TechRepublic FAQ video: Q&A
February 15, 2011, 12:17pm PST | Length: 00:02:24
TechRepublic's Q&A underwent some changes with the 2011 upgrade. This FAQ video takes a quick look at a couple new Q&A features, including auto-generated lists of preexisting questions to help reduce duplication and the ability to ask for clarification.
No messages found
No messages found
No messages found
Log in to display your contacts' posts.
Once logged in, adding contacts is simple. Just mouse over any member's photo or click any member's name then click the "Follow" button. You can easily manage your contacts within your account contacts page.
Transcript
Mechanical sounds
>> Hello. I'm Sonja Thompson, a senior editor for TechRepublic, and in this FAQ video, we're going to take a look at a couple new things you'll find in TechRepublic's Q&A, since our 2011 upgrade. First of all, the Q&A and Discussions forums are distinct and separate from one another, which is a good start. Right? Now that won't stop some people from overlapping the two -- that is, posting a question in the Discussions area, or posting a discussion in the Q&A, but we do now have a prompt that comes up in the Q&A, when you enter a title that isn't in the form of a question. It says, Hey, are you sure this is a question, or do you want to pop on over and post this in the Discussions area? If you really do have a legitimate question, then reword it as such, and right below your question title you'll see a list of existing questions pop up. This way, if the question's already been answered, you can just click through to see if there's already a solution to your problem. We hope it'll help reduce the number of duplicate questions in TechRepublic's Q&A. Another new feature Q&A feature that we'd like to highlight is the ability to ask for clarification. Certainly, if you know the answer right off the bat, click Answer the Question. But if you need more information, don't click Answer the Question to ask, "What operating system are you using?" or, "What were you doing, and what steps did you take before the problem occurred?" I know this may take some getting used to, because we didn't have it before, but please use the Ask for Clarification link, which will place your request for clarification directly below the original question, as you can see in this example here, where Jason Hyer assumed spelling asked tier member Hans to please post the BSOD error message that he was getting. And -- as I explained in a previous video -- please take advantage of the voting system in the Q&A. This will help make the good answers more visible and hide the answers that aren't so good. I'll be sure to provide a link to the voting FAQ video in the blog post. This has been a quick look at a few new features in TechRepublic's Q&A. We hope that this video has been helpful, and we still have more new features that we're excited about, so please keep your eyes peeled for upcoming FAQ videos in the near future. Until then, take care, and thanks for being a member of TechRepublic's online community.
Mechanical sounds
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====
