We launched the Ask a Question feature back in 2013 and since then we've had almost 8,000 questions asked through that area. It's been a very popular and helpful feature for gardening newbies who come here asking for help with their gardening problems.

Historically, NGA had a "Q&A" feature that was similar. People submitted questions and those were answered by various NGA staff members. There are many tens of thousands of Q&A items in that old system.

So, what we've done is made a brand new system for people to ask and answer questions. You can see it by clicking on the Community tab up top, then click on "Gardening Knowledgebase".

At the top of that page, you can click on "Add the Knowledgebase to your watched forums list". If you do, then it will appear in your forums just like any regular forum, and you'll get notified when new questions or answers are posted,, just like usual. But it's not a forum, it's a whole new interactive feature that can do much, much more than the forums.

People can ask questions like always, and then you can post answers. But better still, you can post other kinds of responses, as well. So, instead of an answer, you might want to simply comment on the question, or ask the person some questions of your own. So you can do that without providing an "official" answer.

Also, you can view other people's answers, and post your own comments to those answers, all without providing a new answer of your own.

Or, if you think the answer given wasn't sufficient, you can offer a brand new answer of your own.

Additionally, this system has a sophisticated voting system. If you see a very good question, you can upvote that question by giving it a thumbs up. In so doing, you will improve the score of that question. Or, if it's a bad question you can downvote it by clicking the thumbs down icon. In this way, the very best questions can be seen at the top of the Knowledgebase homepage.

Voting also works for answers. So if you see a great answer, give it a thumbs up! Or, if someone gives an unhelpful answer, downvote it. When people later come to view the question, they will see the answers sorted by votes. So the best answers will automatically float to the top.

All votes are anonymous.

Also, people can categorize their questions when they ask. So if it's a vegetable question, they click on the Vegetables category during the submission process. In this way, you can view knowledgebase questions based on the categories.

I consider this program to be in beta right now. Over time, we'll add numerous additions to this feature. Eventually I want to be able to give special microbadges to those people who give the most upvoted answers and stuff like that. I also want to give the option to lock a question and link it to a different question that was already asked. So that maybe in the future we'll only have one question for each kind of question, and all answers can go to that one place. Any future duplicates would be locked and linked to the original one.

Anyone who is currently watching the Ask a Question forum should go ahead and add the knowledgebase to their watched forums so they can start keeping an eye on it.

If you have any questions or ideas about this feature, please post away!

Looking forward to this new system.

I signed up then started reading the old questions and answers. That got me to wondering if the old questions and answers will be edited to bring some of the answers up to date.

Here is one example:
I did a screen shot of one Q&A. This answer suggests that the poster take photos, add them to Flicker (or other photo site) then come back to ask a new question, posting a link so NGA can access the photos.


I'm heading back to read some more; this is like viewing a time capsule.

There are about 85,000 old answers and I don't really intend to go edit them. The point of the new system here is that you can add your own answer, or comment on any existing answers.

This is really cool Dave - thank you - off to add it to my watch list.

I just realized I wasn't replying correctly. LOL, I kept replying as in other threads ... I'm old and it takes me awhile to sometimes get things right but now I've got it!

I noticed that, and am glad that you figured it out.

me too Lin - the old thing I'm so thankful Dave has infinite patience with us old folks

I added a link at the top of the knowledgebase to view all unanswered questions. This way, if you want to see any questions that have never been answered, you can see them and find out if maybe you know the answer to any of them.

I signed up. Looks interesting. Thank you Dave.

I hate to sound negative, but I will miss the old one. I enjoyed seeing the whole list, and learned a lot from it. This new one with the categories reminds me of the automated questions when you try to reach a service on the phone...my question may not fit any of the above....and if you're lucky, you can press 0 to speak to a rep. I see frequent questions about how to use the site being answered for frustrated /new users. Yes, I know there is a forum for that, but us older/ non techies tend to go the easy route. This new Ask a Question is useable, but not as enjoyable IMHO.

So, will "Ask a Question" be closed down? or will they both be functioning?

Ask a Question will be phased out.

You don't have to choose any categories when you submit a question. It's optional.

So will admin. be able to move any posts that may be more appropriate in different forums? Like Plant ID ones? Or the recent post offering bulbs that would be better in the Trade forum? And spam posts, how will they be handled?

How are these questions sorted, or are they? (Oh, wait. You did answer that. Never mind.) I answered several that happened to be at the top of the screen and they had current dates. Then, as I was about to take a look at another question, I saw that it had been asked in 2012. Not sure if there's a point to providing a specific answer to a specific question that had been asked 5 years ago.

Just went back thru this thread and saw that a few people said they didn't reply correctly. Makes me wonder if I did.

I understand that it can be annoying, to say the least, to see the same question asked multiple times in the Ask a Question forum. But at least we know that the original poster is wanting an answer now. (Yes, there are a few exceptions where the OP seems to have disappeared.)

At the moment, I don't have any useful ideas / suggestions. Maybe I just need a mental adjustment.

IMHO, I don't care for the voting trip. Guess I'll have to mentally adjust to it as well.

I do know that you work hard to make this the best site ever and I thank you for that. You deserve some acorns for all that you do.

If this is a new thing, how come it has 4300 pages going back to 1997? Do you have to choose a heading to see the questions? I am REALLY confused.

Just curious. In the 'early days', did this website sell products? I'm seeing a lot of questions that are in the form of 'do you sell?' rather than 'where can I buy?'.

I just answered a question then realised that apart from the first half dozen or so they go back to 2012..

The old questions are the old Q&A system from NGA. There are many tens of thousands of Q&A items in that old system that I imported into this one. But it's still very much a good idea to give better answers to old items; that's the idea of the knowledgebase! People read these old questions and find them by searching. We want the best answers given and oftentimes the answer given by NGA may not have been the best (or most up to date).

@Calif_Sue - yes, there will be lots of moderator options for the admins, in the near future.

tx_flower_child said:Just curious. In the 'early days', did this website sell products? I'm seeing a lot of questions that are in the form of 'do you sell?' rather than 'where can I buy?'.

Yes over time NGA has sold various gardening things.

DaisyI said:If this is a new thing, how come it has 4300 pages going back to 1997? Do you have to choose a heading to see the questions? I am REALLY confused.

I'm going to make a video today showing all the ways to use this system, and that will probably answer all your questions about the headings and stuff.