2. What type of questions can I submit?

Technical Inquiry. You can ask questions on Linux Installation, networking, DNS configuration, Apache, Sendmail, Programming languages (Java, Perl, C, C++, JavaScript), Printing, Sound, X Window, Kernel, and many others.
Request to debug a piece of code. You should submit the faulty program and a detail description of the problem.
Request to evaluate a piece of code. Experts will review algorithms, coding style, correctness and efficiency if your programs.
Request to develop software. Ideal for pieces of software that can be developed in a remote fashion.

3. What information should I provide with a question ?

Technical Inquiries:

The more information pertaining to the problem , the context in which it occurred, and the hardware/software platform, the better. As a guideline some helpful information may be:

• Linux Installation and version: Red Hat, Debian, Slackware ...
• Version of your Kernel.
• Kernel configuration parameters.

If an application is generating the problem:

• Name of the application.
• Version of the application.
• Log file entries generated (if possible).
• Configuration files of the application.
• Modules that you installed with the application.

Complete description of the problem:

• What is the problem?
• When did it appear?
• In what circumstances did the problem appear?
• Is the problem repeatable?

Requests to debug/evaluate a piece of code:

• The code itself.
• Description of the desired behavior
• Description of the actual behavior
• Compiler being used and operating system

Requests to develop software:

• Software/Hardware platform to use for the development.
• Complete description of the functional requirements (could be a set of UML diagrams or equivalent).

4. How do I provide feedback to a Question ?

The answers you get for your question will appear on your homepage under Answers. Follow the link and at the bottom of the page you will see two fields: Score and Comments. Enter the score for the answer from 1 to 10 and your comments. If you want there are several experts working on the same question you can make comments visible to all of them by checking visible to all experts. After the experts receives your feedback he/she can modify the answer to meet your requirements. You will be notified of the modifications and comments performed by the expert.
Important: If you don't provide feedback for an answer you can not ask any more questions.

5. What if an answer is completely unacceptable (Complaint Procedure)?

To reject a question, score it zero. QuestionExchange will refund your money provided that you have:

• Sent at least one comment to the expert referring to the answer.
• You reject the answer within 30 days of receving it.

6. Can I browse and buy Questions/Answers submitted by other users?

Yes. On your web page just follow the link: Browse Questions. For each question, we show you the number of buyers and the score received by the expert.

7. Can I ask 0 value questions ?

Yes. These questions will be used to certify our experts. You have to be aware that a 0 value question has no guarantee. You can ask as many 0 value questions as you want. It is important that you provide feedback for the question because this is the mechanism to evaluate experts.

8. When I submit a question what is Max answers?

It is the maximum number of answers that you are willing to pay for. Each answer will have the same value as defined in the Value field. Questions with more than one answer allow multi-expert collaboration in solving the problem. Each expert will initially send and independent answer. You can evaluate the answers and provide private (to one expert) or public (to all the experts working on the problem) feeback. The expert in turn can also provide private or public feedback. Multi-expert collaboration should be helpful in writting and reviewing code. It can also be useful when solving particularly tough questions.

9. What can I do if I submit a question and then change my mind and don't want it answered?

You can retire the question. Change the maximum number of answers for the question to zero. Just follow the link to the question under Asked Questions and then modifying the field Max Answers. A question that has already been answered can not be retired.

10. How do I post a question for Bidding?

If you don't know what price to assign to a question to can open it for auction. In order to do this you just have to define the field Bidding deadline in the Question Registration screen. Experts will submit bids with price, deadline and description. On the auction closing date you can award the question to the expert(s) you choose based on price, deadline, description and track record.

11. What if my question is not answered before the deadline?

QuestionExchange will refund your money.

12. Who owns the answers?

The customer defines who is going to own the answer to the question he/she posts. There are three options:
Expert Owned-This is the default and allows the expert to resell at the price he/she defines.
Customer Owned-The customer keeps the rights to the answer. This option is used when the customer would like to keep the answer private.
Freeware-The answer is made available to anyone free of charge.

QuestionExchange does not own the answers we are just a broker.

13. How does the scoring of questions work?

When the customer receives an answer he/she has the opportunity to score its quality. The score should reflect the applicability and correctness of the question, as well as the responsiveness of the Expert. The Expert also has the opportunity to score a quesion and the intereaction with the customer. This score should reflect the accuracy and correctness of the problem description and the responsiveness of the customer to comments. Scores go from 0 to 10. A zero means that the customer is completely dissatisfied with the answer and he/she wants a refund. 10 is the best score.

14. What does it mean to get the money back?

The value of the question is added to your account in QuestionExchange.

15. When do I have to pay for an answer?

You have to prepay for the answers. There should be money in your account before you can ask a value question.

16. How does the money get split between Experts when I request more than one answer?

Each Expert gets the total amount you defined as the question value.

17. What is the Payment Policy?

Payment by customers:

Each customer has to pre-pay in full for the questions he posts. The minimum pre-payment amount is $25.

Payment to experts:

Time of payment: QuestionExchange will initiate payment to the experts every first day of the month. The amount paid will be the total unpaid answers billed by the Expert minus fees. Only answers that were submitted at least 30 days before the payment day would be included in the Expert payment. Answers that were found unsatisfactory by customers will not be paid to the expert. The expert will bear the costs of sending him/her the money

Amount paid: The expert will be paid 95% of the net amount paid by the customer. The net amount should be calculated as the gross amount minus the credit card transaction costs (4.0%).

18. What information goes into my track record ?

The track record of a customer is composed of all the scores and final comments received from the experts on all the questions bought by the customer. The track record is visible to every expert and customer member of QuestionExchange. The final comment submitted when an expert scores an answer will go into the track record of the customer.

19. What information goes into the expert's track record?

The track record of experts is composed of all the scores and final comments received from the customers on all the questions answered by the expert. The track record is visible to every expert and customer member of QuestionExchange. The final comment submitted when a customer scores a question will go into the track record of the expert.

20. Can I direct a question to specific experts?

Yes. On the question registration page, at the bottom of the form there is a box labeled "Experts that will see the question ... ", Enter into the Experts field the names of the expert(s) that you will like to have working on the question. You can always add or remove experts. If this field is left blank (the default) then all the experts registered for the forum will see the question.

21. How do I chat with an expert?

A chat session can be arranged either by an expert or by you, the customer.

When a customer posts a question, he/she can make a request for a mandatory chat on that question, meaning that any expert who answers that question is obligated to be present at the day and time of chat specified by the customer.

Customers can also request a chat after a question has been answered. This chat is not mandatory, and an expert can request the customer to shift the time of chat to a mutually convenient one. Experts can also request chat sessions with a customer after submitting an answer.

There is also a public chat channel (called #public) in QX where all experts and customers in QX can chat at any time. Other channels are #announce to which various announcements are posted (including those about new questions) and #customer for customers to get together.

22. If I don't like the default chat client, can I use another one?

Sure. You can choose any standard IRC client. Click here to download from one such ftp site.

To connect to a channel in QX, do the following:

• Connect to server www.questionexchange.com at port 6667
• Type /nick <nickname>. Nicknames are your QX login names, prefixed by a c if you are a customer and e if you are an expert. For example, if a customer named godel wants to log in, he would need to type /nick cgodel
• Type /msg SERVER LOGIN <qxlogin_name> <password> <who>, where <who> is expert if you are an expert and customer if you are a customer. For example, customer godel would need to type /msg SERVER LOGIN godel mypassword customer
• Finally type /join <channelname>, to change to a channel you want to chat in. For example, to chat in channel #public, you would type /join #public
• If all of the above goes well, you are ready to chat