Member Question: Threaded Conversations in Askablogr?

Q: It seems people are using Askablogr to ask follow-up questions to their original question to keep the dialog going. Is there a way to post the related question as a question on the post in my blog?

Asked by Corky

A: Hi Corky, glad to see your Askablogr Q&A activity picking up, and thanks for the question. We've also noticed that our Q&A are creating conversational 'dead ends' and have been noodling on the best way to address that. My current 'hack' for this problem is to include a link in the current post to any previous post(s) it refers to, but that's admittedly not the most elegant solution. Another option we've discussed is to create a "threading" feature allowing readers to post follow-on questions to their original question, with all the related posts presented together. We haven't come up with a clean way to do that yet, but it's an option we like. The final approach we've discussed is to add a comment system similar to the one found on your blog platform, but that's just recreating one of the problems we're trying to solve (i.e., conversation via comment instead of up in the posts themselves).

Your question has increased our focus on this problem, and Craig and I will take a fresh look at alternative approaches when we meet this week. Thanks for bringing it up, and don't be surprised if I circle back to get your feedback on what we're thinking about.

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Member Question: Do We Support Multiple Blogs In One Profile?

Q: Can I have more than one blog added in my profile?

Asked by Catus Lee

A: Hi Cactus, welcome to Askablogr. I'm replying via my Askablogr account as a demo to show you how I've handled this. Right now, we don't support multiple blogs under a single member ID. Because I maintain two blogs - my personal one and the Askablogr product blog, I created two different member accounts, that route questions to two different email addresses.

I'd be interested to hear from other members if this is a popular request. If so, we'll add it to the feature request list and tackle it in a future release. Again, thanks for the question and welcome to the community. 

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More Testing: Anonymous Q&A Autopost to Blog

Q: Craig believes he's worked out the issues with auto-post of anonymous questions. I'm asking another anonymous one to verify that's the case.

Asked by Askablogr QA

A: When I post this answer, here's what I expect to see:

• An answer confirmation screen that includes links to the Q&A on Askablogr, and on the Askablogr blog
  
• The Q&A should be inserted as a post on the Askablogr blog
• That insert should include a footer link to ask another question, so readers who consume the posts via feed reader see the option to ask questions.

Let's see how this goes...

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Askablogr Question: Widget Install Hack for Unsupported Templates

Q: My blog has a *very* customized template, so you can't install a widget in it. Can't you just give me some HTML? Also, your widget will clash with my site -- Can I use my own CSS? Why the 200 char lim

Posted by royleban

A: Hi Roy, thanks for the question. Our recent wave of member signups has exposed a lo-o-o-ong list of areas that need attention, and supporting more types of widget installs is high on that list. Although I don't currently have a programmatic solution, a hack that several members have put in effect on their own is to register their blog so the automatic insert works, but strip the "ask me a question" url from the widget code and create a custom Ask button that works on their site. This doesn't give you access to the "recent askers" photostip, but it enables the basic flow for you and your readers. You can grab your individual member "ask" URL from your member profile page.

Thanks for the heads-up on the issue - we'll be scrambling to chase this and other feature needs for at least the next several weeks.

Askablogr Question: Q&A Workaround for Platforms that Disallow Javascript

Q: Using a WP.com blog that I believe strips <script> from the code. Is there a workaround?

Posted by toddwaller

A: Hi Todd, welcome to Askablogr! Not sure we have a workaround for the full script, butIf you just want to enable the ask-anwser flow, you can take the URL from the call-to-action (e.g., http://www.askablogr.com/question/ask?blogger_id=foo, where foo is your member ID) and drop it in as a text link in your sidebar. For this to work, you need to have registered your blog via the 'full install' option.

The widget works fine in most WordPress installs that we've come across so I'm also wondering if there's just a setting you can change to enable jscript widgets? (I'm not a WP master, but will dig around a little and see what I find). 

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Askablogr Question: When Will We Support Movable Type?

Q: Hey, when can we expect Movable Type Support? I know you support WP. I wanted to gun this into our blog (blog.questionpro.com) -- but got stumped. Cannot plug into MT...

Posted by Vivek

A: Hi Vivek, thanks for the question and sorry we're not able to support Movable Type users just yet. Long story short, we started with the easiest ones to integrate with (Blogger & TypePad) and are working our way down the list. Movable Type is the next platform on the roadmap, and now that you've made the request Craig and I will talk about how to get it done sooner. Glad to know that Askablogr is of interest and we'll circle back with you when MT is ready for action.