This article describes the Question & Answers threads feature. This feature encourages engagement among community users because it's a place for them to:
- ask questions of their fellow community users and
- help their fellow community users by answering questions that they post.
What's more, you can participate online and via email.
Post a question online
NOTE: You must be a member of a community to post to it, unless it's a public community.
To post online, navigate to the desired community and:
- Click the Questions tab. (If the community has the Discussion and Q&A thread types enabled, this tab will be called Threads).
- Click Ask a Question.
- Type or paste your question in the Content Editor.
NOTE: If the community has the Discussion and Q&A thread types, "focus" your thread as a question during this step.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Subject | Provide a clear subject so users know what your question is about. |
| Automatically insert content preview for links | If you paste a link to a web page in the editor, the system attempts to capture a relevant image and promotional text for that web page. This is then used by the editor to create a preview for the content in your message.
If you don't want to use this feature, you have two options:
|
| Text field | Specify your question here, along with any formatting, images, videos.
See Content Editor to learn more about its features. |
| Attachments | If you'd like to include attachments, click Add Attachment and browse for your file(s) via the available options.
NOTE: Files attached via this method are automatically added to the community's Resource Library. |
- When finished, you can either:
-
- Click Save as Draft to save your question as a draft you can finish later. As a safety net, your work is also automatically saved as a draft whenever there is 10 seconds of inactivity.
- Click Send to post your question. Your question is included in the digests and real-time messages that are sent to community members.
NOTE: If the community is moderated, an administrator must approve your question before it posts.
See Schedule & Draft Content to learn about scheduling and drafting contributions.
Post via email
If you're subscribed to a community, you will be sent email notifications about new posts per your subscription type (e.g., Real Time, Daily Digest). It's from these emails, like the one below, that you can participate in a variety of ways.
Real-time notifications
When receiving real-time notifications, you can reply to the email in your email application or client to respond. Your answer will be posted online in the community just like if you responded online, and other members will receive an email notification as well.
Digests
With digests, you cannot respond via email but you can click a thread to view it online (where you can respond) or click the links highlighted in the image below to view the question and its answers or initiate a post in the thread online.
NOTE: The default subscription email template configuration is shown and discussed below, so the available buttons and links in your emails may be different. Super Admins can update these templates on the Admin > Communities > Digest Configuration > Discussion Template page.
See Manage Your Community Notifications to learn about Discussion subscriptions and how to manage them.
Real-time participation emails
If you've opted-in to real-time participation emails, you'll be notified via email when someone:
- replies to one of your questions
- leaves a comment on one of your blog articles, library uploads, or ideation submissions.
These participation emails ensure you're immediately aware of the latest developments related to the content you've contributed.
See Participation Emails to learn more about this feature, including how to manually follow content and unsubscribe from participation emails.
Edit a question/answer you've posted
Whether you've posted your own question or replied to someone's, you're free to edit your questions and answers at any time. To do so, navigate to one of your questions or answers and select Edit from the ellipsis (...) menu to the right.
You can also access all of your posts (and all your other contributions) right from your profile. Just click My Contributions > List of Contributions.
Answer a question
If you read a question posed by another community member and can answer it, click Answer.
The Content Editor will display directly on the page, allowing you to answer inline without navigating away. By default, you'll use the Basic editor, with a limited set of options. Click the ellipsis (...) button to expand the Basic Plus editor with additional formatting options.
Mark As Best Answer feature
When someone asks a question, there's generally a reply that offers the best answer. To help promote this content, Super Admins, Community Admins, Community Moderators, and the thread's original poster to mark one of the answers as the best answer by selecting Mark As Best Answer from its ellipsis (...) menu.
NOTE: You can clear a best answer at any time by selecting Unmark Best Answer from the menu. Only one answer can be flagged as the Best Answer at a time.
The answer is then visually highlighted to indicate this, ensuring other users know. In instances where multiple answers are available, flagging one as the best answer automatically pins it to the top of the list.
In addition, the Jump to Best Answer link appears at the top of the page, allowing you to quickly view the best answer. This is especially helpful for questions with a lot of text.