Mary, your point is well taken. I don't think the blind men describing an elephant is a completely accurate simile though. I see it as more like a small number of people who can see very clearly (or at least enough to distinguish an elephant from, say, a horse) trying to describe the elephant to a bunch of blind men. I think a FAQ would be just about as productive.
My approach, while I'm in the blind man camp, is to work on my
vision (meaning my body and my own skills) so that I have a chance of seeing the elephant for myself. Not to try to get others to give ever-better descriptions. I guess I'm lucky in that I have enough somewhat-sighted folks around me that I can see they are really onto something, though I don't know what that elephant looks like myself yet.