FAQ 2.0

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.

So what would FAQ 2.0 look like? You can go over to YouSaidIt.com and see it in action as a widget button on the tour page or as sidebar widget on the pricing page.

The big diferences are:

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.

And it’s free. So go try it.

Google loves YouSaidIt

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!

Question Land Launches at The Mercury

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).

You can see and use it at: Portland Mercury Questionland

Using YouSaidIt (A guide to easy administration)

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.

Is Twitter Just A Live Advertising Billboard on My Desktop?

It seems like Twitter has just become a running list of advertisements that popup in growl as I’m working on other things.

It’s like having an ever-changing billboard on my information highway.

I’m still a fan of Twitter because I think this is just a phase for me as a user and my followers change. But it seems like this could be a general problem for Twitter if it becomes the norm.

Microsoft gives up on QnA

Microsoft announced that they will be terminating their Q&A efforts just as Google Answers did before them. As Ars Technica points out, that leaves Yahoo as the winner. But one has to wonder why they would be ending their Q&A efforts when it seems like Q&A is only getting more popular and mainstream. Witness Stack Overflow as an example, not to mention Aardvark or Hunch as new entrants.

I think the answer is that Q&A is most valuable when it is restricted to a specific community or subject matter. It must have one or the other to succeed. If both are too generalized then you end up with meaningless blather instead of high quality Q&A. That is probably why Hunch is longer term in trouble, Stack Overflow has been and will continue to be successful and Aardvark is ambiguous.

I think the guys at Stack Overflow agree. See video at the end of the RWW post.

Release 05-10-09 (Facebook Feed, Favorites and more…)

NEW FEATURES

• Facebook Feed: Now you can automatically post your questions, answers and comments to your Facebook feed. Just look for this checkbox on all post forms:
  
• Favorites: Question askers can choose their favorite answer and it will be sorted to the top.
• Reputation: Favorite answers, Thumbs UP votes and Thumbs DOWN votes are now being displayed on user profile pages.
• Moderator and Staff Badges: Users that are bestowed with the “Admin” or “Moderator” role will get a “Moderator” badge displayed below their avatar. We also added a new role called “Staff” which will display a “Staff” badge under their avatar.
• All Contributors: Now you can browse a list of all contributors on a site. Click the “All Contributors” link from the home page under the “Top Contributors” list.
• Multiple Domains: A site can have more than one domain pointing to it. (For example: qa.mysite.com and myqasite.com can both point to the same YouSaidIt QA site.
• RSS Page: New RSS page for generating all available YouSaidIt RSS Feeds.

BUG FIXES & MINOR IMPROVEMENTS

• Requests count displaying -1 has been fixed. Now displays 0.
• Recently asked questions added to email notifications
• Improved “Greatest” questions list by including question votes in algorithm.
• Improved “Greatest” answers list by including date posted in the algorithm. Recent answers get ranked higher.
• Facebook avatars no longer get stretched. Now they are cropped to square.