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AMA/Ask Me Anything: What You Need To Know Before They Get To Ask (PART 1/2)
Posted 06-11-2014 at 03:52 PM by forrest.livingston8
Updated 06-11-2014 at 04:32 PM by forrest.livingston8
Updated 06-11-2014 at 04:32 PM by forrest.livingston8
As a note in case it doesn't become obvious: This is not an AMA thread. This is an AMA tutorial thread. You may feel free to ask me anything, so long as it stays within the scope of this thread. Otherwise your comment will likely not even get a ransom note.
Introduction
Ask me anything, words that for some strike fear to the very core of their being while others become aroused at thinking about the idea of being splayed so widely open for others to consume at their leisure.
I'll be assuming you are in the latter group, or close enough that you want to know more about the entire process, which is why you are reading this blog. Alternatively, feel free to keep reading if you are just interested in it but don't have any desire to actually make an AMA, if you just want tips on how to make your AMA better, or for whatever other reason your heart may desire.
History And Overview
AMAs have been going strong since the early 1990s, and they haven't really had much change in their functionality. The basic structure of an AMA is that the poster requests viewers of the thread post with questions for them. Often an AMA is requested to be on a specific topic, and other times there are limitations put on the AMA based upon the poster's specifications.
AMAs are a great way to allow the community to learn more about you, to give the community a way to learn more about something specific if that is your intent, and also a good way to become more popular in the community. They're a horrible way to try and keep some mystery about your person, and they don't really work well if you aren't interested in trying to answer the things people will want to learn about you.
What You Need To Know Before You Decide To Make An AMA
The most important thing you should consider before deciding to make an AMA is "Do I actually want people to ask me questions?" The answer to that shouldn't be an obvious "FUCK YEAH I DO!" Take the time to think it over, and consider how you'd enjoy if someone asked you a question that might be something you don't want to answer. Will you try to specifically limit your AMA to avoid those things? Will you ignore questions that you don't want to answer? Will you outright refuse to answer any questions that you don't want to answer?
Careful consideration may make you decide against making an AMA, or at least it may make you take the time to review the section of stipulations and augmentations so you can make an AMA that works for you as well as for everyone else.
That really is all you need to consider before you consider starting an AMA. Of course, there is more to actively consider when making the AMA, but that is why we've got a section for it!
How To Make An AMA
You see the writing on the wall. You've made sure to check your list twice. You aren't put off by the idea of questions that probe your inner demons and darkness. It's time to break open that New Thread window, and get to typing, right? Wrong!
Now that you know you want to make an AMA, you need to understand what makes an AMA good, and what makes an AMA bad. I'll cover some of these things, but it really is up to you to RESEARCH this for yourself. This tutorial will be designed to try and help you out, and if followed it should make a lot of the work less-so.
Your first step now that you have decided to make your own AMA is to look into other AMA threads. Your first place to look is on the first few pages of the Request TORD Online forum. These will either be the newest AMAs, recently bumped AMAs, or the most popular. In almost all cases, they'll have "AMA" or "Ask Me Anything" in the title.
Review the first post of these AMAs, as well as the first page of posts. If the AMA was posted recently but has a lot of posts already, try and see what about it did they do different from anyone else. Being female, having a female sounding username, or having a female avatar may be part of it, but try and see if there is anything else involved.
For the older AMAs, make note of how they set up their first post as they've done something right. Again, being female/ having a female sounding username, or having a female avatar may be at the root of this, but it surely isn't the whole of it. Have they made sure to reply to each post promptly? Are their answers detailed and interesting to read?
Now, the next place to research is here: https://www.google.com/search?q=ask+...%3Agetdare.com That Google search will pull up the dredges of the AMA threads, no matter if they've been recently bumped or otherwise. Try and give a few threads on a few pages a check, aiming for ones you did not already review. See if they died unquestioned, or if they got a few questions and then died. Did they ever answer their questions? Were they given questions that were interesting? Did they answer interesting questions with an interesting answer?
Given all of this research, you should start to come to understand how an AMA functions. You are now ready to open up that New Thread window!
Making An AMA
First, as stated in the last section, open the New Thread window in the Request TORD Online forum. You'll have the following things to fill out:
Title
This should contain "AMA" or "Ask Me Anything". It may also contain anything else that you think is important for people to know before they decide to enter your AMA. It shouldn't contain anything that is confusing such as "This Is Not An" in front of "AMA", as a hyperbolic example.
Your title is the primary thing people will see when deciding on if they are going to enter your thread. Make sure that it isn't bland, but that it also isn't overly confusing!
Message
This is where you'll ask people to ask you! This field will be the most important field when people are actually looking at your AMA.
At the basic most level, you will want to ask people to ask you anything, and then to set the limits up on what you'll allow. Your limitations should be things such as "personal information", "anything in my limits", or anything like that. Because you won't be able to edit the post later on, try and make sure to get as many limits in this area as you can possible get thought about.
Likewise, adding things like "For every ten questions, I'll edge myself!", "For every question, I'll spank a body part from the below list" with a list of body parts, or even "If you can make me not answer a question, you may give me a dare" is a good idea to do before you post. Look at other AMAs for other good ideas.
Make sure to keep in mind that this is the section that needs to sell the idea of people wanting to ask you questions! Yes, being a female, having a female username, or having a female in your avatar can and will help, but no amount of sex appeal will keep people coming back to your AMA thread.
Tags
Make sure to add "AMA" and "Ask Me Anything" as tags. If you have any other tags you want to add, such as your username, add those too. These help with sorting and searching for users.
Post Icons
Your post icon need not be a major choice, as the default icon is perfectly acceptable. Alternatively, one that tries to invoke the idea of questioning, such as the question mark, is a good icon. Try to avoid confusing icons, but again, this is not an important thing for consideration.
Thread Subscription
This is a pretty important field. At the least most, "No Email Notification" will add the thread to your subscriptions so you can see when people post in your subscribed thread section. Better yet, though, would be one of the options that send you email notices such as "Daily Email Notification" or even "Instant Email Notification". Daily notifications work best when your thread is popular and you may just need a reminder every so often, whereas instant work best when you are getting only a few replies every day and you want to make sure to reply promptly.
Clicking The "Submit New Thread" Button
Your post is ready, you've got a good title, you added some tags, you remembered to include limits, and even have a way to make it interesting for other people to want to ask you questions. Time to click that button, and submit your AMA, right? Nope, don't be silly.
Double check that everything looks correct, again. This cannot be stressed enough!
Now that you're SURE you are ready, you may click that button.
What Next?
Now that you've got your AMA out there, what comes up next? For that, you'll need to check out the next entry in this blog series: AMA/Ask Me Anything: What You Need To Know Before They Get Their Answers
Introduction
Ask me anything, words that for some strike fear to the very core of their being while others become aroused at thinking about the idea of being splayed so widely open for others to consume at their leisure.
I'll be assuming you are in the latter group, or close enough that you want to know more about the entire process, which is why you are reading this blog. Alternatively, feel free to keep reading if you are just interested in it but don't have any desire to actually make an AMA, if you just want tips on how to make your AMA better, or for whatever other reason your heart may desire.
History And Overview
AMAs have been going strong since the early 1990s, and they haven't really had much change in their functionality. The basic structure of an AMA is that the poster requests viewers of the thread post with questions for them. Often an AMA is requested to be on a specific topic, and other times there are limitations put on the AMA based upon the poster's specifications.
AMAs are a great way to allow the community to learn more about you, to give the community a way to learn more about something specific if that is your intent, and also a good way to become more popular in the community. They're a horrible way to try and keep some mystery about your person, and they don't really work well if you aren't interested in trying to answer the things people will want to learn about you.
What You Need To Know Before You Decide To Make An AMA
The most important thing you should consider before deciding to make an AMA is "Do I actually want people to ask me questions?" The answer to that shouldn't be an obvious "FUCK YEAH I DO!" Take the time to think it over, and consider how you'd enjoy if someone asked you a question that might be something you don't want to answer. Will you try to specifically limit your AMA to avoid those things? Will you ignore questions that you don't want to answer? Will you outright refuse to answer any questions that you don't want to answer?
Careful consideration may make you decide against making an AMA, or at least it may make you take the time to review the section of stipulations and augmentations so you can make an AMA that works for you as well as for everyone else.
That really is all you need to consider before you consider starting an AMA. Of course, there is more to actively consider when making the AMA, but that is why we've got a section for it!
How To Make An AMA
You see the writing on the wall. You've made sure to check your list twice. You aren't put off by the idea of questions that probe your inner demons and darkness. It's time to break open that New Thread window, and get to typing, right? Wrong!
Now that you know you want to make an AMA, you need to understand what makes an AMA good, and what makes an AMA bad. I'll cover some of these things, but it really is up to you to RESEARCH this for yourself. This tutorial will be designed to try and help you out, and if followed it should make a lot of the work less-so.
Your first step now that you have decided to make your own AMA is to look into other AMA threads. Your first place to look is on the first few pages of the Request TORD Online forum. These will either be the newest AMAs, recently bumped AMAs, or the most popular. In almost all cases, they'll have "AMA" or "Ask Me Anything" in the title.
Review the first post of these AMAs, as well as the first page of posts. If the AMA was posted recently but has a lot of posts already, try and see what about it did they do different from anyone else. Being female, having a female sounding username, or having a female avatar may be part of it, but try and see if there is anything else involved.
For the older AMAs, make note of how they set up their first post as they've done something right. Again, being female/ having a female sounding username, or having a female avatar may be at the root of this, but it surely isn't the whole of it. Have they made sure to reply to each post promptly? Are their answers detailed and interesting to read?
Now, the next place to research is here: https://www.google.com/search?q=ask+...%3Agetdare.com That Google search will pull up the dredges of the AMA threads, no matter if they've been recently bumped or otherwise. Try and give a few threads on a few pages a check, aiming for ones you did not already review. See if they died unquestioned, or if they got a few questions and then died. Did they ever answer their questions? Were they given questions that were interesting? Did they answer interesting questions with an interesting answer?
Given all of this research, you should start to come to understand how an AMA functions. You are now ready to open up that New Thread window!
Making An AMA
First, as stated in the last section, open the New Thread window in the Request TORD Online forum. You'll have the following things to fill out:
Title
This should contain "AMA" or "Ask Me Anything". It may also contain anything else that you think is important for people to know before they decide to enter your AMA. It shouldn't contain anything that is confusing such as "This Is Not An" in front of "AMA", as a hyperbolic example.
Your title is the primary thing people will see when deciding on if they are going to enter your thread. Make sure that it isn't bland, but that it also isn't overly confusing!
Message
This is where you'll ask people to ask you! This field will be the most important field when people are actually looking at your AMA.
At the basic most level, you will want to ask people to ask you anything, and then to set the limits up on what you'll allow. Your limitations should be things such as "personal information", "anything in my limits", or anything like that. Because you won't be able to edit the post later on, try and make sure to get as many limits in this area as you can possible get thought about.
Likewise, adding things like "For every ten questions, I'll edge myself!", "For every question, I'll spank a body part from the below list" with a list of body parts, or even "If you can make me not answer a question, you may give me a dare" is a good idea to do before you post. Look at other AMAs for other good ideas.
Make sure to keep in mind that this is the section that needs to sell the idea of people wanting to ask you questions! Yes, being a female, having a female username, or having a female in your avatar can and will help, but no amount of sex appeal will keep people coming back to your AMA thread.
Tags
Make sure to add "AMA" and "Ask Me Anything" as tags. If you have any other tags you want to add, such as your username, add those too. These help with sorting and searching for users.
Post Icons
Your post icon need not be a major choice, as the default icon is perfectly acceptable. Alternatively, one that tries to invoke the idea of questioning, such as the question mark, is a good icon. Try to avoid confusing icons, but again, this is not an important thing for consideration.
Thread Subscription
This is a pretty important field. At the least most, "No Email Notification" will add the thread to your subscriptions so you can see when people post in your subscribed thread section. Better yet, though, would be one of the options that send you email notices such as "Daily Email Notification" or even "Instant Email Notification". Daily notifications work best when your thread is popular and you may just need a reminder every so often, whereas instant work best when you are getting only a few replies every day and you want to make sure to reply promptly.
Clicking The "Submit New Thread" Button
Your post is ready, you've got a good title, you added some tags, you remembered to include limits, and even have a way to make it interesting for other people to want to ask you questions. Time to click that button, and submit your AMA, right? Nope, don't be silly.
Double check that everything looks correct, again. This cannot be stressed enough!
Now that you're SURE you are ready, you may click that button.
What Next?
Now that you've got your AMA out there, what comes up next? For that, you'll need to check out the next entry in this blog series: AMA/Ask Me Anything: What You Need To Know Before They Get Their Answers
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