

Launch: 37signals Answers - baha_man
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2122-launch-37signals-answers

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jcapote
Rails 3 must really be coming along for them to launch an app with it.

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dangrover
The UI looks really good! I think this solves the normal problem with stuff
like this.

I have blog comments on the blog on my site, but a very prominent and pretty
easy to use Support section. For some reason, people kept using the blog
comments as a generic contact form for me to help them with their highly
specific problem they're having with the product. I don't use Get Satisfaction
or forums for that reason because I don't think many people can really
understand anything more complicated than a simple email/contact forum, even
when it's made really clear how to use it.

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kprobst
Seems like the StackOverflow bug is spreading.

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kylemathews
or deeper understanding of human psychology and game mechanics are spreading.

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blasdel
This is really just a ticketing system in their unfeatured style, given that
only 37Signals staff can mark something as "answered", and they appear to do
so any time they reply to a question.

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jasonfried
We mark things as answers when they are answers. Anyone's reply can be marked
an answer.

It's mostly been us answering so far (we're in there all the time to keep
everything moving smoothly at launch), but over time other people will come in
and offer answers as well.

Here's a non-37signls answer, for example:
[http://answers.37signals.com/basecamp/132-printing-
sections-...](http://answers.37signals.com/basecamp/132-printing-sections-of-
the-site)

We expect to see more of these over time. We are also exploring ways to
incentivize people to answer each other's question.

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blasdel
That wasn't my point -- the impression was that questions get marked as
answered as soon as you've read it and either replied or picked an existing
answer. While you may be the sheriff, judge, jury, and executioner of your
product; you aren't the arbiter of the asker's mind. There's a reason none of
the existing systems work this way: not even YA or SO fucked this up when
cloning Ask Metafilter.

I checked back and it looks like you've refrained from insta-answering
discussion questions where you're having a back-and-forth.

I think a much better model would be to make the answered flag normally asker-
only, or do away with it all together.

Instead add a [staff] flag on questions that staff have answered in, and when
you think a normal user has already answered the question effectively (with or
without approval from the asker), you should explicitly call out their answer
as good (which then causes the [staff] flag to be added).

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bhiggins
And they're nuking the old forum's contents. Not that I care, since I don't
use any 37signals products, but this seems to be a typical 37signals move. I
suppose migrating or just archiving old content wouldn't have been opinionated
enough for them, or fit within a 2 week schedule.

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run4yourlives
What would be the benefit of holding on to the legacy stuff? It's not like
they have users on old versions of software.

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zeynel1
"Get help, share tips & tricks with other Basecamp customers."

Why not "Basecamp users." Sounds nicer, I think.

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thafman
Facebook has users, Basecamp has customers.

