Q&A software

Q&A Software is online software that attempts to answer questions asked by users (Q&A stands for "question and answer"). Q&A software is frequently integrated by large and specialist corporations and tends to be implemented as a community that allows users in similar fields to discuss questions and provide answers to common and specialist questions.

There are numerous examples of Q&A Software in both Open Source and SaaS formats, including Qhub, OSQA and Stack Exchange. Standalone Q&A communities such as Quora or Yahoo! Answers aren’t traditionally in either category while operating in the Q&A market.^[1]

Background

Since the Internet became increasingly popular, many Q&A sites have begun to offer a Q&A service. Some of these sites, such as Quora are provided as a community, but their software is not open to commercial use. Other examples of sites similar to this include Yahoo! Answers.

The Q&A Software industry is split into two main sectors, SaaS solutions and Open Source software. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, many of which vary depending on whether the software is SaaS or Open Source.

Q&A Software is often provided to corporate and specialist sites, so the site and its users can be asked questions and then provide experts answers to them. It is particularly suited to question regarding specific industries. Users may learn by regularly answering questions or exchanging views with other industry specialists using the website.^[1]

Mechanics

Aims are similar to any forum software:

• ask a question
• answer a question
• correct/punish bad answers
• find a question you need the answer to
• find questions you can answer

What defines a system as Q&A software is generally:

• differentiate questions and answers (most extra features that affect answers should not affect the question)
• differentiate answers (replies to the question) and comments (replies to an answer)
• vote up/down answers
• sort answers by votes or questions by answered status
• accept an answer
• question tagging and tag search
• mark a question as a duplicate of another one

Comparison of Q&A software

Only self-hostable solutions are in scope for this table.^[2]

	Stable release date	Free software	Committers	Size	Multilingual	Language	Abuse prevention	Private questions	Authentication	Customisation	Web API	Export, import	Other
Answerhub		No
Askbot	2015-04-22[3]	Yes (GPLv3)	100+[4]	10k+ questions in several sites[5][6]	Yes[7][8]	Python	Partial[9] (moderators,[10] premoderation recommended[11])	Partial[12][13]	LDAP,[14] OpenID, OAuth[15]	Skins,[16] other[17]	Partial (read-only, only questions[18])	Yes (conversion from some apps,[19][20] server-side dump import/export[21])	Email Q&A,[22] autotweeting, other[23]
Atlassian Confluence Question		No[24]		25k+ questions in one site[25]								Unpublished migration script from OSQA exists.[26][27]
OSQA	2011? (2015 master)[28]	Maybe (GPLv3; open core version of Answerhub)	30+[29]	25k question top, 5k+ in multiple sites[30]			Maybe[31][32][33]
Phabricator Ponder	No (prototype)	Yes	0?								Maybe
Pligg core "story submission"[34]	2014-08[35]	Maybe (CC-BY)	5+	2k+[36]
Qhub		Yes
Question2Answer	2015-02[37]	Yes, GPL	5+[38]
Shapado	2012?	No[39]			Yes (originally translated in dozens languages as translatewiki.net[40])

References

1. "HOW TO: Set Up a Q&A Website in Minutes – the Best Options Reviewed & Compared". Inspired Mag. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
2. There are potentially more. https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/37953
3. "askbot 0.10.0".
4. "The Askbot Open Source Project on Open Hub".
5. "Questions - Ask LibreOffice".
6. "Questions - Ask Fedora: Community Knowledge Base and Support Forum".
7. "Domande - Ask LibreOffice".
8. "Better multilingual organization?".
9. "Questions - My site".
10. "Moderation in Askbot — Askbot 0.7.54 documentation".
11. "Are there logs we can look at to see how a user created an account?".
12. "Can you make private questions?".
13. "can askbot be a private membership site".
14. "Optional modules — Askbot 0.7.54 documentation".
15. "How can I add an oauth2 custom login provider to askbot ?".
16. "Skin system in Askbot — Askbot 0.7.54 documentation".
17. "Questions - My site".
18. "Askbot API — Askbot 0.7.54 documentation".
19. "Import other forums into Askbot — Askbot 0.7.54 documentation".
20. "[Fundraiser] Is it possible to migrate from OSQA to AskBot?".
21. "Askbot management commands — Askbot 0.7.54 documentation".
22. "Sending email to askbot — Askbot 0.7.54 documentation".
23. "Which features do you want in Ask Fedora?".
24. "Confluence Questions - Knowledge Sharing Software - Atlassian". Atlassian.
25. "Questions - Atlassian Answers".
26. "When will Atlassian be able to share the OSQA to Confluence Questions conversion scripts?".
27. "[CQ-1475] Publish AAC migration scripts - Atlassian JIRA".
28. "Download".
29. "The OSQA Open Source Project on Open Hub".
30. "What sites are running OSQA?".
31. "Is OSQA dead?".
32. "Lockergnome Community Q&A".
33. "OSQA spammers keep siging up".
34. "How can I create 'Question Answer' website using Pligg? - Pligg Support". Pligg CMS.
35. Pligg. "Releases · Pligg/pligg-cms · GitHub". GitHub.
36. "Top Users - Pligg Support". Pligg CMS.
37. q2a. "Releases · q2a/question2answer · GitHub". GitHub.
38. q2a. "Contributors to q2a/question2answer · GitHub". GitHub.
39. Commercial hosting at shapado.com, no repository available as of 2015, code changes up to ~2012 available at a repository archive.
40. "Translating:Shapado".