Askville Superpowers FAQAskville Superpowers FAQ

1. What are superpowers?

Superpowers are special powers and privileges that users can use on Askville. To be eligible to get superpowers you must reach at least level 1 in any topic (you do this by answering enough questions, which will earn you experience points, in a topic to reach level 1). Whenever you reach a new level, you will have the ability to learn additional superpowers for that level.

There is no limit on the number of superpowers you can learn, as long as you meet the eligible requirements. We will continue to add new superpowers in the future.

We currently offer Superpowers in both Level 1 and Level 2:

• Gold Earning Multiplier Superpower (Level 1 & 2)
• Topic Bulletin Board Superpower (Level 1)
• Topic Editing Superpower (Level 2)

2. How do I buy or learn a superpower?

You need to go to the Superpower Shop from your My Askville page. Once there, you can "learn" any superpower that you are eligible to buy. For example, if you have reached Level 1 in at least one topic, but have not reached Level 2, you will only be allowed to "learn" Level 1 Superpowers. Once you've reached Level 2 in any topic, you will be able to "learn" any Level 2 Superpower.

The example below shows a user who has reached Level 2 in the topic "seattle" and consequently is able to learn 2 superpowers in Level 1 and 1 superpower in Level 2.

Each Superpower will cost a different amount of Quest gold to learn. To learn more about each superpower, just click on the name of the superpower. If you only are allowed 1 superpower in a given level, you can switch from one superpower to another by clicking on the "learn power" button for the superpower you want. However, be warned that you will automatically lose the old superpower and you will be charged for the new one.

3. What is the Gold Earning Multiplier superpower?

The Gold Earning Multiplier will multiply the amount of Quest Gold you can earn (or lose) for each answer you submit within a limited time period. Once you activate this superpower, you should answer questions that have the Gold Earning Multiplier icon next to the question (e.g. if you have the Level 1 version of this superpower, go to questions with topics where you have reached Level 1).

After you answer the question, the # of gold you earn will be multiplied by a "gold multiplier" (e.g. x2 normal gold payout). Warning - if you get a negative vote on an answer you will lose even more quest gold with this superpower on, so make sure you provide high quality answers. The Gold Earning Multiplier superpower can only be used for a limited time period, after which it goes into a "cooldown" period, which is the time you must wait before you can use this superpower again. The higher level versions of this superpower will give you more time and/or shorter cooldown periods.

To find questions where you can use this superpower, you need to find questions in topics where you have reached either level 1 or higher. (e.g. if you have the Level 2 version of this superpower, go to questions with topics where you have reached Level 2). Once you are on that topic page, you should click on the tab "Questions That Need Answers" and look for questions that have the Gold Earning Multiplier icon in the lower right-hand corner (see example below):

After you click on the icon, a popup window will tell you the following information:

• Level - which level superpower this is and which questions you can apply this superpower to (e.g. if you have the Level 1 version of this superpower, go to questions with topics where you have reached Level 1).
• Use - How long this superpower will be active before it expires. Cooldown period is how long you have to wait before you can use this superpower again.
• Multiplier - this is what we will multiply your gold by after all answers have been rated. Warning - if you get a negative vote on an answer you will lose even more quest gold with this superpower on, so make sure you provide high quality answers.
• Activate Superpower - to use the superpower, you must click on this button to activate it.
• Time Remaining - how much time is remaining before the superpower expires and enters the cooldown period.

4. What is the Topic Bulletin Board superpower?

The Topic Bulletin Board superpower allows you to post a bulletin within a topic, which will allow you to communicate to all Askvillers who are viewing or are interested in this topic. What type of information should you post? Anything that you think other Askvillers would be interested in reading. It could be links to interesting articles, websites, or general announcements. It should not be used as a discussion board (just ask a question instead).

To avoid and/or limit abuse of this superpower, only users who are level 1 or higher in a given topic can use this superpower. Moreover, it will cost a nominal fee (1 gold) to add or remove a bulletin post and there is a limit on the # times you can use (i.e. charges) this superpower per day.

5. What is the Topic Editing superpower?

The Topic Editing superpower will allow you to do two things; Include other topics to a primary topic as well as add links to other topics of interest.

Including other topics to a primary topic means that questions that are tagged with different, yet related topics, will show up under the primary topic. The main benefit of this is to help aggregate questions under one primary topic. For example, questions that are tagged 'digital cameras' will not show up in the topic 'digital photography' or vice-versa. However, by using this superpower you can include the topic 'digital cameras' in the 'digital photography' topic so that 'digital cameras' questions will now appear in 'digital photography'. By doing this, digital photography experts can aggregate questions under one primary topic, 'digital photography' (i.e. users can include other similar topics like 'digital photos', 'digital camera', 'photography', 'canon digital cameras', so that all questions tagged with those topics will appear in 'digital photography').

Adding links to other interesting topics means that you think other Askvillers would be interested in exploring those topics. For example, if you were viewing the primary topic 'travel' you may want to add links to the topics 'Spain', 'England', 'Greece', 'Asia', to help Askvillers explore other interesting topics from the 'travel' topic.

To avoid and/or limit abuse of this superpower, only users who are level 2 or higher in a given topic can use this superpower. Moreover, there is a cost (2 gold per use) and a limit on the # times you can use (i.e. charges) this superpower per day

6. What does it mean when a superpower is "grayed out"?

When you see a "grayed out" superpower icon next to a question, that could mean one of several things:

• You have already used that superpower on the question
• The superpower is currently in a "cooldown" period, in which case you need to wait for the cooldown period to end
• You have already used the maximum number of charges for that superpower for that day, in which case you will need to wait until the next day to use the superpower on this question

Just click on the grayed out superpower icon and a popup window will explain to you the reason why you can't use the superpower at this time.

7. Why are you giving users superpowers?

We want to reward the users in our community who are adding a lot of value by either asking or answering questions. One main purpose of superpowers is to give users who care about specific topics, more powers to influence the quality of the questions asked and answered. That being said, superpowers are a privilege - not a right. We reserve the right to remove superpowers from users who are abusing this privilege.

8. What can we do if we think someone is abusing their superpowers?

If you think someone is abusing their superpowers, please report abuse on that user and explain what they have done by clicking on the Report Abuse link. We have added a new report abuse criteria called "Abuse of Superpower" to make it easier for us to review these issues.

9. When will you be adding more superpowers?

We have a long list of superpowers which we would like to add. However, we want to see how the community uses the current superpowers that are available to make sure that they are being used properly and to make sure that they are easy to use. Once we feel the community understands and has accepted superpowers, we will introduce new superpowers when it is appropriate.