How does the Q&A system work?

A questioner submits a question at http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-Questions.html. S/he is given the opportunity to include profile information and prior to final submission of the question will be given a list of articles that may address the issue. If the questioner chooses to submit his question, he receives a confirmation email with a copy of the question and a note to expect a response within 2-7 days.

The question is then placed in the Q&A system and marked as “Unassigned.” Each day, one member of the staff assigns questions received the previous day. Staff members may find that the question is best answered by an article on the site or choose to answer the question themselves. If the question is deemed appropriate for assignment, staff members review the list of available writers and assign the question to a writer. Questions will remain accessible in the system marked as “Unanswered.”

Writers receive questions to their email with a link through which to respond to the question. It is best practice to answer the question in a Word (or similar word processing program) document, save it, and then copy it into the Q&A system. When the response is completed, the writer follows the link from the assignment email, pastes the answer into the Q&A system, and hits submit.

The question is then placed in the Q&A system and marked as “Needing Approval.” Writers still have access to the question if it has been answered but not yet approved. However, the amount of time writers have access to the question varies dependent on when staff members approve the answers. Each day, staff members go into the Q&A system, read the responses, make any necessary edits, and then send answers to questioners.

The questioner receives an email with a copy of his question and the response. The email includes a link to follow up if he would like. It also includes a link to a survey asking for more demographic information, the amount of time to receive a response, and level of satisfaction with the response.

If the questioner chooses to send a follow-up question, it will be received to the Q&A system, marked as “Unassigned,” and generally be assigned to the writer who provided the previous response.

What information about writers is available to staff when assigning questions?

The Q&A system shows how many questions a writer is available to take on a weekly basis, whether the writer is currently assigned a question, and when the writer was last assigned a question. A brief writer profile, including information the writer has provided to the ministry regarding areas of interest or life experience, is also available. Assignors can limit the list of writers seen based on topical areas of interest including: apologetics, catholic, counseling, cults/religions, end times, pastoral/church, science/creation, and theology.

 

How do the articles work?

The database of articles has been generated over years through a combination of gauging which questions were commonly received into the Q&A system and researching common search terms to find what people are looking for. Each year a list of new articles to be written is prepared. Staff, contract writers, and volunteers have contributed to the articles over the years.

The question/answer exchange is never published to the website. At times, a particular question may seem fairly common and a particular answer be right on point so much so that one of the editors works the answer into a new article. If this happens, the writer will be informed and provided a link to the article for which his/her response was a template.