How does answers work?

Alison's Contribution:

Ask a Question
1. You get the option of a headline and then further clarification. You decide at this point whether it is public or private (only sent to people you know).
2. Then you post your question to the most relevant categories which will attract Answers.
3. Next, you wait for Answers which generally come in a few categories:
- Quick and / or Flippant
- Thoughtful / Food for Thought
- Interesting but not really Answering the question posed by the Asker

Note you can repeat a question after the seven day window or you can close it before the deadline when you've got the answer(s) you seek. [What makes a great question depends on your purpose and the subject of a different question.]

Handling Answers
Answerers can elect to respond privately or publicly (which also includes the option of writing a private note to the Asker).

Whilst Answers are pouring in, the Asker can correspond with the Answerer. Both the Asker and the Answerer(s) can add clarification to their posting. Answerers can elect to delete their post, but cannot post a different answer to the same question.

Closing a Question
When you have closed a question, an Asker is requested to select all the "Good Answers" and one "Best Answer". These "scores" are saved against the Answerers profile (if they have made their status public).


Complicated?
No, it really is not complicated. A testament to it's deceptively simple structure is that hundreds of questions are asked everyday. The community at LinkedIn does it best to answer general questions where they can offer some insight. However, some specialist questions may not get a response.

I haven't gone into the technical side of How Answers works as I believe you are more interested in the User Experience.

The question "What does Answers do?" hasn't been asked, but if you are interested, get in touch and I'll do my best to provide my opinion.