Ask GBAtemp!

[Costello]

To answer the growing amount of threads with people asking the same questions over and over again, and to compensate for our apparent inability to *ahem* maintain updated FAQ pages, we've decided to offer the GBAtemp community a new site feature:


ask.gbatemp.net
As opposed to the GBAtemp Forums (a place for discussion, debates and fun) Ask GBAtemp is a special part of the website on which you can post very specific questions. Your questions will be answered by the community, thus eventually forming a massive and constantly updated "FAQ" section!

Functioning in a similar way to Yahoo! Answers, Ask GBAtemp is fully integrated to the website:

• The last 5 posted questions appear on the front page under the latest posts.
• When starting a new thread on the forums, the title of the thread you are about to start will be matched against existing questions in order to avoid duplicates.
• You also get a 'Best Answers' ratio which is based on the amount of useful answers you've posted. There is no need to try and improve your ratio for the sake of it, as your ratio is completely private and is never displayed publicly.

One last point I'd like to clarify: this section isn't just for newbies that are too lazy to do a bit of research. On the contrary, try to think of Ask GBAtemp as a way to share your knowledge. If you know something, share it! Post a question and answer it yourself, just for the sake of helping whoever would want to ask that same question. Just like you would do if you were writing a FAQ!

Warning: the link may not be accessible yet if the new DNS entry hasn't spread to your ISP's DNS servers yet. Just wait a few more hours and it should be fine.

 

[Goli]

Link is not working for me >:.
EDIT: I can't access the posts below the "latest discussions" section either...
EDIT 2: I saw the edit on the post above

.

 

[JonthanD]

Sounds like a place to hang for me

I don't mind answering the same questions over and over (I think I just like "knowing the answer")

Plus I like to help people

Edit:

Also I think this is a cool idea

 

[Sephxus]

Nice! I like your "Where can I download Wood R4?" example. I like this.

 

[zeromac]

Hmm so we cant ask questions in the general fourms anymore?

 

[gifi4]

hopefully this is a success, love the idea.

 

[mameks]

*EDIT*
Just read the last bit of the post...my bad.
Hope this takes off, as it's a great idea

 

[gifi4]

*EDIT*
Just read the last bit of the post...my bad.
Hope this takes off, as it's a great idea

Just about to mention the last bit to you but then, I realized you edited your post.

 

[Another World]

Hmm so we cant ask questions in the general fourms anymore?

this new feature is a supplement to gbatemp's forums. where in the forums you ask something because you want the input of multiple users. this new feature allows users to ask questions which may have a simple answer that does not require the testing of multiple users or the combined knowledge of those users. once this section grows it should greatly cut down on the repetitive questions posted on gbatemp, it will also host answers to the most popular questions making research that much more easy to conduct.

users no longer have to create a thread to answer a simple questions, although we are not encouraging that users abandon the forum. however, lets say for example you wanted to do the following...

how do i install akaio the safe way?

answer:
1.Format the microSD with the Panasonic formatter.
2.Download the current version of AKAIO
3.Unzip the file and put the __aio* folder and akmenu4.nds at the Root (base) of your microSD card
4.Insert the microSD card firmly in the non-spring loaded (new shell) ak2.1 and ak2i. If your microSD slot is spring loaded make sure it "clicks."
5.Insert the Acekard firmly into your NDS, again make sure it clicks.
6.Boot up the NDS, select the Acekard from the firmware Slot-1 selection box, and enjoy
*Please note that the __aio folder is hidden by in the globalsettings.ini file by default, do not place homebrew or roms in this folder as you will not be able to access them. You can however set the GUI to display all hidden files and folders. The recommended method is to place your files into folders in Root. Never place a file you want to access in the __aio directory.

you could create a new thread for that and then have that thread filled with the responses of users who simply put "yes it worked" or "why did you start this thread", etc. now you can share that knowledge in an area designed for such posts. knowledge like this will no longer be buried under hundreds of posts or be found 20 pages in to a 80 post discussion.

so think of it as an expansion not a limitation.

-another world

 

[Presto99]

this is really cool. This is seriously great for eliminating tons of useless, 1 answer help threads.

 

[Costello]

zeromac's question is legitimate, but here is what I posted in the staff forum when introducing the feature:

This feature was developed to answer multiple issues:

1) the same questions get asked many times. A lot of people don't know how to use the search function properly (others would say that the search function isn't good at all, but I beg to differ). As a result there are many clone threads. This is often solved by creating FAQs but those are usually poorly maintained, it's too much work or people lose interest, the thread gets unpinned, etc.

2) we were never able to come up with a real, solid FAQ section. I thought of building a large FAQ page, but it would have been too "static". What of new questions? Who would be in charge of updating the FAQ with new questions? What happens when new systems get released? Too much of a hassle.

3) people don't usually post threads to write things that they already know. There are a lot of knowledged people around on GBAtemp, but many of them don't share it until they get asked. With Ask GBAtemp, anyone can just write a question and answer it themselves immediately, in order to share their knowledge!

4) as a lot of people pointed out before, there are so many threads with 50+ replies, it gets very confusing when someone posts a useful answer on the 3rd or 4th page. You have to go through loads of useless posts until you find what you want. Well, this completely solves it.

5) GBAtemp is not well referenced on search engines. I've developed this feature so that Google indexes our questions appropriately. If someone asks one of those questions on Google, hopefully they'll find the answer on GBAtemp.

[...]

My first reaction when I thought of the idea, and I think you probably had the same, is: won't that kinda drive people away from the forums on the long run? Won't people lose interest in the forums and just post questions?
Well, the answer is no and for the following reasons:
1) it should be clear that this is just a "dynamic FAQ section". It's meant for very specific questions. This message is written on every page: "Remember: Ask GBAtemp is a place for asking specific questions. For discussions, blogs and fun, use the forums!". It is up to us moderators to enforce this rule by closing/deleting questions that should be on the forum.
2) when posting a question, there aren't nearly as many options as there are when posting a forum thread. You can't use emoticons, you can't use most bbcode, you can't choose a post icon, etc.
3) Most threads on the forums don't have just one question; they encourage discussion and debate, which is not possible with Ask GBAtemp.

Hope this answers the question a bit

 

[WiiUBricker]

Thats really a fantastic idea. Good job

 

[p1ngpong]

Well AW and Costy have already answered, but since I typed this out I will go ahead and post it anyway.

Hmm so we cant ask questions in the general fourms anymore?

Not at all, but think of it this way.

If you have a small question that may not necessarily be worthy of creating an entire thread about, and you cant find the answer on the forums, but you think it is something that others would ask too, just ask.

Think of it as micro thread making just for help. Like sending someone a PM for help or something like that.

Of course as Ask GBAtemp grows we are hoping that it will become a pool of knowledge where the most basic questions have already been answered. So people will use it more as a resource to find answers, instead of a place just to ask questions.

 

[Sephxus]

Edit: Never mind ok

 

[RoMee]

there's some people who pm me about general flash cart questions because they don't want to start a new thread..so this is a great addition

I don't mind answering and helping them but this will give them one more option..a second opinion

 

[Salax]

Inb4 "Can i play gba games on my r4i super ultra green upgrade revolution x5000?"

Sounds like a good feature, though

.

 

[Gh0sti]

i think its a great idea, it should help with the clutter of the forums

 

[DJ91990]

I think this feature is a great addition to the GBATemp network!

This will allow the forums to be clean while quickly answering those nagging n00b questions and other common inquires.

 

[Etalon]

This is fun!

But we can't edit a given answer anymore, right?

 

[Maplemage]

Probably new tempers in the future wont notice this.