Next week we will be adding an exciting new feature to the Answers section: the ability for Hubbers to select a Best Answer to a Question that they asked. The goals of this feature are to:
- Highlight great content. When a visitor from a search engine lands on your Question page, they are often looking for a quick answer to their question. Selecting a Best Answer will cause it to move right below the Question and appear highlighted. This will help your visitors from Search to find an answer to their question quickly.
- Motivate Hubbers to leave the best possible answer to a question. As we said, if your Answer is selected as a best answer then it will appear prominently on the page. However, we will also be awarding accolades to Hubbers who have their Answers selected as Best Answers.
- Help to differentiate the Answers section from the Forums. We are constantly adding new features to HubPages. For example, we recently added the ability to leave a comment on an Answer. This feature has added a lot of value to the Answers section. But it also led some Hubbers to say that, for them, they felt it caused the line between the Answers section and the Forum to blur. There are in fact many differences between the Answers section and the Forums. We hope that adding the Best Answer feature helps to further differentiate the two sections of HubPages.
When a Best Answer has been selected for a Question you are following you will receive a notification- this way you won’t miss a really good explanation, even if it answers a very popular Question.
Accompanying the Best Answer feature is a new multi-level Accolade to give props to those who leave superior answers. To earn the new Best Answer Accolade (and to level up once you have it), work on providing detailed, useful, and prompt short answers- or better still, create Hub Answers addressing your fellow Hubbers’ Questions.
HubPages Blog 
This is awesome. Other than encouraging hubbers to leave direct and precise answers, I hope this urges them the ask questions that search engine users are actually looking for answers to.
It seems as though the Hubpages Answers feature has become a haven for opinionated answers to questions. I thought this is what forums are for. Keep up the ingenuity, guys. This is probably one of the best content communities I’ve come across on the internet. Thanks.
Maybe it is a good idea to give 10% impressions to the best answer – this gives an incentive for people to answer questions….
This feature will make a nice addition to the answers section of the site!
I like the suggestion provided by SimeyC regarding incentives for people who provide good answers. A share of the impressions would provide further encouragement for people to leave a truly good answer to a question.
The accolades are nice but impressions are better 🙂
If you haven’t already thought about this, I’d like you to: What happens when a better answer is given after the questioner has already awarded “best”? Can it be changed? Many answers are given within hours of the question; however, answers in hub form may show up a few days later. There are even occasional instances where a good answer comes months later.
Thanks for the feedback, Howard S. This is why we encourage folks to wait for a bit before selecting a best answer.
How many answers (in general) should one wait for before choosing a best answer?
Suppose someone gives an even BETTER answer after it has already been rewarded to one…or will people quit answering after a best answer award has been given?
Just curious.
Another question…
If one has asked a question and there are no or very few answers, can it be deleted? Is that a good idea to do so?
Thanks for giving us more options on HubPages and continually working to improve the site.
That’s up to each Hubber, PeggyW. It’s a bit of a judgment call. I’d personally wait until answers started slowing down before picking a favorite.
I haven’t deleted any of my Questions, but you’re free to do so if you don’t think they’re useful or you don’t want them on your subdomain anymore. 😀
This is a great new feature. I’ll be checking my questions for best answers.
I agree with SimeyC. Being awarded ‘Best Answer’ should provide some revenue (like it does on Webanswers). Accolades mean nothing, and certainly don’t pay the bills or offer much of an incentive to answer questions.