We’re thrilled to be announcing an exciting new feature on Assenty, one specifically requested by users. Cue drum roll… you can now post anonymous questions!
Assenty is a real-time Q&A platform. It was designed to solve the problem of answering questions from an audience. Event organisers submit a few short details about their event at assenty.com to get a question board, a URL which anyone can post questions to, for free.
Every question posted is up for the public vote and event organisers can answer and reward questions in real-time.
Assenty excels in supporting question and answer sessions at events like seminars and conferences. It is perfect for getting questions from Twitter for speakers on a panel ahead of an event, for example.
Because a moderator can add answers to the questions in real-time, a question board also functions as a search-engine-friendly, curated archive of the questions and answers asked at what is arguably the most engaging part of an event, the Q&A session.
Questions and question boards are easily shared on social media and individual questions can be embedded on websites and blogs.
That’s Assenty in a nutshell.
Recently, we had a very specific request to enable users post questions anonymously.
Posting anonymous questions
Event organisers working in the legal and financial services sector often have to put on events that engage clients on potentially sensitive topics. From seminars covering regulatory non-compliance to conference Q&A sessions discussing corporation tax and employment law, sometimes the audience needs to discuss matters with the absolute confidence that the confidentiality of the person asking is guaranteed.
It’s no different on question boards. Sometimes, you just want to post a question without attaching your name to it.
Now you can.
Anonymous questions are identical to ‘named’ questions in all respects – they can be voted on, answered or rewarded. The only difference is that an anonymous question shows up as one posted by an Anonymous Poster on the question board.
In contrast, named questions look like the one embedded below, with the name of the person who posted, and a link to their Twitter profile if they logged in via Twitter visible and on display on the question board.
How It Works
The beauty of it all is that anyone can post an anonymous question. You just need to make sure you’re not logged in first.
To post an anonymous question, ensure you’re not logged in to Assenty before visiting the question board. Click on the purple Post Anonymously button at the top of the question board and submit a question. Anonymous questions are sent to the moderator, the person who created the question board, and only appear on the question board if approved.
The Post Anonymously feature builds on the email and browser notifications we recently announced and the two combine nicely to provide users with a very personalised experience on the platform.
Here’s how it looks in practice:
You post a question anonymously.
You are given a preview of how it would look if approved.
The moderator is notified.
Moderating Anonymous Questions
Let’s pretend you’re the moderator. You would have been notified that an anonymous question was submitted on your question board by email and in the browser if logged in.
To approve or remove the question, you simply select which you’d like to do. Approving a question adds it to the question board. Removing it removes it from the list of anonymous questions pending approval.
Try it! Consider creating a free question board and inviting anonymous questions. You could even post a few questions and try out the moderation feature.
Limitations of Posting Anonymously
Anonymous questions are limited to 250 characters and they can only be submitted (and moderated) if the question board is live. A live question board, as opposed to a closed question board, is one for which the date of the event has not yet passed and one which has not been closed by the moderator. You cannot post on closed question boards.
That’s it really.
We put a lot of time and effort into getting the posting, approval and moderation of anonymous questions right on Assenty and we think you’re going to enjoy it!
Do let us know if you have any problems using the new features. Questions, comments and queries are most welcome on Twitter (@assentyapp) or Facebook. We’d love to help.