Ask B&N

[BN_AlexG Administrator]

Hi All,

Some of you may have already noticed our new addition to the Community, the "Ask B&N" q&a board.

I'm happy to finally have a working version available for all of you and look forward to creating a quick (hopefully) one stop portal to our BN staff and the community. Not to fret, our discussion and other support boards will remain and in the coming weeks you'll see more changes to the Q&A.

So head on over and feel free to ask away. 

NOOK Central is also coming along rather nicely and should also be available within the next few weeks.

Thank you all for your continued support and for all the great discussions.

- Alex

[MacMcK1957]

Not wanting to be rude, but the navigation on it is awful.  It seems Lithium has a bunch of different ways of formatting messageboards, and most of them are really bad.  Why not just use the standard default view style which seems to work just fine for most of the other boards?

[Sun_Cat]

Thanks, Alex. I'm seeing some odd behavior with the new board. When I go to it using your link or from the main Community page, I see only five posts under the heading "Resolved Questions in Ask B&N." It's clear that there are more, since on the Community page it says there are 536 new posts on the board. Some of those not listed on the "Resolved Questions" page can be gotten to via the laurels leaderboard for the new board, so they're really there. They just aren't listed on the board's landing page.

One more thing. Would you please correct the typo in the board's description on the Community page? It says "Your new home for questions directly to B&N and it's staff." That should be its not it's. 

[Sun_Cat]

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MacMcK1957 wrote:

Not wanting to be rude, but the navigation on it is awful.  It seems Lithium has a bunch of different ways of formatting messageboards, and most of them are really bad.  Why not just use the standard default view style which seems to work just fine for most of the other boards?

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I second the motion.

[keriflur]

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Sun_Cat wrote:

One more thing. Would you please correct the typo in the board's description on the Community page? It says "Your new home for questions directly to B&N and it's staff." That should be its not it's. 

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I second this motion.

[BN_AlexG Administrator]

Hi MacMcK1957,

Not rude at all, thank you for the feedback.

That was taken into consideration during design, and we opted on this format for two reasons.

1. It gives the Q&A a distinct, look and feel 

2. Since the Q&A is intended to be just that, questions and answers, a discussion style board probably wouldn't have made sense.

In time the Post Your Question field will become an even more powerful search tool within the QA, as it will aggregate more and more relevant answers. 

However, your input is noted and will be taken into account for the next iteration.

- Alex

[BN_AlexG Administrator]

Sun_Cat,

I've increased the number available from 5 to 30, this seems like an alright number for now but if more are requested I can easily make that change. Also, the option to view all is at the bottom right of the column.

I'll soon be reintroducing Category Experts, with real ranking structures and perks directly correlated to QA performance. The geek in me is really excited about this. 

Ideas & Suggestions are on their way back as well as the community requested "Outtage" board. As with everything, legal details are being ironed out and I hope to have that up very soon.

Again, thank you all for being the life blood of what we have here. Feel free to send me any other feedback or motions 

Oh yea and in a few hours customizable avatars will be available to everyone...enjoy.

- Alex

[Sun_Cat]

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BN_AlexG wrote:

Sun_Cat,

I've increased the number available from 5 to 30, this seems like an alright number for now but if more are requested I can easily make that change. Also, the option to view all is at the bottom right of the column.

I'll soon be reintroducing Category Experts, with real ranking structures and perks directly correlated to QA performance. The geek in me is really excited about this. 

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Thanks, Alex. Could you clarify the intended usage of the Ask B&N board? Is it only for questions that only B&N staff can answer? Or is it to be used for peer support too? If the former, then are we non-B&N folks supposed to refrain from answering questions posted there? If the latter, then how does it differ from the existing peer support boards?

The threads you've moved there look like mostly peer-answered questions. Along with the new ranking structures you mentioned, it sounds more like another form of peer support. That's why I'm asking.

[BN_AlexG Administrator]

Good question..seems I tipped my hand.

This QA is a replacement for the old "Ask your Community Manager"  boards, so along that vein it's primarily a spot for direct interaction from me and other moderators. However, peer input is welcome.

With that said, it will also be a proving ground of sorts for what eventually is going to be NOOK Q&A, in NOOK Central. That will soley be peer generated.

[keriflur]

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BN_AlexG wrote:

I'll soon be reintroducing Category Experts, with real ranking structures and perks directly correlated to QA performance. The geek in me is really excited about this. 

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Will there be a post explaining how the levels work?  Right now it seems like some sort of voodoo.