I was looking at the last couple of ID assistance requests in the Drivers forum, and it seems to me that we are making life hard for ourselves by not encouraging more self-help with regard to these requests.  I would suggest that FalconFly might want to adopt a policy and a procedure for those seeking card identification which includes the following:

1.  A "sticky" message (at least in the Drivers forum) which states the policy and the procedure to be followed for card ID requests.

2.  Choose a utility or set of utilities which meets FalconFly's approval for device information identification.  Since at least some of the people who are making requests have actually put the card in question into a machine, there is no reason they could not execute a program such as Unknown Devices (http://www.halfdone.com/Development/UnknownDevices/) in order to extract PCI/PnP device information.  If folks know of other programs or a better program, please speak up.  The policy should specify that this is the preferable means of card identification since it is less ambiguous than identification by physical characteristics.  The policy should also specify a minimum amount of information to be provided by requesters in posts if the utility is used and additional information is desired from forum users. 

3.  Specify the link(s) to the photo section of the archive to allow users to identify cards when the utility in (2) can't be used for whatever reason.

4.  Provide vendor and card information for as many 3dfx chipset cards as possible to Craig Hart (or whatever PCI information source is used) to insure that at least common cards are recognized.  (The Unknown Devices utility uses Craig's PCI info list at http://members.datafast.net.au/dft0802/downloads.htm )  Given the fact that there won't be any new 3dfx chipset cards in the future and the fact that the collectors on this board probably have at least one example of just about everything based on 3dfx technology, it should be possible to establish a fairly comprensive database of ID information.  This approach also benefits ANYONE using Craig's list for driver development, etc.

5.  (Optional, but highly desirable) Provide a database or applet that will make a manufacturer or reference driver recommendation based on the ID information gathered in the previous steps.

7.  The policy should specify what a requester should do if they discover a card that is not identified by the above procedure.  In other words, we want to add this previously unknown card to the PCI ID list and the database, and we want to tell them how they can help us do that.

6.  Forum regulars will need to remember to point those needing assistance to the policy "sticky" if they post a request without reading or following the procedure.

Comments?