Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Who can participate in this community?
CareerVillage is an open community. Anyone can join to ask questions and provide answers. However, CareerVillage is targeted toward students, from high school to college, who have questions about careers or professionalism, and questions are answered by professionals who want to share their experiences and knowledge with students.
CareerVillage is currently in beta testing. If you are a professional and you are interested in joining the beta phase, please email us.
How is a Question/Answer community different from a typical forum?
A Question/Answer community is different from a typical forum because it focuses on finding answers to the questions of its members. A typical forum, by contrast, operates more like a discussion group, where people are free to give their opinions and topics tend to be more subjective.
By keeping a laser focus on questions and answers, this community ensures that finding answers to existing questions - and getting answers to new questions - can be done without any distractions.
Where can I learn more about the CareerVillage organization?
Find more information about CareerVillage as an organization in About
What kinds of questions can I ask here?
Questions should be relevant to this community. For us, this means questions about careers: career options, what people in different careers do, the skills and training required to achieve certain careers, etc.
Ask a question that's important to you. Think about what you want to know. Don't ask something because you want to look smart, or because you think other people expect you to ask. This is your opportunity to get the information you need from real professionals--make sure it's something you care about.
Before you ask, please make sure to search for a similar question. You can search for questions by their title, content, or tags.
If you've already done some research related to your question, share the research as well as background or context that would help the answerer give you the most helpful answer.
Make sure your question is a question, and check for proper grammar and spelling before submitting the question.
What kinds of questions should be avoided?
Please avoid asking questions that are not relevant to this community, are too subjective or argumentative.
Why should I tag my question?
Tagging your questions makes it easier for answerers to find your question and helps you get answers more quickly. For example, if you ask a question related to law, you should tag your question with "law" and "lawyers" because lawyers who are following the topic "law" will receive an email notification that someone (you) has asked a new question they can answer.
What should I avoid in my answers?
CareerVillage is a question and answer site - it is not a discussion group. Please avoid holding debates in your answers as they tend to dilute the essence of questions and answers. For brief discussions please use commenting facility.
How long should my answers be?
The length of the answer is completely up to you. It can range from 1 sentence to several paragraphs.
For the professionals who are volunteering time to answer questions, make sure the length of your answer is sustainable for you.
Should I contribute my answer if a question already has 1 or 2 existing answers?
We want as many answers as possible for any given question. If the question already has 1 or even 2 answers, you should definitely provide another answer.
If you have a different perspective or even if you want to reinforce an answer that has already been given, answer the question and share your perspective.
Can I change my question?
If you want to edit or change the wording of your question, you can do so by clicking on your question, and then clicking "edit" underneath the tags of the question.
You should only edit your question if you find a typo, grammatical error, or think of a better way to phrase the question. You should not edit your question if you have a different question. If you have a different question, you should ask a new question.
Can I change my answer?
You can edit your answer by clicking "edit" underneath your answer.
If a question is unclear, what should I do?
If you are not sure what a question is asking, you can clarify the question with the person who posed the question by clicking on the question, and clicking on "add new comment" underneath the question.
If an answer is unclear or if I don't understand the answer, what should I do?
First, make sure you’ve asked a good question. To get better answers, you may need to put additional effort into your question. Edit your question and provide updates on your own efforts to answer your question. This may help you get a clear answer.
You can also ask the answerer to clarify the answer. You do this by clicking "add new comment" underneath the existing answer.
What are "interesting topics"?
Interesting topics are topic tags that you follow. When a new question is tagged with the topics that you follow or when a new answer is given for a question with the tags you follow, you will receive an email notification.
Having interesting topics is very important for answerers because it helps you keep track of when you need to come to the site to answer questions related to your expertise.
When I try to add an "interesting topic", the topic disappears, what am I doing wrong?
You cannot add an "interesting topic" if no question has been tagged with that topic. However, administrators can add the topic into the database, so if you want to add an "interesting topic" to follow, email us.
Why are email notifications so important?
Email notifications are the bedrock of a successful question and answer community. These notifications allow community members to be notified of important events, such as:
- When their questions have been answered
- When one of their posts is commented on by another member
- When other members post new questions, answers, or comments in their area of interest
The success of the community relies upon community member involvement, and members are much more likely to become involved, active participants on the site when they're notified of interesting developments. That is why this community considers a valid email address as a requirement for participating in the community and using this site.
If you're already a member of this community and haven't validated your email address, you can do so here. If you aren't yet a member of this community, join up by creating a new account.
Who moderates this community?
The short answer is: you. This website is moderated by the users. The community features a karma system that allows users to earn rights to perform a variety of moderation tasks.
How does the karma system work?
When a question or answer is upvoted, the user who posted them will gain some points, which are called "karma points". These points serve as a rough measure of the community trust in him/her. Various moderation tasks are gradually assigned to the users based on those points.
For example, if you ask an interesting question or give a helpful answer, your input will be upvoted. On the other hand if the answer is misleading, it will be downvoted. Each vote in favor will generate 15 points, each vote against will subtract 0 points. There is a limit of 200 points that can be accumulated per question or answer. The table below explains karma requirements for each type of moderation task.
- add comments -> 2
- delete comments -> 1000
- close own questions -> 60
- reopen own questions -> 120
- retag questions -> 100
- edit any answer -> 500
- open any closed question -> 1000
- delete any comment -> 1000
What is a gravatar?
Gravatar means globally recognized avatar - your unique avatar image associated with your email address. It's simply a picture that shows next to your posts on the websites that support gravatar protocol. The default gravatar appears as a square filled with a snowflake-like figure. You can set your image at gravatar.com
To participate in this community, do I need to create new account?
No, you don't have to. You can login through any service that supports OpenID, e.g. Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc. Login now!
Why can other people can edit my questions/answers?
Allowing experienced members of this community to curate the questions and answers improves the overall quality of the knowledge base content. If this approach is not for you, we respect your choice.
Still have questions?
Try out the site and ask your question! You can also email us.
