Recently there has been a survey that you can partake in on the AnswerHub it asks questions relating to the UE learning experience. After completing the survey I have been thinking of ways to improve the AnswerHub as I believe that with some effort it can be a fundamental pillar of the UE learning journey.
Give AnswerHub users the option to add a money reward for answers to their questions.
I would be more than happy to pay 1-5£ for help with a problem I have. As long as there are no refunds and there is a time limit for receiving payment so that the most upvoted answer(s) gets the humble reward. It could attract more experienced users to the AnswerHub.
I imagine there could be some toxicity generated by involving money on a free online website so we should make sure only members of a certain reputation level could get involved with questions that have payment attached.
Give people a link to a re-designed AnswerHub inside of UE.
Currently, people in need of UE help are scattered across the internet, some go to Discord, some go to Stack Exchange some go to the forums or Reddit, I’m almost certain that you have not received any answers to what seems like a very simple question. Imagine if all the UE experts would be gathered in one place to answer people’s questions, I believe it could increase the likelihood of your question being answered. We can accomplish grouping everyone in one place by incorporating AnswerHub into UE by designing UE with a link to the AnswerHub. In my opinion, this would need to hide in plain sight, so that new users would eventually come across it but more experienced users wouldn’t be bothered by it. Currently, in UE4 we have a slightly infamous pulsing icon on the top right of the UE4 window, we could possibly replace it with an opaque text that reads “AnswerHub”.
There are more things I would like to see changed in the AnswerHub but I have already rambled about them in the UE survey.
I was asking for the community’s thoughts and ideas, not just the UE developers. I don’t think you are correct about Epic not supporting their products, they recently updated this forum and made it look more modern, they have put up a survey on AnswerHub for information on how to make the learning experience better and they are developing UE5 a next-gen engine.
You really have a very good idea. However, I’m afraid that the idea of paying people for answers may lead to something bad. For example, people may start asking for more money for answers than the author gives, so the author may not get an answer to his question simply because he does not want to pay more. Perhaps people will start competing to be the first to answer and other people will simply not have a chance to answer, this may scare off some part of the users. Perhaps it will be worth making a limit on the number of rewards for 1 person per day so that everyone has the opportunity to earn a little, what do you think?
Don’t let the question author change the reward amount.
Competition would mean that there is an answer generated more quickly. The only thing that may be needed is showing someone’s answer as soon as someone posts one. Currently, you need to refresh the entire page to see all the new answers which can waste your time if you are trying to give an answer in-depth answer yourself.
Alternatively, there would be a period where no one’s answer is shown for the first 10-30 minutes forcing everyone to work on their best answer. Once this period is up all answers are revealed and a process of upvoting begins. The questioner can choose which answer fits best but if the questioner doesn’t want to choose anyone then the most upvoted answer gets the reward.
Only higher level AnswerHub members are allowed to participate in paid questions.
Trouble is, Epic doesn’t care about much of anything if not $.
Developers do not make them $. They give them extra work and point out just how ridiculously bad the engine is.
So why waste time and money even thinking about the only people who actually help other developers ?
IT probably ends up costing them even more money based on all the “The engine cannot do this” answers they’d put up anyway.
Stick around a bit.
You’ll realize not only I’m not wrong, but that to Epic your opinion and welfare as a developer or a player in fortnite counts about as much as ice in hell.
Clearly, this is exaggerated, but it can happen in more complex problems. The point is that the selected answer may end up being one that does not follow best practices or is a “band-aid” solution. Think youtube tutorials, but now you’re (offering to) pay for them.
I think the idea is good, just need to make sure it’s executed properly.
Well don’t go there.
Epic has been doing this with mega grants for years.
Other people go directly on patreon and have an acural following - apparently.
I have never been one to follow anything, so I’m not really sure who in their right mind would give anyone money to give “unreal” answers in video tutorials.
I have even seen people use only fans for this, not too amazingly.
Just because you aren’t in the know about those things actually taking place, it doesn’t mean they already aren’t.
That said:
Yes the idea of actually giving money for answerhub answers is bad.
At the same time, giving marketplace credit, or even marketplace exposure - since realistically everyone who answers has actually made and published something somewhere at some point - could be a fair idea.
Too bad epic dgaf and it won’t ever be considered.
And before anyone says “they care” or some rather silly stuff of similar tone.
Just look at the state of this forum for crying outloud. Or the issues with paywallet
Well, I’d love to participate in professional Q&A, but have no interest in either one of those. Sure, there are a few code plugin sellers for whom it might be relevant - but that’s probably far from enough to actually sustain quality conversation / support.
(Don’t get me wrong, I also don’t see cash viable; but I don’t think anything marketplace-related is a generic enough solution)
Bounties 