I use sites like paleohacks.com quite frequently and I'm considering doing something similar for other topics. A friend developed his site on http://askbot.com/, are there other platforms folks have used to develop similar sites? Ideally I'd like something Wordpress based or pre-packaged like Askbot but that allows for some ways for me to monetize.
The kind of site I mean by Q&A style:
http://stackoverflow.com/
Here's a list of some
http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questi...verflow-clones
I don't like that Askbot.com prices based on number of users, as that's never an accurate billing method. They do, however, seem to produce very nice looking sites.
The Templatic Answers theme is available for WordPress at a reasonable price. Take a look at DomainQuestions.com - It's a WordPress site.
I recently considered AnswerBase. But it wouldn't have been economical. The extra visitors that I hoped to attract wouldn't have paid for the service.
But at least they are up front about their costs. I couldn't find any pricing information at all on the AskBot site.
Mike
If you use Stack Overflow, you only get rights to lease the software - you have to pay for licenses and updates.
There are some free open source clones, and at least one commercial clone - sorry, can't remember the name right now, but it does permit direct migration from Stack Overflow for those who have started that way and found it wasn't worth "paying the rent".
Having moderated such a site, it is hard to maintain momentum unless you have facilities to allow users to chat - you get those with Stack Overflow,but they were not enabled on the site I moderated and enthusiastic users fizzled out somewhat - it would probably have kept going if the chat was enabled.
Last edited by crabfoot; July 13th, 2012 at 9:16 AM.
I'm sure that's right.Originally Posted by crabfoot
In which case, I wonder if a more traditional forum might be a better platform. That way, you can still enable users to ask and answer questions, and you can also encourage a community spirit. I'm thinking of systems like phpBB or vBulletin.
Just a thought.
Mike
Long ago I used to be a tech expert on http://www.experts-exchange.com. There was a point system there that motivated experts to contribute/answer questions. Sites like that were way ahead of their time. The rest of the internet is catching up now and gamification is big business with the likes of http://www.gigya.com, http://www.bigdoor.com and http://www.badgeville.com bringing the technology and cost within reach of many webmasters.
It may be chat that does it trick or it may take making the site sticky via the use of the more subtle motivators.
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I was an expert on experts exchange, too - but they deleted the categories I'm expert in and focused on the ones that make money.
WTH - I've been spending some time on cooking.stackexchange.com to refresh my mind about the way things work over there. You can ask forum-style questions on the meta version of the site, there's a chat room for drivelling, I would quite like the place if the raison d'etre was not so anal, like most of the mods. No recipes, the place is for discussion of cooking techniques/methods and methodology. I also suspect that the "staffer" in charge places personal aff links to products on Amazon.
The shared reason E-P and cooking.stackexchange succeed is fluff control. Their method is to delete any responses which do not directly answer a question - anything else needs to be expressed as a comment, which may not be directly interesting but acceptable if amusing. That's one point.
Another point is that I can see that "chat facilities" alone are not the full answer. I know one forum I'm a member of has a chat room occupied during 8am-10pm by the same four or five members. They post very little, and treat the facility like a private club - enter the room, say something and they all go quiet.
Something to beware of is allowing people to become "big fish" in your pond. Me myself I get fed up of web-generated "authorities" telling people what "is" and what "ain't". I'm not going to go into details, but there are at least three web "experts" who are due to get a large portion of humble pie each when I decide to whet my blade, with pictorial evidence.
I think the stack model allows for easier rules when your objective is to reduce fluff, or noise as they call it on stack exchange - you can say where in the model each form of human behaviour is appropriate, and act accordingly. The well directed forum can also be a viable model, although for a lot of people the strict rules (such as E-P uses) can inhibit free expression (some people get too scared to comment because they don't know when it is appropriate).
Forum or Q&A site, the major conclusion I can form is that users must accept that Mr Ockham is likely to come along and delete their posts in an editing process at some point, if the place is to retain a quality reputation. Places like Yahoo Answers are currently addressing quality issues, but their answers are often rubbish despite that.
I recently wanted to find out about bombing in Huddersfield during WWII. I Gargyled for info, and a likely response came up above the fold on an answers wiki. When I clicked on it, the question was "Was Huddersfield bombed during WWII?" The answer was "Yes".
When it comes to the www, you can't beat your brain for entertainment.
KenW3 (July 17th, 2012)
An update: I've been hanging around on stack exchange's cooking, DIY, and English sites to see how long I can stand it. Today is the end.
The cooking site is just about tolerable, but I've just been voted down heavily by the populace for suggesting that refrigeration can prevent salmonella-induced food poisoning (yup, they skip read, decide my answer is contradicting the one above, and vote it down without asking themselves if it has any merit). Plus I have been criticised by one member for providing what he considers an empty post - another skip reader.
The DIY site (I have to fix up a couple of houses) -there's nothing on there to help me, and the standard of knowledge is so low I can get more info from the help sheets at the DIY store websites. There was one question on weed control I found interesting - when I went to look, the mods had transferred it to the gardening site, presumably because it involved plants.
Pay me, I could make that site work. The people that are supposed to be running it will take the money until they are paid to go away, but they won't make it work.
The English site - somebody asked a question about portmanteau words, where two words are glued together to amalgamate the meaning of both (like "labradoodle"). I wrote an insightful reply suggesting that there should be a better term for this than "portmanteau", which is actually the suggestion of Humpty Dumpty in "Through The Looking Glass" and a deliberately badly selected term, if you consider Lewis Carroll's context. I don't want to sound immodest, but this was one of my real gems, right down to the link to a vid of an actress playing Lady Bracknell saying "A handbag?!"
It was very clever, made me laugh, and I wrote it ...
So it was getting upvotes from just about everyone that saw it, then three high point members decided it wasn't in keeping with the anal spirit of the site and deleted it.
I know I get away with indiscretions around here (if I don't know, Clinton reminds me as usual), but there is no question in my mind that those stack exchange sites attract the most serious minded humorless people, without a life beyond the web, who want to play God.
My intentions in joining, a long time back, were to eventually share some happiness with them by sprinkling in the occasional link to something that was of mutual benefit. These people are so anal I don't want to share - quite frankly I wouldn't give most of them the smell when I break wind.
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