Member Question: Why I Created Askablogr

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Askablogr? [mostly just testing the product – don’t need to answer!]
Posted by rr

A: Hi RR – thanks for the question (even if you’re just testing this will show you the process flow from end-to-end).

The sequence went something like this:

  1. I sat down to write my first blog post and was looking for inspiration
  2. I remembered how well member-posted questions worked to create conversations on Judy’s Book
  3. I thought about the runaway success of Yahoo Answers, and the rumors that Google is looking to reintroduce its own answers marketplace
  4. I thought about how most blog Q&A today happens in the comments, in an unthreaded way that is hard for readers to follow
  5. I thought about Brad Feld’s posts about comments being the “dark matter of the blogosphere
  6. I wondered if a blog Q&A utility already existed
  7. I did a little looking around and didn’t find one
  8. I decided to build one.

Beased on early feedback I think Askablogr could catch on, but not without significant polishing and a healthy chunk of feature extension to bring in the community and gaming elements that helped drive Y! Answers and MyBlogLog’s success. Given the total lack of a revenue model I’m not sure how far I can go with it, but I’m listening hard to the few users I have and have a few near-term improvements already in the works. If you want to help out, please (a) send me any thoughts you have about the idea and how it could work better, and (b) tell your friends!

Thanks for the question, and thanks for using Askablogr!