How can I find answers, get my questions answered, & help DHanswers grow?

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How can I find answers, get my questions answered, & help DHanswers grow?

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Asked 6 years ago by Bethany Nowviskie
Latest answer from Bethany Nowviskie
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Bethany Nowviskie
Admin
Gee, I'm wondering if one of our intrepid @DHanswers admins can enlighten us all on good ways to find information on this site. How can we all best use and contribute to good management of the knowledge in this growing, community-built knowledge-base?

If only someone doing, say, a post-doc in Information Management could offer some advice...
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Posted 6 years ago Permalink
Dorothea Salo
Member

Question: can the software be tweaked so that any registered site user can add tags to posts?

Posted 6 years ago Permalink
Julie Meloni
Admin
Best Answer
Replying to @Bethany Nowviskie's post:

Why yes. I can do that.

As DHAnswers grows (thanks! you all are awesome!) the admins continue to consider ways of making content more easily discovered. Here are some tips for the system as it exists now:
- Keep track of specific threads using "Favorites": if there's a question in particular that you would like to follow or save, mark it as a favorite (click the link that says "Add this topic to your favorites," on the question page). You can always access your favorites in your profile area, so even if the question drops out of sight on the main page, it will be saved in your profile (until you remove it).
- Use the Search (& a little Ctrl-F magic): the Search box in the header area of every page does just what you think it will, as it allows a basic keyword search and returns links to questions containing that keyword. Once on the search page proper you can restrict your search to a particular forum. Some things to note: the search is by default a Boolean OR, which means anything you put in the field will be treated as "if you match any of these words, then success!" so the fewer words in the search, the better results you will get. Also, the results link to the question, not the particular answer that contains that keyword. This is where the Ctrl-F (Command-F) "find on this page" comes in to play: to actually find the keyword you're looking for once you get to a question, use the "find" to see what's going on -- and the result may be on the 2nd or 3rd page of a long thread.
- Use the tags: the sidebar contains links to the top 20 tags in use across all questions; clicking on one of the tags will take you to a list of questions associated with that tag (note: clicking any tag as displayed on a question page will do the same thing). Big note: when posting a question, use the tags! Provide keywords that reflect the question and the range of answers (you can add/modify tags after the question is posted, and the admins occassionally go through and make sure question threads are using the best possible tags).
- Use the category browser, not just the "latest questions" list: especially in cases where the category contains but a (relative) few questions, it may be easier to visualize the information field when you're looking at 10 questions in the context of their category, compared to 15 "latest" questions disassociated from their categories.
Finally, please take a moment to suggest to the admins (at dhanswers@digitalhumanities.org) any topics you think should be sticky (at the top of the "latest answers" or the parent category), and any topics you think should be closed.

Oh (and I suppose this is the "finally"), and please do continue to add to the How can we improve the DHanswers site? thread!
Posted 6 years ago Permalink
Bethany Nowviskie
Admin

That's very helpful! Now, do you have advice on the best way to pose a question so that it gets good answers?

Posted 6 years ago Permalink
Julie Meloni
Admin
Replying to @Bethany Nowviskie's post:

Indeed I do.
- Pick the best category: If you can't figure out which category your question should go in, there are a couple possible reasons. For example (and most commonly), the question isn't specific enough. Secondarily, we don't have a category for the question, for some editorial reason (or we just missed it). When the latter is the case, e-mail dhanswers@digitalhumanities.org and ask for a change or explanation. When the former is the case, try to narrow your question further. We are really trying to remain focused on specific questions that produce clear answers, or in the case of more pedagogically-oriented questions, that produce specific processes/procedures/assignments to try in the classroom. Also bear in mind that we're trying to avoid the types of posts that specifically point people elsewhere—advertisements, calls for papers, and that sort of thing (best to use Twitter for that).
- Ask a clear question in the title: Users are going to see the title before anything else, either via @DHAnswers, the RSS feed, the e-mail notifications, or just the list at the site. A title phrased as "How do I do X" or "What is the best X" or "Thoughts on X" is more likely to get quick and valuable feedback than a question under a title like "Document Conversion?" which could actually be a question about "how", "what is", or "thoughts on." People are more likely to click through to read and possibly answer a question when they can easily tell the type of question being asked.
- Be as specific as possible when asking the question: In the humanities, we have a tendency to ask big, multi-part questions. But in a discussion space such as this, the "easy" questions—or the very clearly stated questions—are likely to get the quickest responses. Of course, this space also lends itself to discussion of the big issues, such as "Doing DH v. Theorizing DH," and that's great, but if you're looking for a list of software, books, or design tips, just ask that. If you ask a question, attempt to answer it yourself, then end up asking a different question by the end of your message, your potentially helpful friends are more likely to get a headache than they are to help you.
- However...DO take a moment to describe what you've already done to try to find an answer (if the question warrants it). For example, "I looked at Forum X but it was unhelpful" will allow us to be more efficient in our answer for we will neither have to go look at Forum X ourselves nor tell you to go look at Forum X. Instead, we can begin to find a better path to the answer, together.
- Provide specifics about your operating environment (when the question warrants it): If you are looking for help with a specific problem (tool usage comes to mind here), describe the environment in which it occurs, the diagnostic steps you took to figure out where the problem is occurring, any changes you made to the software or configuration, and, if you know, what you think you might try/what might be the problem, even if you’re hesitant to do it.
- When asking about code... remember that just saying "it doesn't work" is not the most helpful thing to do. Instead, something like "I am getting this error [paste it here] when I do [x task]. Here is the code around that line" (or something similar) is really helpful.
- Use some HTML to help with general readability, such as for unordered lists (bullet points) or numbered lists, but also for links. Linking text rather than pasting a really long URL makes the rest of your post easier to read. Easy-to-read posts enable helpfulness!
Posted 6 years ago Permalink
Bethany Nowviskie
Admin

Thanks, Julie! And we should probably add that there are many other places where the DH community gathers to share their experience and ask questions. Rather than point specifically to a set of specialist email lists (like TEI-L, etc.), I'll instead offer just a few other big gateways:

http://www.arts-humanities.net/
the CUNY Digital Humanities Resource Guide
http://www.hastac.org/

and, of course,

http://digitalhumanities.org/
and the searchable archives of the Humanist list.

We encourage everyone who responds to questions at DH Answers to point to the more specialized email lists and discussion fora where they are relevant and appropriate -- and also to refer people from those venues back here!

We're depending on the community not just to pitch in and answer questions here, but also to help map out the whole, helpful, international landscape of the digital humanities.

Posted 6 years ago Permalink

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