Welcome Wednesdays - Teach a New User a Random Mahalo Trick?
Share the tips and tricks you think will help our newest members.
Here is one that I can share:
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You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$11 Answers
How do you make things like a square bracket appear in your answer or comment rather than get treated as a special character that formats stuff?
Because I don't know how to do that, my "old trick" is going to have to be explained like this...
In the following, use ^ to mean an open or close square bracket. Whether an open or close bracket is needed should be obvious from the examples.
Ok, so the tip:
If you want to make a link to a Mahalo page like this.... iPhone 3GS... just put two square brackets round the name of the page, i.e. ^^iPhone 3GS^^.
If you want to link to a page but want to refer to the page by another name, you can do it like this ^^iPhone 3GS|new iPhone^^. For example in this sentence: "Apple's new iPhone is about twice as fast as the existing model".
If you want to link to a page that is not on Mahalo, use a single bracket only, like this ^http://www.apple.com Apple's own website^... which then displays like this.... Apple's own website.
Note that in this case you put a space after the web link, and after the space whatever text you want to make into the link. (Technically called the "anchor text").
If you manage any Mahalo pages, and the topic of your page is mentioned in something you write (a question, answer or comment), it's a good idea to link to your page. If what you're writing is short, you only need to link once, not every time you mention the thing.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$New trick:
You can use an RSS reader like the one built into Outlook to view/access new questions as soon as they arrive. 50 (or more) question headers at a glance make for quick viewing and easy access finding questions to answer.
I use Outlook 2007 and like the search feature, and the flags, colors for categorizing questions.. I've also made a 'archive' folder for questions I want to visit later.. Makes searching much faster as well..
Old trick:
Here's one I've used and shared with others before.
Sometimes you might have a NEW Direct Answer indicator that just won't go away even though you've read and answered it..
If you've already replied to a direct answer sometimes it will get stuck- then you have to give it a little help.. Just "Bump" it and refresh the page.
I simply comment on the reply with the word "bump" or whatever and it helps it along. Sometimes it will ask you to rate the answer thats normal as it probably did not get rated earlier. If the answer/question had a tip to it, when you RATE it thats when it passes the tip. I've had to bump something twice, but never three times.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Thanks Budd!
I forgot to mention here's the RSS feed link:
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/feeds/latest/
@dannyjohnson good to see you again. How about an AotD nomination? Well in about an hour you'll have it! Great job.
Wow!!!! It really works. Thank you
If you answer questions, a bit of humor always works. Even on very serious subjects. And a nice picture helps too!
Like this:
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
It much easier to learn the keystroke to do this same thing. With your right-hand on the mouse, use your left hand to hold down CTRL on Windows, or COMMAND on Mac.
Much easier to "Press-Click" than right clicking and moving down the menu.
When finished viewing the page, CTRL-W or COMMAND-W to close the window and you are looking right back where you left off on Mahalo.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$1. Google will take the first text on the page as it's abstract when indexing. Make sure that your first sentence or two contains exactly what you want a prospective user to see. It should be clear, compelling, text that will make them want to visit your page. A good description of the search term is always a good way to start a page.
2. Pin the guide note to the top of the page. Sections move based on user interest, which is good, but you always want the guide note on top.
3.Make sure your guide note includes relevant key words that will help your page rank. A coupon page, for example, will probably want the words printable, coupons, discounts, deals, and/or codes in the guide note - incorporated naturally in the text.
4.Always include the exact page title in the guide note, incorporated into a sentence. "This page will teach you how to make salsa" is fine, but "With a few tomatoes and these step-by-step instructions on how to make salsa, you'll soon be gobbling up delicious salsa faster than you can say "Cinco de Mayo" " is better (and gives you the opportunity to inlink to two more Mahalo pages).
Hopefully these tips are helpful.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$This helps make sure you put the "best answer" you can up, basically before the question even shows up on Spy where hopefully one would be watching to see the questions they have imported come in and answer in due time. Using the How to get a Best Answer page is a great help as well in making sure the "best answer" you put up has a great chance of being voted as such.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$if you are on a mahalo topic page and you want to see more pages on the same or similar topic, there are two things you can do:
old trick:
go to google.com and search for topic site:mahalo.com which will give you all the pages google has indexed for mahalo containing that term
new trick:
scroll down the mahalo topic page until you get to the categories section on the left column. click a category and you can browse all pages listed in that category on mahalo.
both of these are especially useful if you are managing a page and need to find related pages. =)
personal experience...
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
The Google site search produces more comprehensive results than the category search, as the category search requires that a page manager has manually put the page in the category.
Absolutely-- Both have their place...my point ways that the category index is dependent on usres inputtinng their page into the category. That does not happen all the time-- I know that I generally find that the category selection box freezes me up-- so I tend not to add it unless I'm about to close down my computer anyway.
i hope more people will start to add their pages to appropriate categories. it's a great way to get google's attention, as it puts a link on the category page pointing to your page. then google will spider it more quickly. =) it also helps mahalo to have a better index. right now a lot of pages are not in categories at all. =/
well, i agree and disagree.
the google site search is limited in that you get only results with that exact term in it. very helpful to see if a particular page is already made, but still limited for other purposes.
the category search lets you see what other page managers think are in the same category as your page, which can not only give you relevant related pages for your site, it can spark new ideas on related topics to then do a new google search on.
i think both types have their place.
for example, if i have a page on six flags and i go to the amusement park category, i learn that sandcastle is also an amusement park... which is relevant but would not turn up in a google site search unless the page manager had added the term "six flags" to that page.
i'm into multiple sources of information to get a bigger picture... it helps me make better, well-rounded pages that hopefully google will like =)
http://www.mahalo.com/guides/pages/all - See statistics on all Mahalo pages such as new pages and recently claimed pages.
http://www.mahalo.com/member/mahalo_tasks - See which task pages have been claimed by Mahalo. (check pages managed)
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/widgets - Get the code to paste a Mahalo widget on your blog or social networking site. This earns you 50 points and the chance to earn Mahalo dollars for every 1,000 views.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
Oh, and the 50 points for the widget doesn't work anymore
Jeff- thanks for the info about the 50 points. I finally took the widget off my site (due to a redesign) but after 3 months never saw the points so figured it was broken or backlogged or something...
Are they going to fix the 50 points thing or are they just not doing it anymore? It is still listed on the points page: http://www.mahalo.com/answers/points_guidelines
http://www.mahalo.com/guides/pages/all is a real fascinating page, also should be noted "Searchclick" is the term for when a user searches on Mahalo and clicks on a result from the auto-generated page. It's crazy seeing what people search.
Instead of answering one questions at a time why not answer more than one at the same time.
I open new tabs for all of my favorite categories. So, once I finish answering one question I go to the other tab find another question and answer it, then go to the next one and so on.
It really cuts down on the question searching time. :D
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$IMAGES: If you use Flickr, you can just copy and paste the HTML code into a text box, and the image will be embedded (I'm not sure if other photo sharing websites have the same feature). If you want to embed an image that you get from some place like Google Images, just copy the URL and paste that into the text box, and add the code as shown in this screenshot.
REFERENCES: For a reference, copy and paste the URL of the page that you are using as a reference, and add the code shown in the screenshot.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
This is great. It opened up some doors of creativity into my pages for me.
Also, I keep a document with all my "html" codes so that I don't forget them, and so I can just copy and paste the codes.
I have only used the two you have mention in this thread before, references and images.. any other similar quick tips?
[
Ok... It seems you can use the HTML code for the brackets and it will work but it only shows correctly if you post, and edit your post after (when the edit box pops up the page converts the code into the correct symbol... kind of a pain). Left Bracket = [ and Right Bracket = ]
that third tip also works when you want to link to a mahalo question... like this one. ^http://www.mahalo.com/answers/mahalo-answers-community/welcome-wednesdays-teach-a-new-user-a-random-mahalo-trick Welcome Wednesdays - Teach a New User a Random Mahalo Trick?^ gives you: Welcome Wednesdays - Teach a New User a Random Mahalo Trick?
I guess when it doubt the use of notepad... a screenshot... and flickr would be another way to show it correctly lol
I'm sure I've seen people do it. But who? And how?
Maybe one day I'll find out!
I did some testing and it looks like whatever code that changes word in between square brackets into hypelinks does that before html code is converted to whatever we see in the comment. For example, I can make a link to Mahalo.com using html.
test
But when I do the same thing but put brackets around "test", it links to http://www.mahalo.com/answers/mahalo-answers-community/test. I don't know if this helps, but I think our best chance is to find someone who already knows how to do it.
Hmm.... />
So it does but then when you edit again, it messes it all up, interpreting it as markup.
I've further determined that this doesn't work all that well so I'm not sure it is worth trying... @philipy I actually think the use of a different symbol is just plain easier in this case... booo