesn't have a way of 'backfilling' posts -- that is, fetching previous posts from other instances -- so you'll only see new posts of people you follow. If you want to interact with an older post of theirs, you can copy the link to the post from their web profile, and paste it in to your client's search bar.
+
+- **How can I sign up for a server?** Right now the only way to create an account is by the server's admin to run a command directly on the server. A web-based signup flow is in the roadmap but not implemented yet.
+
+- **Why's it still in alpha?** Take a look at the [list of open bugs](https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Abug) and the [roadmap](https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/blob/main/ROADMAP.md) for a more detailed rundown, but the main missing features at the time of this writing are:
+    * videos
+    * reporting posts to admins
+    * muting conversations
+    * backfill of posts
+    * web-based signup
+    * profile metadata fields
+    * lists of users
+    * pinning posts to your profile
+    * polls
+    * scheduling posts
+    * account migration
+    * federated hashtag search
+    * shared block lists across servers

docs/index.md

@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Here's a screenshot of the instance landing page!
 
 If you've ever used something like Twitter or Tumblr (or even Myspace!) GoToSocial will probably feel familiar to you: You can follow people and have followers, you make posts which people can favourite and reply to and share, and you scroll through posts from people you follow using a timeline. You can write long posts or short posts, or just post images, it's up to you. You can also, of course, block people or otherwise limit interactions that you don't want by posting just to your friends.
 
-**GoToSocial does NOT use algorithms or collect data about you to suggest content or 'improve your experience'**. The timeline is chronological: whatever you see at the top of your timeline is there because it's *just been posted*, not because it's been selected as interesting (or controversial) based on your personal profile.
+**GoToSocial does NOT use recommendation algorithms or collect data about you to suggest content or 'improve your experience'**. The timeline is chronological: whatever you see at the top of your timeline is there because it's *just been posted*, not because it's been selected as interesting (or controversial) based on your personal profile.
 
 GoToSocial is not designed for 'must-follow' influencers with tens of thousands of followers, and it's not designed to be addictive. Your timeline and your experience is shaped by who you follow and how you interact with people, not by metrics of engagement!
 
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ It began as a solo project, and then picked up steam as more developers became i
 
 ## Known Issues
 
-Since GoToSocial is still in alpha, there are plenty of bugs. We use Github issues to track these. [Check them out here](https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Abug).
+Since GoToSocial is still in alpha, there are plenty of bugs. We use [GitHub issues](https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Abug) to track these. The [FAQ](docs/faq.md) also describes some of the features that haven't been implemented yet.
 
 ### Client App Issues
 

mkdocs.yml

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ extra_css:
 
 nav:
   - "Home": "index.md"
+  - "FAQ": "faq.md"
   - "User Guide":
     - "user_guide/posts.md"
     - "user_guide/user_panel.md"