AnswerHQ Features - How to use them to your advantage

by crinrict
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Original Post

AnswerHQ Features - How to use them to your advantage

[ Edited ]
Hero

This thread is for introducing the Features that AnswerHQ provides to us helpers to make live a little easier. 

 

The pictures in this guide refer to the old AHQ look. It's still similar as shown but the naming might be a bit different.

 

Table of Content

 

  1. Macros - What are they and how to use them
  2. The @ feature
  3. How to find someone's earlier posts
  4. Keeping up with your cases
  5. About Solutions

Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



Important Threads


Message 1 of 6 (13,130 Views)

Macros - What are they and how to use them

[ Edited ]
Hero

Macros are a great too to save time on answers you give over and over. It allows you to save up to 19 text blocks to be used directly in your answer.

 

Step 1: Accessing Macros

 

You find the macros in your settings and click on the Macro Tab

Macro 1.png

Macro 2.png


Step 2: Set your Macrio


Enter a title and the text for your macro. You can use HTML Code if you want. The title is what you'll later get to choose from so make sure you know what title is which macro.

 

Macro4.png

 


 

Step 3: Enter the text into your answer

 

Once you'll answer to a post, you'll see a drop-down box in next to the blue QUOTE Button. Simply choose the macro you want to enter into your post to have it automatically added. HTML text should automatically be transformed into Rich Text

 

 

Macro_3.png

 

Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



Important Threads


Message 2 of 6 (12,864 Views)

The @-Feature

[ Edited ]
Hero

Totally outdated. @ just works now.

 


 

Hate it when you take a long time make a post to answer someone just to never hear from the user again ? That often happens if the users posts their questions in multiple forum or finds a solution themselves and then totally forget about the post they made. They forgot to subscribe to their threads and because of this, never check back.

 

Thankfully AnswerHQ has a feature, that allows you to address the user and they will get an email about it, including a link to the thread.

 

How to use the @

 

To use this feature, you need to be in Rich Text Mode. It won't work if you do it in HTML mode.

 

Simply start by writing an @ and then you can either c/p th username or start typing it. You will then get a list of names to choose from. Choose the one you want 

 

 

if you switch to HTML mode it should then look like this

 

<p>&nbsp;<li-user login="crinrict" uid="166"></li-user>&nbsp;</p>

My username and id will be replaced by the user you choose to address.

 

You can add multiple users in one post, the limit is currently set to 10 users.

 

Restrictions

 

  1. This feature does not work in Quick Reply
  2. Be aware that only levels Vanguard and up can make use of this feature. Lower ranks won't get the possibility to choose the userid/name.
  3. Each User has the possibilty to turn off those notifications but since they are on by default, it's very like they did not do that. The option can be found in HQ Settings : Subscriptions & Notifications --> Notification Settings (see pic)

 

Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



Important Threads


Message 3 of 6 (12,865 Views)

How to find someone's earlier posts

[ Edited ]
Hero

Some people make multiple posts on the same issue. There's those that just accidently double post and then there's those that start in one thread and then suddenly continue in a new one (probably because they can't find their old one anymore).

 

AnswerHQ lets you find your old posts (or someone elses find pretty easily). They are in the users profile which can be quickly accessed by clicking on the username in their posts or the overviews.

 

You'll see their five last posts directly on the page or you can click on VIEW ALL to see all the posts a user has ever made

 

A quick glance to the right side of the post will tell you how many posts they have made already and if you think there might be useful info/duplicate info in any of the other threads the user has made, you can check those out as well before giving an answer. If there are multiple threads about the same issue, it's best to either ask a CM or Hero to merge them so that all the info is in one place, or tell the user in to keep to one thread with a link to the tread you have answered in. Depends on the info that is posted.

 

Also educate the users by telling them how to re-find their own threads.

 

You can use this piece of text for that.

 

To find your own threads, you can click on the little triangle in the upper right corner of your screen next to your user name and choose HQ Profile. 

You can also subscribe to your threads to get an email if someone answers you. To do so, activate the check box in the right hand side under the title Subscriptions that appears when you in the post question mode or select Subscribe from the Topic Options menu if you're viewing a thread.

 

 

 

Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



Important Threads


Message 4 of 6 (12,847 Views)

Keeping up with your cases

[ Edited ]
Hero

Once you start helping someone, it's important to keep up with the thread if the user gets back to you. Even if someone else has replied to the thread in the mean time, do try to post too even if it's just a ... what ... said. Even if you just send the users to the game advisors, it's good to check back if the user has added some more info. Sending them to CS might not have been the correct way to go.

 

You have several options how you can go about this and you have to figure out what works best for you.

 

Method 1: Subscribe to a thread

 

You can subscribe to as many threads as you like and you have two options to do so. Either while replying or from the topic options. If you answer a lot of questions, this is not necessarily the best method unless you don't mind tons of emails but this is the only method that will ensure you don't miss ANY answers.

 

 

Method 2: Check your profile for answers in threads you have answered

 

This method is not always reliable and I found that I miss threads this way but it's still better than not keeping up at all.

 

To use this method go to your HQ Profile and click VIEW ALL on your latest posts. The last column new tells you if someone else has answered in this thread and also who made the last answer (removed the names from the pic for privacy reasons)

 

You can then just click on those threads and check on the answer. 

 

 

Method 3: Always check all new answers in a certain forum

 

Most of us have a few forums/games we check frequently and that's the forums you should keep up with. This method might prevent you from answering in threads you have helped in but others have helped too.

 

It method probably only works for those who are here daily and have the ambition to leave no thread unanswered in a particular forum. 

 

First you need to find the last post you have answered in. Since the latest posts does not tell you on which page those are on, you need to go to your forum and click on one of the pages until you find your username and then start answering your way from back to front or just start with the first page until you have answered everything. It's up to you if you want to check on threads a fellow helper has answered in last.

Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



Important Threads


Message 5 of 6 (12,834 Views)

About Solutions

[ Edited ]
Hero

Introduction

 

Accepted solutions has two purposes. It shows the helpers on here that an issue has been resolved and does not require further help and it helps the next user with the same issue resolve theirs without having to ask again. Also users can only search for accepted solutions only and they have more importance on the search engine overall.

 

This is how it should work ideally but unfortunatly, it doesn't always. Many users don't accept solutions, accept them when their issue is not resolved or post in someone else's resolved issue thread.

 

To educate the users, it's good if the helpers are aware of the possibilities and why something is done a certain way.

 

Detailed Instructions how Accepting Solutions works can be found here: Accepting a Solution - How do I do it and why?

 

Types of Accepted Solutions

 

The feature is currently used in two different ways: The one it was intentend for that works as described in the linked post (Type 1) but it is also used on long threads with issues many are facing to give suggestions (Type 2)

 

The second type is a good way of troubleshooting current issues. If many users have the same issue, instead of posting the same thing to everyone, the threads are usually merged together by a Hero or CM and one post with the current information is marked as solution. That post should be kept up-to-date with the newest info and users can just click on the link in the first post to quickly find the current status.

 

Another way of doing this is making a floated thread with all info in the first post where everything is merged into. Both ways work.

 

Accepting Solution

 

A solution should be accepted if the issue is completely solved for the user that started the thread. Do check on the threads you have helped with that are marked as such and make sure it is solved. If you're unsure, ask the user if it was their intention to mark it as solved and if not, revoke the solution (see below).

 

Tell them to rather give XP if they appreciate the effort of someone helping if their issue is not solved by that.

 

If someone says their issue is resolved and they have not accepted a solution, also ask them to please accept one since it helps the next person.

 

Revoking a Solution

 

There are a few reasons why users should revoke a solution. The main one being that they pressed it by accident. 

 

This feature should not be used to re-used a solved problem for another problem. The users should make a new thread for that.

 

To revoke a solution, go to the post that has it and choose Not the solution from the Options Menu. This can only be done by the started of the thread.

 

 

Posting in a solved thread

 

There are always users that post in a solved thread. Sometimes this can be useful if they have another suggestion to add or just to say that it worked for them too. 

 

This is especially true for Type 2 post. If you see someone posting another working suggestion in such a thread, it's good to PM the user that has the solved post and inform them of the new suggestion so they can add it to the solution (or PM any CM or Hero)

 

If a solution in a type 1 post didn't work for someone or if they need further help, it's better to tell the user to open their own thread and start over. Not all solutions work for everyone so individual is better. Do ask them to post what they have tried (or maybe link the other thread stating that this didn't work for them)

 

Searching for solved threads

 

On the search page, the users have the possibility to only search for solved threads.

 

To do so, just check Solved under By metadata

 


Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



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