Slides for http://drupaldelphia.com/program/schedule/sessions/what-drupal-answers

1. What is Drupal Answers?
Drupaldelphia 2013

2. Who is the guy talking?
 Matthew Donadio
Lead Developer at Night Kitchen Interactive
Moderator at Drupal Answers

3. How do I complain about this presentation?
 Email: mattd@whatscookin.com
 Twitter: @mpdonadio

4. So, what is Drupal Answers?
 From the About page:
Drupal Answers is a question and answer site for
Drupal developers and administrators. It's built and
run by you as part of the Stack Exchange network of
Q&A sites. With your help, we're working together to
build a library of detailed answers to every question
about Drupal.
http://drupal.stackexchange.com/
http://drupal.stackexchange.com/about

5. What does that mean?
 It’s a website where you can post questions about
Drupal and get answers from the Drupal community.
 In addition
– You can answer other questions
– You can edit questions and answers to improve them
– You can vote on posts that you think are good
– You can gain reputation points to impress you family and
friends

6. So, it’s just another forum?
 No, it’s not a forum
– Forums tend to be free form and are designed around
discussions
– DA is just about questions, their answers, and comments to
get clarity
 Anybody can edit questions and answers to improve
them
– Eliminates posts that just fix simple mistakes
 The community votes on questions and answers
– This help you determine what is really helpful

7. Does it replace the Drupal groups, forums, and issue
queues?
 The groups and forums facilitate discussion, which is
needed to hash out some topics
 The issue queues provide a central place to manage
their project (bug reports, patches, feature requests,
etc.)
– However, questions about modules are a good for DA

8. Is it official?
 It isn’t part of drupal.org or under the umbrella of the
Drupal Association
 However, several core contributors participate, as
well as many module maintainers

9. OK, how do I ask a question?
 Just goto the website and ask away
http://drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/ask

10. Seriously?
 Mostly, but keep a few things in mind
– You can create an account so you can gain reputation
– There are good ways to ask questions, and bad ways

11. What is a good question?
 A good question is
– Something that hasn’t already been asked and answered
– It demonstrates that you have put some effort into solving
the problem yourself
– It gives enough detail about your problem, but doesn’t go
into minutiae
– If it is a code problem, it shows the code you are having
trouble with
– It is on-topic for the site
http://drupal.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask

12. What do you mean by on-topic?
 The question has to be about Drupal, or a Drupal tool
 It can’t be a bug report about a module
 It can’t be a general PHP or server administration
problem
 It can’t be open ended
 It can’t be a general request for tutorials or other
online resources
 It can’t be a request for something that is primarily
opinion based
http://drupal.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic

13. My question has answers, what do I do now?
 Comment on the answers to get clarification
 Vote up good answers, and vote down bad ones
 If one of the answers helped you, you can mark it as
accepted.
– This shows future readers who may have the same issue
that this solved your problem.

14. I already know everything about Drupal, what can I do?
 Answer questions!
 Edit questions and answers
 Vote on questions and answers

15. How do I answer a question?
 Write up a detailed response, but don’t write a novel
 Provide links to references (especially modules and
API calls), but don’t just post a link to another site
http://drupal.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-answer

16. What is this reputation thing?
 Reputation is a rough measurement of how much the
community trusts you
 You earn reputation by
– Asking good questions
– Providing good answers
– Making good edits to posts
 You lose reputation by
– Asking bad questions
– Providing bad or incorrect answers
http://drupal.stackexchange.com/help/whats-reputation

17. I have a similar problem to a question I found, but I
don’t understand an answer. What do I do?
 Don’t post an answer to ask another question or to
get clarification
– It will get deleted
 Do post a comment

18. My question didn’t get answered, what can I do?
 You can edit your question to add additional details,
or to clarify your problem
 You can offer a bounty
– You trade some of your reputation to give your question
more visibility
– This traded reputation goes to a user you pick who helped
you out
http://drupal.stackexchange.com/help/no-one-answers

19. I keep hearing about moderators. Who are they and
what do they do?
 Everyone is a “moderator” on the site.
– Based on you reputation, you have the ability to edit and
vote on content that isn’t a good fit for the site
– Posts can be flagged for attention by someone who has
more privileges than you do
 The “diamond” moderators have a few special
privileges
– They keep things civil and clean up the mess
http://drupal.stackexchange.com/help/site-moderators

20. How do I learn more?
 Learn by participating
 Visit the help center
– http://drupal.stackexchange.com/help
 Ask a question on the meta site
– http://drupal.stackexchange.com/help/whats-meta
– http://meta.drupal.stackexchange.com/