If you have ever used Ask MetaFilter or Yahoo Answers, you already understand the basic premise of ToAnswer. Some users ask questions, the questions are indexed, and other users respond to questions that may know the answer to. It’s a simple, efficient way to query the minds of others.
So what’s the point, if Ask Metafilter and Yahoo Answers provide the same service? ToAnswer is special in one way: it interfaces with Twitter. This provides advantages and disadvantages that gives ToAnswer a unique niche. It allows you to tap Twitter’s enormous user base. However, due to the nature of Twitter you are limited to 140-character questions and answers. This makes ToAnswer the perfect medium for making small polls or quick questions.
You surely have a Twitter account already, don’t you? If not, you’re in the minority. Twitter is a micro-blogging site that limits users to 140-character posts. It’s more addicting than curry. Sign up here.
After you’re logged in, visit the ToAsk & ToAnswer profiles. Underneath the user avatar (picture of the birdie in the top right), there is a grey button that says “Follow”. Click on that.
To pose a question to the Twitterverse, post a Twitter update with the following format:
@ToAsk Are there any good pizza joints in downtown Los Angeles?
The ToAnswer birdie scours Twitter looking for new questions, and it will find your question, index it, and post it on the ToAnswer homepage in just a few minutes.
On the ToAnswer homepage there is a listing of the questions that users have asked. If you see any questions that you are able to answer, then choose the “Answer this question” link under the question. The link will bring you to Twitter, with the update box populated with the necessary prefix. For posterity, the answer format should look like this:
@ToAnswer [question id] No, there’s no such thing as good pizza outside of NYC.
It is important that you do not delete the seemingly arbitrary ID number. It associates your answer with the proper question.
Due to limitations in the Twitter API, we are limited to scanning for new questions and answers every few minutes. Be patient, my child.
Only minimal ones. No spam or self-promotion, no “testing” questions or answers, and nothing off-topic. Pragmatic sexual questions (e.g. “Where is a good place to buy condoms?” are okay, but obscene ones are not.
There is a community-reporting system in place to ensure that all questions and answers are up to par. After a question is reported by members a certain number of times, it is hidden from view and placed in a queue for moderator review (how’s that for internal rhyme?). If the moderator decides that the content as valid, then it will be reinstated.
To report a question or answer, use the corresponding “Report” link for the question.
It’s called a motion parallax, “the change of angular position of two observations of a single object relative to each other as seen by an observer, caused by the motion of the observer.” The concept is blatently stolen from the holding page of Clearleft's Silverback. Learn how to do it yourself at Vitamin.
Due to limitations in the Twitter API, this isn’t feasible. In the future, we may implement a system in which you can delete questions/answers via direct message, but for now just you can e-mail us if you’d like a question or answer deleted: guru@toanswer.net.
I’m not sure, but the best pizza joint I’ve been to is Punch Pizza, a Neapolitan-style joint in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Nope, not even close. Props to Dan Cederholm’s Foamee and Rob Goodlatte, Justin Wickett, & Dan Romero’s StrawPoll for blazing the trail.
The name is Chuck Harmston, and I’m a freelance web designer from Mesa, Arizona.
Shoot me an e-mail and I'll see what I can do: guru@toanswer.net.