On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Karanbir Singh mail-lists@karan.org wrote:
How would you define the difference in the Q&A style posts and a forum ? i.e what characteristics make a q&a interface not be a forum like setup ( and impact usability therefore )
In my opinion, the Q&A type posts are really hard to read as a discussion and ask/answer multiple questions (like a discussion would) or have any flow aside from "here's the answer". You end up with multiple "answers" (potentially voted up/down), and then each of those can have some seemingly random comments below them. You don't get the ability to "quote" posts, or have a back-and-forth type discussion such as you would be able to do with most (all?) forum software, and the end result is it's quite hard to read/understand beyond a simple question and answer.
That's my personal issue with the Q&A type sites, there may be other issues as well -- I don't use/frequent them enough to know much beyond that.
-Jeff