General on UserVoice

allow for users to be anonymous. at times I do not want to send specific response archived under me [updated]

2010-07-27T16:44:35+00:00

don't want to have one username. would like an anonymous username i can use as well.

Hover said:

Still the most popular…
Interestingly enough, anyone can just use multiple vark accounts connected to different XMPP accounts (provided that theirs XMPP client can do that) to ask and answer anonymously (well, pseudonymously…).

undo answer

2010-07-27T15:02:30+00:00

Nabila suggested:
Sometime we may type what we don't actually wanted to. Or some spelling mistake that may be interpreted by the Asking Person about the dumbness of answerer's mind. can you please make an undo button of answers those are given and UNDO button goes disable after 5 or 10 Seconds.

I want Aardvark Merchandise!

2010-07-26T07:51:01+00:00

Jason suggested:
T-shirts, hoodies, mouse-pads, iPhone bumpers, Aardvark plushies, etc etc etc!! :)

allow for users to be anonymous. at times I do not want to send specific response archived under me [updated]

2010-07-26T07:43:58+00:00

don't want to have one username. would like an anonymous username i can use as well.

Jason said:

I'd rather see other improvements come before this, but I don't see the harm. I would not use this feature myself, however.

Better question response handling

2010-07-26T01:08:49+00:00

Gordon suggested:
Oftentimes, I forget to add the user's name when responding to a question I'm asked, and Aardvark interprets it as a new question from me. (Sometimes, this is because I took a long time to answer.) Aardvark should have better detection to determine if I'm actually asking a question. (The lack of a question mark could be a good indicator!) This could also tie in nicely with the suggested feature of being able to indicate when a question was answered.

make an android app [updated]

2010-07-25T18:09:41+00:00

Google > Apple

David said:

^3 votes.

allow for users to be anonymous. at times I do not want to send specific response archived under me [updated]

2010-07-25T10:29:39+00:00

don't want to have one username. would like an anonymous username i can use as well.

HiddenKnowledge said:

I think experienced users should be permitted to ask anonymous questions.

Cater to Programmers and Web Developers [updated]

2010-07-25T09:33:44+00:00

I'd like to see an API for Aardvark so I can easily create widgets for my sites or other sorts of applications to tap Aardvark.

James Martin said:

I recently wrote a script that will grab your n-most listened to artists on Last.fm and similar services, and 'like' or 'favorite' those artists on GetGlue.com. I can easily reimplement the script to add those artists to your list of topics on Aardvark. With an API, I'd promptly do just that.

Add Aardvark to enterprise social networks (like Jive, Sharepoint etc.)

2010-07-25T08:51:52+00:00

Yonatan Snir suggested:
It would be amazing to use the Aardvark engine for Enterprise needs. Running the engine on an internal social community (used by our employees for collaboration) and our customer’s social community (used to solve product issues and questions, sales and marketing promotion), enabling to ask a question in the community, and the engine will refer it to the relevant people based on their previous answers\contributions and their profile.

RSS Feed For Open Questions?

2010-07-24T23:49:54+00:00

Squishy suggested:
How difficult would it be to set up an RSS feed for open questions? (questions for which nobody provides any answers for within say... ten or, even five... minuets) These questions then would then appear on a feed which would be accessible to anybody with an account, but questions that made it to the feed would be removed after the user replied thanks! to a response or even without a response (a single that they either had the information they wished to find or no longer needed an answer) I don't know how difficult this would be to set up but I think it would help people who's questions now go unanswered for long periods of time while a person to answer it is found, even if somebody is actually waiting to answer a question. It also could be a good alternative for people who don't to leave their instant messaging program open for one reason or another but still want to have access to Aardvark.

add a 'wikipedia' command, like 'google' [updated]

2010-07-24T23:29:21+00:00

Just like you can simply reply with 'google' to send related search results, a 'wikipedia' command would also be useful if you think Wikipedia would have the right answer.

Squishy said:

Mmm i understand and all about the "personal touch" but sometimes just straight information is best in which case a narrowed down link to a trusted source could be best... just my two cents...

Make the IM bot smarter about "away" and "inactive" statuses [updated]

2010-07-24T19:27:49+00:00

I use the IM bot for Windows Live Messenger and I run Pidgin for Windows. Pidgin (and Microsoft's official client) support both the "away" status and an "inactive" feature that allows you to be marked as aways based on the computers' detection of your presence (idle). The bot, however, doesn't seem to understand really well that I'm away. Even though you can see that as good, as for I'll get questions and answers to check when I'm back, it also means I'm missing what I didn't need to as I'm not there. I believe that an option to "not receive IM messages when inactive or away" is a nice addition.

feen said:

I'm not getting those messages anymore. I think it was fixed. Thanks, Alison!

Append "Not a doctor" or auto reply "Seek Proffesional Medical Help" to medical questions. [updated]

2010-07-24T14:23:27+00:00

Instead of allowing users to reply as if they are legitimate medical practitioners, always reply "Seek a doctor" or something similar to medical questions. Not only are people asking things that they obviously should be taking immediately to a doctor, "Recently i am getting pain in vagina area. A Culture test of urine showed puss cells in urine. What could be the reason?" and, I can't find it but I saw one the other day where someone asked "My open heart surgery staples are coming out, what should I do" AND, "I had my gallbladder out on friday andam having intense itching and pain in one of the incesions near where the gallbladder was". There really is no replacement for common sense. This is a huge liability at the moment. What if people told someone to do something ridiculous, but sounded legitimate, like "spread your stitches and pour hydrogen peroxide in there to clear out any infection," or what everyone wants to hear "Just ignore it, it should go away soon enough." I know when I worked at another answering service they always said "Not medical advice" or "Not a doctor" when answering medical questions, and it seems like Aardvark should do this too, at least to inform people they aren't necessarily getting real medical advice, and to inform those people that they should go to a doctor instead of blindly trusting anonymous people on the internet.

Drake said:

Ryan: I've had questions like "my surgery staples are bleeding can i put hydrogen peroxide on it"

Don't show questions that someone has already solved [updated]

2010-07-24T04:35:04+00:00

I mean for example that user A writes a question, user B answers it and, some minutes later, user A resubmits. The problem is that the user B sees that question again and, if he doesn't notcie that it is the same user, he answers the same. It is difficult to understant, but it is a big problem in Aardvark.

Squishy said:

^_^ I think this would be a great idea... you could also have it where if the person didn't like the answer they could request somebody give another one... people could then vote later on which is really better in general? maybe?

stop answering

2010-07-24T04:25:33+00:00

Star questions.

2010-07-23T23:56:57+00:00

Jason suggested:
Allow me to queue questions that I want to answer later, that I don't have the resources to answer now. Like when I am on my iPhone, and have the answer at home.

Cater to Programmers and Web Developers [updated]

2010-07-23T02:37:35+00:00

I'd like to see an API for Aardvark so I can easily create widgets for my sites or other sorts of applications to tap Aardvark.

Andrius said:

I think about browser extensions and a kde plasmoid

Add "why" function to email and website [updated]

2010-07-22T18:12:40+00:00

The "why" command via IM is extremely useful for me to understand aardvark better and refine my interest topics, which would make me more useful for aardvark's service; plus, it's fascinating in its own right. But there is currently no way to trigger the "why" function when receiving questions via email or via the website. Since the function already exists, I'm guessing it should be comparatively easy to icnorportae it in these forms as well.

nathan said:

That would be sooo nice! Thanks for asking! :]

gender options [updated]

2010-07-22T18:11:32+00:00

I'd really appreciate not being restricted to just 'male' or 'female' (which are sex, and not gender anyways).

nathan said:

I don't get it...I mean, you are kind of one or the other...

Show me questions and answers I can browse. [updated]

2010-07-22T18:09:25+00:00

I am a curious person. I'd love to look through a list of questions that have been answered and choose a few that interest me. I would no doubt find some that encouraged me to participate more. It'd be best to choose from topics, but even a random list would be fun.

nathan said:

Thats a great idea! Thanks for that! :]

make an obvious link to the Aardvark blog from the homepage [updated]

2010-07-22T18:07:26+00:00

This community page is the first place I learned of your blog. And "community" is not a precise description for a category that would lead to the company's blog.

nathan said:

I think that is a really good idea! Thanks for that. :]

IM commands!

2010-07-22T18:06:06+00:00

nathan suggested:
I think it would be super helpful if you put the IMing commands (e.i "google", "who",) and others in the main site. I love the IMing commands and I think they would just be super helpful if you put them in the main site. Thanks! :]

Put more juice in the refer button

2010-07-22T17:59:13+00:00

nathan suggested:
I would love to refer questions to people- but I forget what they are good at. Instead of just seeing there name, do you think you could add what they are good at? Thanks! :]

See answers from Watch live... [updated]

2010-07-22T17:56:54+00:00

It would be great if users could see the answers provided to the questions that just got answered under "Watch live..." As it is now, you only see the question asked. There are two reasons this would be good: 1) It would allow people who know the answer see what was said, and perhaps expand on that answer if they have additional knowledge. 2) Sometimes I want to see the answer to a question, but I don't want to flood my network with questions.

nathan said:

That would be AMAZING! Please do that! :] Thanks!

work on Google Wave integration and be ready when it's there [updated]

2010-07-22T17:54:36+00:00

The upcoming service from Google (wave.google.com, www.wave.me) could integrate well in a collaborate waves.

nathan said:

That would be totally awesome!!! Please do that! :] Thanks

allow me to answer my own question if I learn the answer later (i.e. create a note on it) [updated]

2010-07-22T17:53:16+00:00

nathan said:

Yeah! I think that would be awesome! Great idea. Thanks! :]

add a close button to the pop up msgs

2010-07-22T09:35:57+00:00

Ximeng suggested:
for example, the pop up messages by clicking a "just answered question" tag are quite sight-blocking

make an obvious link to the Aardvark blog from the homepage

2010-07-22T01:06:38+00:00

Lisa suggested:
This community page is the first place I learned of your blog. And "community" is not a precise description for a category that would lead to the company's blog.

Username/login/password questions are spamming out users with special knowledge!

2010-07-22T01:04:16+00:00

Warren suggested:
I run a YouTube channel that currently has over 3,100+ subscribers but I rarely get asked about that facet of my YouTube experience. 90% of questions tagged under *YouTube* 90% end up being about someone who has forgotten their username/login/password. It's annoyed me to the point of taking that area of expertise off my Aardvark topics. Sadly, that defeats the whole point of users with special knowledge being able to easily answer more interesting questions. I don't think Aardvark is meant to be tech support...

create a user-friendly alternate to commands

2010-07-22T01:02:00+00:00

Lisa suggested:
I understand this is a big part of the Aardvark system, but having to look-up and learn these commands prevents me from answering and asking questions quickly and from multiple devices. I don't know coding but I know other stuff, and I have a lot of other friends similarly profiled, and this is a huge barrier to adopting Aardvark more fully and extensively. I need clickable icons or words for the most common functions like (for me) answer, delay, hold on, retag, etc.

make an action-oriented version of aardvark

2010-07-21T20:44:42+00:00

Ethan suggested:
Use Aardvark technology to connect people's skills (instead of topics) with people who need help (instead of answers). Micro-volunteering I guess? I could see this replacing our failing economic structure someday...

online

2010-07-20T21:03:54+00:00

improve use of categories

2010-07-20T18:34:29+00:00

Christopher suggested:
We should allow the person answering a question to categorize it. Then Aardvark could send more questions in those categories (or in combinations of those categories). I think this would improve the matches between me and the questions I get.

"don't know"

2010-07-19T00:50:44+00:00

an anonymous user suggested:
Figure out a way to prevent "I don't know" answers, because they stop the search for a real answer.

Option to auto-mute on Android/mobile.

2010-07-18T18:34:01+00:00

Thom suggested:
Google Talk for Android has the option to broadcast mobile status, i.e. my friends can see that I am only logged in on my phone. I would love to see an option in Vark that can detect my mobile status and "auto-mute" or not send me questions while I am mobile.

bug: bad answers can be flagged more than once

2010-07-18T14:25:06+00:00

Andrius suggested:
"Flag" link is always available even if you've already flagged the answer before. Every time I enter http://vark.com/t/bTGXQa I'm able to flag it again

Add a "homework help" category to etiquette. [updated]

2010-07-18T01:04:32+00:00

I've also noticed quite a few questions phrased strikingly like homework questions. While I don't feel that I should be answering these questions completely as I would other questions, I hate to turn these questions away because I see Aardvark as being a valuable resource for homework help, if used properly. Maybe you can add etiquette instructions for when asking questions about homework so that people answering questions can know when to answer completely or when to only give information about how to get to an answer.

Kimberley said:

I wasn't aware that asking questions was bad for learning. It's not like they're going to be able to ask aardvark the answers to exams, so who cares?

Let me tag / add a category to questions I receive.

2010-07-18T01:02:07+00:00

Kimberley suggested:
I get a lot of questions that have nothing to do with me (for example, restaurants in cities that I don't live anywhere near, etc.) When this happens via IM, I can retag it by typing tag. However, I don't see any way to do that on the website itself. If you add this feature, it will make aardvark more useful for everyone. It could also automatically send you a note that another user had tagged the question, and you could review those to help improve your automatic tag detection system.

add a category to let a user ask someone to help w/a task, e.g., edit a doc, code review a function. [updated]

2010-07-18T00:59:47+00:00

Kimberley said:

I would. I'm studying usability / tech writing and enjoy editing as well. Especially if they wanted to be a future job reference ;)

Add prompting to qualify questions based on tag category [updated]

2010-07-18T00:59:12+00:00

For certain tags (eg "software") there seem to be a lot of questions where someone hasn't bothered to include enough detail to answer the question. In the software example, if someone is asking "Can you recommend good panoramic photo stitching software" it would be helpful to prompt them for the O/S version and budget desired.

Kimberley said:

This is not only useful, it would also likely result in more people answering questions. I can't answer questions about software that's specific to OSs that I rarely use.

Some people aren't techsavvy enough to immediately realize what they need to put into questions like that, but if you prompt them, they'll say ohhh, yeah, guess that would help.

Notify my how my answer has been rated [updated]

2010-07-17T04:08:12+00:00

The rating possibilities are very narrow, but anyway I would like to know if my answer gets rated as not helpful so that I do not send simalar answer to similar question in the future.

Sec said:

I think this is a good idea, but there should be a way to give feedback without telling the person what you rated them as.

allow for users to be anonymous. at times I do not want to send specific response archived under me [updated]

2010-07-17T01:43:46+00:00

don't want to have one username. would like an anonymous username i can use as well.

Anna said:

Not sure if this has been said, but a tickbox with the option for anonymity could be handy.

Add "quiet hours" so 'vark doesn't IM my phone at 2am. [updated]

2010-07-15T19:56:51+00:00

I've got an IM capable phone (Android G1) and 'vark frequently IM's me in the middle of the night with questions. I'd prefer to just say "Don't IM me between 10pm and 9am" and have that a setting in my account. Additionally, you could restrict by day of week, or arbitrary date ranges. But, the most important would be a global "quiet hours" that applies every day.

Arjumand said:

I saw the existing options for allowing aardvark to ask questions, but I'm with Michael, having more fine-grained control over the hours would be nice. I'm always awake at 9pm, but 3am is a different story.

Allow me to use the 'see' command after I answer a question [updated]

2010-07-15T19:52:58+00:00

If someone asks me a question and I can only provide part of the answer I would like to use the 'see' command after I answer with what I know to see the other responses the asker gets.

Arjumand said:

I would like an option to enable this, by default, for all questions I answer.

auto-search over answer history in case theres a high chance this question has been answered before. [updated]

2010-07-14T17:40:33+00:00

Theres probably a lot of questions... especially technical questions...that crop up over and over again. It would be nice if answer-history was used to give instant response's to these questions. (that is, if a question looks almost identical). As this site grows, this would become more and more powerfull. And of course, it can still be submited for humans -as well-. Its just this would make the site more efficient, as less people will need to answer stuff already answered. Also, perhaps only "accepted" solutions could be put into this search system.

Tritonio said:

We really need this. Aardvark can become a huge knowledge database without loosing it's current character. I don't see why I should answer a question if the asker would be happy with an older answer. Something that has been answered shouldn't be answered again unless the one that asked isn't satisfied with the most recent answer. So just show some possible answers to the asker and ask him if he is satisfied with them. If he is then fine, we are done. If he is not or if he doesn't answer then send that question to someone.

Also having this database indexed by google and presented in google search results in a small box would be pure awesomeness...

geeta mehay

2010-07-14T04:11:56+00:00

make an android app [updated]

2010-07-13T23:22:24+00:00

Google > Apple

Ray said:

there is an app inventor now! use that if laziness overcomes you!

Make it possible to IM via Yahoo, Gmail-Chat, ICQ, MSN, Skype or Facebook IM! [updated]

2010-07-13T19:23:21+00:00

Think of users who does not have AIM, and these people is forced to go to download AIM, register their Username, restart computer, then open internet, register your screename on Aardvark... Sounds long, right? So i think we need to expand range of IM possiblity.

Mike said:

You can use Gmail chat, MSN, or Yahoo! Messenger. There is no option for AIM, which I use regularly and would like to see added, along with Facebook IM. I believe Skype is coming soon.

Link to question/answer page in email replies.

2010-07-13T06:17:46+00:00

'Lin suggested:
When I get email replies, I don't always recall what question the asker originally asked, if it's been awhile. In fact, I just spent a half hour trawling through all 524 of my answers to find one... which I couldn't locate. This problem could be very easily fixed by including the share link (http://vark.com/t/XXXXXX) in the email.

Cater to Programmers and Web Developers [updated]

2010-07-13T02:40:47+00:00

I'd like to see an API for Aardvark so I can easily create widgets for my sites or other sorts of applications to tap Aardvark.

Brooks said:

I'd like to use it for questions among users in a niche community we've created that has rich topic pages and will have basic share/comment/like functionality. These users have a specific reason to learn from and support one another. Using Vark to enable social search on the site on top of that rich information layer is clearly the way to go.