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Feb 9, 2011

Forums vs QA Systems


Forums

What I like:
  • Members can ask a question or show cool stuff
  • Members can answer or pitch in ideas


What I don't like:
  • Usually if the thread is a question, there may be no definitive solution or answer.
  • Comments and useless information between useful information.
  • Viewers seeking answers cannot easily find the answers.
  • Big time wasters by encouraging more postings.
Questions and Answers

Most of the time I detest forum based services.  I prefer Questions and Answer systems.

What I like:
  1. There's a clearly stated question
  2. There's an answer (or no answer)
  3. Searchable database that can be viewed by other people (eliminates repeated questions, time wasting)
  4. It can be managed by itself (users ask, users answer)

The problems:
  • Questions can be super stupid, wrongly phrased, and wrongly tagged
  • Answers may be right or wrong (the human factor)
  • Potential for Spam (fixed by registration and moderation)
  • Lack of questions or answers (depending on the topic it might have a lot of user activity, or no activity)

QA Services for your website:


Some Questions and Answers websites:

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