What is Drupal Answers?Drupaldelphia 2013

Who is the guy talking?

Matthew DonadioLead Developer at Night Kitchen InteractiveModerator at Drupal Answers

How do I complain about this presentation?

Email: mattd@whatscookin.com

Twitter: @mpdonadio

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

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

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

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

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

OK, how do I ask a question?

Just goto the website and ask away

http://drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/ask

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

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

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

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.

I already know everything about Drupal, what can I do?

Answer questions!

Edit questions and answers

Vote on questions and answers

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

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

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

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

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

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/