AnswerGarden Explained
What is AnswerGarden?
AnswerGarden is a new minimalistic polling-comment system that you can embed on your website or blog. If you are interested in the opinions of others, create an AnswerGarden and post it to your website so that other people can leave their feedback.
For more information, see the newsflash.
How does AnswerGarden work?
You create an AnswerGarden by entering a question on AnswerGarden.ch. Then you'll be redirected to your newly created AnswerGarden. Since no-one has posted an answer yet, your AnswerGarden will still be empty.
The next step is to place (embed) your AnswerGarden on your blog, site or social network page, using the provided embed code. Or you can post a direct link to your AnswerGarden on fora or email it to friends.
As your AnswerGarden draws attention people will start posting their answers to your question, either by entering their own answers or by clicking on and submitting existing answers. These are then represented in your AnswerGarden in the form of a growing word cloud.
Who is AnswerGarden intended for?
AnswerGarden is for people who maintain websites and blogs and who want to poll their visitors. An AnswerGarden is for those who want to leave feedback on a website in a brief and to-the-point matter.
AnswerGardens are a happy alternative for polls and comment-systems on your website. The benefit of an AnswerGarden is that it limits the sometimes awfully long rants of commenting users while still keeping the expression lost in polls. Try it for yourself! It's free!
Do I need a login to create or use an AnswerGarden?
Nope.
How do I create an AnswerGarden?
Simply write a question in form on the homepage and then press the "Plant"-button. Your AnswerGarden is then created and ready for use!
How can I use an AnswerGarden on my website or blog?
First create an AnswerGarden (see above). Then copy the embed code underneath the AnswerGarden (click the Share-link first). Paste this code in your website to include the AnswerGarden.
Do you have an example of a nicely growing AnswerGarden?
Yes, visit the garden Favorite holiday destination....
Can I see an embedded AnswerGarden?
Yes, have a look at this page about a transparent bass.
How often can I answer in an AnswerGarden?
You can enter it just one time. Otherwise the garden will be filled with weeds.
Why is my answer not visible?
Only the most frequently entered words are visible. What you see is an interpolation of the opinions. At the moment, 25 tags are visible per garden.
Where can I see the frequency of an answer?
To see the frequency of an answer simply hold you mouse cursor over an answer and after a second a number will emerge, showing you the number of times the answer has been submitted.
Can I customize the look of embedded gardens?
Yes, but some hacking of color codes is necessary. Use the third embed code field in the Share panel below an AnswerGarden on AnswerGarden.ch. For a demonstration, visit AnswerGarden.ch/customize. We intend to add a user-friendly interface for customization in the near future.
Why does AnswerGarden have a .ch domain extension?
Although .ch is the Internet country code for Switzerland, on this site the extension is used to refer to CreativeHeroes, the creators of AnswerGarden. We do have other domain extensions, but believe Swiss gardens are the purest.
Is AnswerGarden a beta product?
We haven't released AnswerGarden as a beta, but we ARE working on improvement and new features. Streamlining the customization of custom embedded gardens is high on our feature list as well as some other features. As many other human beings, we have to prioritize...
Can I see a list with all the AnswerGardens?
No, you can't. Sorry, it's secret. But shhh, here it is.
Can I see a list with the latest answers?
But of course! Here it is.
http://answergarden.ch/latest-answers.php
I have a problem with my AnswerGarden!
Please make sure you are running the latest version of Flash. If you keep having problems, please visit our Support Forum.
Where can I submit feature requests or report bugs?
Submit bugs or feature requests in the Support Forum.
Why can't I see the AnswerGarden content on Mac OSX with Firefox 3.5? It works with Safari and Chrome...
This happens when your AnswerGarden loads in an inactive tab in Firefox. It took us hours to find out, and we accuse Growl, an application that lets "Mac OS X applications unintrusively tell you when things happen." Apparently, Growl, Firefox, tab focus and OSX are not a good combination. Enfin, solution-wise there are three options:
1: Load the garden in an active tab or press rrrefresh (F5).
2: Disable Growl support for Firefox.
3: Send a complaint-email to the makers of Growl, Firefox and Flash. This is not an AnswerGarden bug, this seems to be a Flash player-Growl-Firefox on OSX bug. [Added 16 Feb 2010].
I hate Flash. Is there a HTML alternative for AnswerGarden?
First: we're sorry to hear that you hate Flash. It's always better to love than to hate, so perhaps it's good to search for professional help in the near future. Concerning the HTML alternative: yes, we're working on this. Too bad, it doesn't look very attractive at the moment (gardeners wanted!). Our todo-list says: CreativeHeroes need to fix the layout of the HTML-version of AnswerGarden.
Who are you?
We are Creative Heroes. We create things.
Who are those colorful characters?
They are Gluddle. They huddle. More about them in the near future.
