What is Mahalo?
Mahalo is a place where you can learn everything on anything. Glean helpful information from our topic pages, learn a new skill from our exceptional how to articles, and ask and answer questions on Mahalo Answers. Want to earn money writing topic pages? Email at apply(at)mahalo(dot)com with a resume and cover letter telling us about your writing experience!
Is it free to use Mahalo?
Yes! Mahalo is 100% free to use. However, if you want to post questions and answers on Mahalo Answers or post comments on topic pages, you will need to sign up for a free account. It's quick and easy!
What are Mahalo Dollars?
Mahalo Dollars (M$) is a virtual currency that can be used on Mahalo Answers to provide tips when you post questions and to vote up other questions and answers. You can also use Mahalo Dollars to buy cool gear and gift cards from the Mahalo store.
You can earn Mahalo Dollars by answering questions on Mahalo Answers. Or you can purchase Mahalo Dollars via Paypal using real USD at a one to one ratio ($1 = M$1).
What are Tips?
When asking a question on Mahalo Answers, Mahalo puts a small, automatic "tip" on that question. This tip becomes a "bounty" for your question, and is awarded to the user that provides the "Best Answer" to your question. Mahalo users can also add a tip of their own, and we collect a deposit via PayPal or from your Mahalo account balance. Adding a tip is not required to ask a question on Mahalo, but offering a tip is a great way to quickly get a thorough answer to your question, as people are actively "competing" to win that tip amount. For example, if you ask a question with a M$3.50 tip you will likely get more frequent and detailed replies than if you were to offer M$.35.
You can also add additional tips to *other* peoples' questions by way of "voting", which is explained below.
What is Voting?
Voting is an important aspect of the Mahalo community. Casting your vote, accomplished by clicking either the 'up' or 'down' arrow found within the header of a question or answer, helps identify and reward great questions and answers around the site. There are two types of "voting" in Mahalo Answers; voting on questions, and voting on answers.
Voting on Questions
Mahalo users can vote questions "Up" or "Down", which is their way of saying, "I think this question is interesting", or, "I think this is a bad question". Use up-votes to give credit to great questions you'd like to see answered, and use down-votes for immature, spammy or unreadable questions. Questions with more votes move up higher in the "Most Popular" sections of Mahalo Answers.
Voting on Answers
If an answer is particularly helpful or well-written you should feel compelled to vote it "helpful". If an answer is not relevant, or is poorly written, a "down" vote may be acceptable. Voting stresses quality and participation within Mahalo Answers, and also helps select the "Best Answer" for many questions. If the asker of a question does not personally select a "Best Answer" within four days of receiving the first answer to their question, the answer with the most community votes is automatically selected as "Best Answer".
Mahaloians should use voting respectfully and understand when it is appropriate to use voting buttons. They should not be based on your emotional feelings towards a particular user or answer, or to signify that you agree or disagree with a viewpoint.
What are Mahalo Belts?
Mahalo Belts are rewarded to users whenever they reach a certain point level, and are designed to recognize great behavior and participation within Mahalo. Upgrading your belt also unlocks certain abilities and features on Mahalo, such as asking and answering more questions, or leaving unlimited comments. Mahalo users can earn points by doing almost anything within Mahalo Answers, including logging in, answering questions, voting, and using the site search.
Mahalo Belts are modeled after martial arts belts; all users start as a white belt and move up towards different "degrees" of black belts. Earning your white, yellow, green and purple belts are based entirely on earning points, however Brown and Black belts (the Mahalo Elite) must pass a personalized "Belt Test", where Mahalo staff reviews your previous participation within Mahalo Answers.
What are Topics?
Topics are essentially categories for questions asked on Mahalo Answers. Mahalo users can browse questions by topic (ex. "Money", "Apple", "Cars"), and can also setup their profile to "follow" certain topics. Following topics will create a custom feed of questions on your Mahalo profile that are related to things you find interesting. You can also create custom newsletters that deliver either daily, weekly or monthly summaries for your favorite topics.
To add a topic to a question, simply enter them one at a time (hit "Enter" in between) in the "Topics" box, located under the "details" box when writing a question.
What is a Best Answer?
A question remains "open" for five days after it receives an answers. At any point during those five days, the asker of the question may select the "Best Answer" from the answers provided, or "No Best Answer" if the responses given did not meet their question requirements. If the asker of the question does not select a Best Answer, the answer with the most "Votes" is automatically selected as Best Answer. If no positive votes are recorded for answers on a question, or if all votes remain at 0, "No Best Answer" is automatically selected. If there is a tie vote, Mahalo will leave the thread open and periodically re-check the thread, awarding Best Answer to the answer with the most votes at the time it is checked.
What is the difference between Friends, Following, and Followers?
Following someone on Mahalo means you're interested what they know, who they are, and want to keep up to date on what they're doing. On the lower left-hand side of your profile, you can view your Friends, people you're Following, and your Followers. When you follow someone on Mahalo and they follow you back, the two of you become Friends. People listed under "Following" are those individuals that you Follow, but who don't yet follow you back. People listed under "Followers" are those individuals that Follow you, but who you are not yet Following.
What are the "Feeds" for on my profile?
Your Mahalo profile displays the most recent information about you, your friends, topics you follow, and what you've been up to across the site. The "Feeds" on your profile each display this information differently. On the left-hand side, you can view the "Top" and most "Recent" Mahalo Answers content based on the topics you're interested in and have chosen to follow.
On the right-hand side, you'll see "Feeds" for "Alerts", "You only", and "Friends". The "Alerts" feed will display Mahalo Answers activity that relates to questions you've asked (for example, when someone answers one of your questions). The "You only" will display all of your actions across all of Mahalo as they occur! When you ask a question, answer a question, vote on a question, edit a Mahalo page, etc., it will show up in the "You only" feed. The "Friends" feed on the far-right side will display the exact same information, except it won't be about you—it will be about all of the Friends on Mahalo.
How do I control the emails that Mahalo sends me?
After logging in, visit your profile page. Then click on "Setttings" then "Email Notifications". You can also visit http://www.mahalo.com/member/USERNAME/email (replace USERNAME with your username).
How do I change my password?
Click the "Settings" link on your Profile page and you will see an option to change your password under the "Personal Settings" tab (shown by default). If you've forgotten your password entirely and can't log in to Mahalo, visit mahalo.com/login and click on "Forgot your password?" After you reset your Mahalo password, a new one will be sent to the email address associated with your account.
How do I change my email address?
Click the "Settings" link on your Profile page and you will see an option to change your email address under the "Personal Settings" tab (shown by default). You can get to your Profile page by clicking your username located at the top right of every page. The "Settings" link is currently located on the left side of the page under your avatar image.
Where do I report problems or bugs?
If you come across a bug or think that something is not working right, please visit our support forum at http://www.mahalo.com/feedback. You will need to be logged in to Mahalo.com before you submit a report. This is the fastest and most direct way to get your issue resolved. Make sure to first search the forum for your bug in case another user has already reported it. This way you can see if other users are experiencing the same problem and add your comment to the thread. Each user is given a total of 7 votes, and you can use these votes to vote up your bug report to give it a higher priority. Our Mahalo developers will regularly update this forum with status reports and you will get email notifications once your bug is addressed and resolved.
