Many questions can arguably be answered with some type of response having a root in science. SciAnswers.com is a science related questions and answers (Q&A) site that provides members the opportunity to ask and answer questions by simply entering and submitting a question to one of the many science categories. Replies to submitted questions or entire categories of questions can be followed via RSS feeds. In addition to asking questions, members can also answer questions that fall under their area of expertise. Custom search engines integrated into the site allows for searching of existing questions and replies by keyword or phrase search. The site also pulls in possible matches from Wikipedia, PubMed and Google to include in results to keyword quires, as well as when a member submits a question. Although the site is intended for science related questions, non-science related questions can be asked and are grouped within an “uncategorized” category.
Members can also enter a social media environment, where a question can privately be asked to a selected member or broadcasted to multiple members. This environment also provides a place for members to just mingle, blog, etc.
Membership is totally free.
No, this is not Facebook, but there are some noteworthy features available within the “Social Media” environment, including:
Private Messaging
Private messaging works like internal site email. Members can message people on their friends list as well as forward and reply to received messages.
Each member will have their own individual Inbox, Sentbox, and Drafts folder. They will be notified of new messages by a new message count as well as email notifications if enabled.
Friends
Members can be connected together by one member adding another as a “friend” and then the other member accepting the friendship request.
Each member has a visible list of their friends on the site. Friends lists are browsable and members can click on each friend to see more information – or add them as their own friend. Profiles are not restricted as a whole.
The ability to search for members by any piece of profile information is also included in with the built in members directory.
Groups
Groups are a gathering of members and wires posts.
Any member can create a group. They then become the group administrator giving them heightened privileges within that group.
Every group includes a place for group information, and the latest group news which can be kept up to date by group administrators. Every group also has a group wire. These features can be selectively enabled by the group creator.
The Wire
The wire is a place where friends and other members can come along and post messages to a specific piece of content.
Activity Streams
Activity streams aggregate all of your activity. All of your friends activity is also recorded so you can check what others are doing on the site.
Every component can make use of the activity stream component, which means any sort of activity can be recorded. Wire posts, blogs posts, new friendships and blog comments are among the most popular activities recorded.
Blog Creation/Tracking
The blogs component will aggregate all blogs, blog posts and comments for a member within the system. This means other members can easily find all blogs that a member belongs to or owns, as well as their recent posts and comments.
The blogs component also adds an easy to use screen for creating new blogs built right into the theme.
