Find solution
What are the object-oriented features of Visual Basic.NET?

What features are most important to users of a Q&A website?

  • For instance, why would a Quora user use Quora over http://Answers.com or http://Formspring.me? If you would use all three (and more) what aspects keep you interested in coming back?

  • Answer:

    Pointing out features without identifying the broader contexts in which they succeed seems pretty in the weeds, as you might get lost implementing something specific and missing the big picture as to why it works. I think are the two most important big picture parts of Q&A are recognition and the ability to build on knowledge. These are the defining parts of good Q&A products. Recognition can manifest itself in many ways, from very explicit methods like points, badges, featured users, etc to a more implicit approach like the one favored by Quora. Which method to use depends on the makeup of the community and what is perceived as status in that community. Some things Quora does that builds recognition: activity history in user profile ability to describe your experience in a topic, and have that shown next to your answer and in your profile the ordering of answers based on votes received These may seem obvious but they all get at a fundamental motivation to be recognized for your efforts and seen in a positive light by people you like. Building on knowledge is about being able to get to the goal of Q&A - a canonical question-answer object, with all the relevant viewpoints and opinions accurately represented as context and reference for that object. The methods to get there are about organizing, editing, and generally just preventing an underlying concept from being duplicated and forked so users can find top quality content quickly. Some features include: wiki edits for summary content edits/deletes being allowed only for members that have been validated by the community pre-search for early dupe detection Some Q&A sites function a bit more loosely in this regard, not necessarily going directly for a canonical 'this is the answer' approach and instead making it more conversational in tone. Sites like Yahoo Answers are more like this, whereas Quora or Stack Overflow operate differently. Different communities, different features. Of course, even before you start to define how to build your Q&A community, you need to know who they are. What do they value? What do they want? What do they know? This is really about figuring out what problem you're actually solving by building a Q&A community in the first place and whether that's even the right approach. Once you have this community and know that Q&A is the way to go about solving their problems, then you can focus on how you handle reputation and building on knowledge.

Nick Punt at Quora Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

The single most important "feature" of a Q&A website is a healthy and knowledgeable community. It is knowing that what you're looking for is either already there or can be answered satisfactorily, with authority, and quick enough by the members of that website. This is the primary value (meeting interesting people, making connections, etc. might be a good incidental second). As to what product feature is the most important in maintaining quality, I would say it is the ability for users to edit and constantly curate content. The simplest editing (fixing typos, grammar, etc.) add enormously to the user experience, and other types of curation like retagging and pointing out when entries need more depth/verification/etc. (which Wikipedia uses extensively and Quora is now beginning to implement) help even bad content improve over time. This not only makes users happier, it helps recruit and keep around users who are knowledgeable and like to share. Bad writing and bad content push these people away. This is not only true for Q&A, but I think will slowly start finding its way into other types of UGC websites (it's hard to find a website where at least grammar and spelling couldn't be improved), like those with place/product reviews.

Helder Ribeiro

I concur with Helder: typos might seem unimportant, but I generally want to answer fast, to start a dialogue (people answering usually get more than the person asking from the debate, because they know how to read the replies at distinct levels); while, I'm often in a hurry. Edits, clarifiying misunderstandings really improves the perception of the reply. Tagging question is important, too. I think the ability to freely organize your area of interest is essential: I'd love to be nothing but an expert on Social networks, but I tend to have more questions to answer on Tea, Tourism in Paris and Organic food—don't ask. You have many interaction design choices to make or test there: who can tag or retag a question, suggest new tags, etc. Feedback is essential too: see Hubermann et al. and Alavais' work on feedback on YouTube and Digg—well, it's allthemore important for expertise: what are you truly insightful for, is one of the hardest thing to figure out. Points or five-star grades are not so helpful, thumbs-up might not be subtle enough, comments can be hard to organize… The ability to signal yourself as en expert becomes important when you have many answers and you want to good ones no to feel saddened to be confused with the crackpots: without this issue, it's an over-kill. On the same vein, because there is an increasing number of such platforms, the ability to connect your answers between services might be useful—and would encourage specialization. If Quora is often link to a technical question on Yahoo! Q&A, then all the hackers around will notice the community here, and join it. Surprisingly enough, anonymity is very present in all Q&A services: I guess this is essential for personal matters, but I'm not sure a company that would let you reply openly would be keener to reveal secrets anonymously either…

Bertil Hatt

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.