[CentOS-devel] Forums

Wed Aug 8 16:55:22 UTC 2012
Jeff Sheltren <jeff at tag1consulting.com>

On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Karanbir Singh <mail-lists at 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