It's a simple system that allows you to ask questions and receive answers. It's very similar to our current message boards but it has been tuned specifically to make it easier to spot the best answer to a given question, and to allow you to search and browse for answers to questions.

This system is different from our message boards in a number of ways.

Most importantly, questions and their answers are presented in a flat list (BBS style) instead of a threaded format. This is in keeping with more traditional Question and Answer style boards and helps emphasise working towards getting the best answer. However - we still provide a threaded discussion at the end of each question to allow clarification or rambling discussions.

We've also moved back to our old forum's voting system, whereby questions and answers can be voted on a scale instead of just good/bad. We tried to encourage members to vote Good question / bad question but it never really worked. We strongly believe that life works in shades of grey.

We have also worked to integrate this Quick Answers system into our main content system. When searching for content on the site you no longer need to search the forums then search the articles: you can now search from a single location and have all the results appear in one spot.

By moving to a flat-format we've also been able to offer different options for viewing answers: order by the top answers or order by the latest answers. If there are more answers than will fit on a page then you can page through and still keep the original question in view.

We also now allow anyone with sufficient reputation to edit any question or answer. By moving our Question and Answer system into our main content infrastructure we automatically gain versioning, rollback, and the ability for any member of sufficient level to edit the questions and anwers. Think a question is poorly worded? Then edit it! Not only does this help others answer it, it adds to your reputation.

A great side-benefit of our system is that we now support snippets and tips n' tricks. Got a small tip or piece of code that doesn't warrant an article? Post it as a Tip & Trick!

Finally, you will notice that there is now only one message board for questions and answers. We will keep the discussion-oriented boards open such as the Lounge, but everything else will be merged into one board (a long awaited goal!) which means no more cross posting, no more hunting around forums, and no more questions posted in the wrong forum. To ensure you don't get swamped we make it easy to set your filters so you see only those topics in which you are interested.

Because it's overdue. 4 years ago we started experimenting with different ways in which our forums could better serve the community. We tried flat (BBS) style forums, different voting systems, child forums or a single forum with filters (a system we built into our article content management system early).

Around a year ago we toyed with the idea of using our article content system as a replacement for our forum system, and once we had in place enough of the pieces for the article system (different articles types such as Technical blogs, versioning, editing permissions and parent-child article relationships) it all fell into place very easily.

Our forums just weren't well suited for targeted questions and answers. Discussion threads are difficult to follow and finding the best, or at least a good, answer was much harder than needed. Our forums are great for conversation threads so we're keeping the Lounge, Soapbox and other discussion-based forums.

We will keep the discussion-oriented boards open such as the Lounge, but all of the older technical question and answer forums will be closed. We have done our best to move the good content in these forum into the new system.

Both questions and tips/tricks provide the option to "accept" an answer or alternative, respectively. Only the author has this ability (with the exception that you cannot accept an answer or alternative that you are also the author of). This is done by clicking the "Accept Answer" or "Accept Alternative" buttons. The author also has the option to undo this operation. Though multiple solutions can be accepted we recommend choosing as few as possible. By far the most common scenario is to have one acception solution. But this depends, entirely, on the nature of the question or tip/trick.

We strongly encourage authors to choose an accepted solution as often as possible. Of course, assuming such a solution exists. When an answer/alternative is designated as accepted it is bordered and has a light-coloured background. It also appears at the top of the "Top Rated" tab.

The ability to edit posts is dependent on your levels for specific reputation types. The following describes one or more levels and a set of associated reputation types. You have edit permission if you are the author or if you match all the levels with any one of the associated reputation types. We're still fine-tuning these rules so they may be tweaked.

• Author
• Authority
• Editor
• Organiser

The ability to delete posts is also dependent on your levels for specific reputation types. The following describes one or more levels and a set of associated reputation types. You have delete permission if you are the author or if you match all the levels with any one of the associated reputation types. We're still fine-tuning these rules so they may be tweaked.

• Author
• Authority
• Editor
• Organiser

A tag that is "closed" can no longer be used to tag new questions. Only members with sufficient reputation are able to close tags. A tag may be closed for any of the following reasons:

• Is considered a duplicate of another tag – perhaps due to an alternative spelling.
• Is innappropriate to be used as a tag.
• Is obsolete and should no longer be attributed to new questions.

This option is only visible when updating an existing Quick Answers entry. By checking it you are marking the current edit as consisting of only cosmetic changes such as formatting, spelling or grammar. You would not check this if you are adding/removing content or reworking the post. The Code Project uses this flag to filter what is sent out on RSS subscriptions to these entries.

Reputation is something you gain - or lose - as you contribute to our communal knowledge base. Posting an article increases your reputation, but posting a bad article that other members down- vote decreases your reputation. If your goal is to increase your reputation then write good articles, vote for other good articles, hope that others in turn vote for your articles, and help out by organising and cleaning up the questions and answers. Vote them up, answer questions, or edit questions and answers that need a little help.

Full details can be on the Reputation system page.

The ability to create new tags depends on your reputation. Specifically, if you have the reputation level for any of the reputation types described below, you can create tags (if this is unclear see the Reputation system page for more info). We're still fine-tuning these rules so they may be tweaked.

• Author
• Authority
• Editor
• Organiser