We’ve seen some high profile launches of Q&A sites recently: Hunch and Aardvark most notably. And then there are the old standbys like the dominant Yahoo Answers and the also-rans like Askville and Answerbag. They’ve all certainly got their fair share of national attention, but are these national destination sites really the way to go, or would Q&A be better applied to local sites and local communities? Google seems to think local is better.
This is a David and Goliath story if ever there was one.
The Stranger is a local Seattle alternative weekly of the more salacious/humorous variety. They launched a site called Questionland mere weeks ago. The Stranger is a very popular local destination but must be considered a rounding error next to Yahoo’s 1.3 billion monthly page views.
Although we are all entitled to our opinion about what the best approach to Q&A should be, it is hard to argue that Google must be the final arbiter since they are the ultimate popularity contest and reward the winners with traffic.
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Questionland was designed by The Stranger staff based on a new Q&A application called YouSaidIt. YouSaidIt is Q&A that completely integrates with your local site, from skin to sign-in.
They integrate with Facebook Connect and Twitter providing your site with instant social connections. They cater to two markets: corporate sites that have visitors with questions about products (think FAQ 2.0) and media sites that want to convene their community without the downsides of the forum experience.
If Google juice were not enough, YouSaidIt has spent the last two years specializing in improving conversation on the web. They settled on Q&A because it provided structure and atomic memes that could travel through the social information ecosystem like Twitter and news feeds. They allow extensive comments, but make them a (collapsed) meta discussion, ensuring that the useful information doesn’t get crowded out by noise as it typically does on forums.
It seems like local Q&A may have the big boys beat. You can try it out for free at www.YouSaidIt.com and their premium version is absurdly cheap at $190/month. Compare that to alternative site-specific Q&A products like BazaarVoice that go for hundreds of thousands!
To get Questionland for your site contact Tim Keck, publisher of The Stranger.
I was just watching a TED video with Clay Shirky discussing the changing media environment. It’s a good summary of the things we are already aware of. But what caught my attention was his lat example where he talks about the Obama campaign. In short, Obama decided to change his mind on the FISA issue and his supporters, ON HIS SITE, formed a group against him. The group rapidly became the largest and most vocal on the site – to the point that Obama issues a press release addressing their issues (he said he would stick to his position). But what Shirky points out, and the group realized, was that the Obama campaign never tried to hide the group, or make it harder to join.
They were mature enough and confident enough to realize that it was their job to convene their audience but not their role to control it.
That speaks volumes about Obama and sets the bar high for everyone else.
I learn something new everyday at Questionland so I thought I’d start posting some of those things. I had no idea that there were such weird things to eat when going for a long bicycle ride or other strenuous exercise.
I guess it’s one of those amusing times in your business when you realize you have become significant enough to get the attention of a quasi-competitor, to the extent that they actually hijack your content!
They grabbed the tweeted question, answered it and tweeted back an answer. The answer was just one of many options provided on Questionland, but it was a pretty impressive stunt. I’d heard they were doing the same for Yahoo Answers, but they are the dominant Q&A player in the world.
We are now allowing people to sign up and get their own sites instantly! Just go to YouSaidIt and press the get started button.
Widget
You can add a Q&A or FAQ tab to your site
You can add a widgets and RSS feeds for your Q&A/FAQ
You can create an inline FAQ widget which allows users to ask questions, searches the question to see if it has already been asked, and displays the answer in the widget.
Wiki
We have added a Wiki with some basic starting information and would be happy for everyone to contribute their wisdom to it.
Paul Constant, famed book critic of The Stranger, has said that he will happily give people personal book recommendations. Tell him what you like (and don’t) and he will tell you what to get next. He spent a lot of time doing this in his previous bookstore career so he’s a veteran. Summer reading time is upon us… enjoy.
FAQ’s are one of those cornerstone pieces of a website. Just about everyone has them and they are often a go-to place for visitors who need the basics. They’ve been around almost since the web was born and haven’t really changed much since then. Everyone knows what they are and they sort of work, so why change them?
Well, let’s face it:
1. FAQs rarely change or are updated after the site goes live.
2. To call them FAQs is generous because they are typically a best guess at what the publisher thinks a visitor might ask or even more common, what they would want them to ask. They were never asked by web visitors, because web visitors can’t ask questions!
3. They are limited in number because they are typically a list and are not designed to be searched or ranked. You just browse them in order.
1. FAQ 2.0 are a ranked list of the actual most frequently asked questions (if the publisher wants to feature specific questions that’s possible, but otherwise the FAQ is a true reflection of questions asked).
2. FAQ 2.0 is dynamic. It always kept up-to-date based on the lastest question.
3. Visitors can ask a question if it is not on the current FAQ list! The question can be routed to staff or answered by other visitors/experts as appropriate.
4. There is no limit to the number of questions. So even INfrequently asked questions can be on the list.
5. The questions can be searched by keyword so they do not need to be browsed.
6. The work of keeping the FAQ up-to-date is passed on to the users because they ask the questions (and can be permitted to answer them too).
7. There is no work for webmasters or designers to do. The FAQ is a widget reading Q&A data that can be managed and moderated by no technical resources such as marketing people.
8. The FAQ can be distributed as a widget on whatever pages in whatever form is most desirable – as compact as a little sidebar button, expanded as a sidebar widget, or defined as an entire Q&A section.
YouSaidIt seems to have that je ne sais quoi (well, we’re not telling). And Google seems to be enamored. There are numerous examples, but the recent favorite was this question asked on Questionland: “Do you think the right person won American Idol?”.
Well, a search two days later returned these results. Although these results change constantly, it was impressive for a site that is merely weeks old to rank higher than Yahoo Answers! – one of the top ten most popular sites on the net and considered to be the absolute dominant player in Q&A, not to mention also a Google favorite. We were pleased, to say the least. Imagine how great it is for subject specific or location specific searches! Try something like where to buy the best meat in Seattle. It typically beats Yelp!
Questionland is a product of The Stranger based on YouSaidIt Collaborative Q&A. It was originally piloted and launched at The Stranger with great success.
The next media site to adopt it was the Portland Mercury. It launched last Wednesday and is already an active and interesting site – providing answers to questions from the cooler people in Portland (Oregon).
The YouSaidIt Admin Console is powerful and easy to use.
You can access it from: http://youryousaiditurl/admin
Here are some best practices to help you setup and maintain a great YouSaidIt Q&A experience:
1) CATEGORIZATION
When people ask a question, they will need to put it in a single category. Add the categories that you think your visitors are likely to need. Don’t worry if you don’t anticipate them all. You can add new categories at any time and you can re-categorize posts from the admin console.
2) SEEDING
Monkey see, monkey do. Your visitors will follow your lead so start by posting the kinds of questions and answers you ultimately want your visitors to post. Continue this practice often and you’ll find it’s the best way to control the quality of your content.
Note: Don’t confuse “Testing” with “Seeding”. Testing is for making sure things work. Seeding is for setting a model. Make sure to remove all test questions before going live so your visitors don’t mimic unwanted behavior.
3) FEATURING
Featuring specific questions and answers will display them prominently at the top of the main category pages. You can specify how many featured items you want to display at once (default is 2) from the “Settings” tab of the admin console.
Note: Only the most recent featured items will appear so you don’t have to go back and “unfeature” the old ones.
4) STAFF PARTICIPATION & BADGES
Give all your staff users a “STAFF” badge. Click on their name in the admin users list and look for the “Responsibilities” section. The more your staff participates the more “legitimate” the site will feel to your audience.
5) MODERATION
You have complete control of everything that is posted on your YouSaidIt Q&A. If you ever need to edit or remove a post, it’s easy to do from the “Posts” tab of the admin console. If you ever need to contact or suspend a user, you can do it from the “Users” tab of the admin console.
I guess it’s one of those amusing times in your business when you realize you have become significant enough to get the attention of a quasi-competitor, to the extent that they actually hijack your content!
Well, a search two days later returned these results. Although these results change constantly, it was impressive for a site that is merely weeks old to rank higher than Yahoo Answers! – one of the top ten most popular sites on the net and considered to be the absolute dominant player in Q&A, not to mention also a Google favorite. We were pleased, to say the least. Imagine how great it is for subject specific or location specific searches! Try something like 
