Jason select said

Let's build a Steepster FAQ

Since we haven’t been able to make our own FAQ, I figured the fastest thing would be to ask all you fine lookin people to help out.

If you see a question that gets asked a lot, or are wondering something you’ve never been able to figure out, post the question here and I’ll fill in the blanks. Or if you’ve seen it answered somewhere else, feel free to post that here too.

Once we’ve gathered a good amount of questions/answers, I’ll reformat and post it as a new discussion that’s pinned to the top so all can enjoy. Please keep responses related to questions/answers about Steepster. Thanks!

18 Replies
Angrboda said

How does the rating scale work?

I’ve seen a number of people wonder if there was some sort of specific pattern they were supposed to follow when giving points to a tea.

Also, why is it not a straight average?

I know this has been explained a number of times but it still seems to be confuse newbies and oldies some times.

What does ‘Follow’ mean?
How do I follow someone?
How do I PM someone?
Who can I PM?
How do I write a post about a tea?
How do I enter my tea in the database?
How do I write a post about a place?
How do I write a post on the boards?
Which code (for italics, bold, underlined etc) can I use and how do I use it?
How do I edit a post?
Who can comment on my posts?
How do I ‘like’ a post?
Can I prevent someone from commenting on my posts?
Who do I contact if I have a dispute with somebody?
How do I report spam on the boards?

That’s just off the top of my head. Some of them are probably extremely basic, but I’m trying to think like a newbie here.

(Oh and since I’ve got you here, could you have a look at the guidelines post? It’s got two item twos… :) )

Jason select said

Awesome list to start it off. I’ll answer all of these on the FAQ. And I fixed the guidelines post too – nice catch :).

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Jason select said

I got this other question on the guidelines post, so I wanted to copy it here:

Kashyap wrote:

And how does Steepster feel about appealing to the community with discussions on compassionate action? Charity work? and appeals for tea rewards for charitable support of causes?

Jason select said

BTW, as long as it’s related to tea somehow and not abusive or overly agressive in the marketing it should be okay. We’ll look on a case by case basis if something is a concern though.

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Caitlin said

You could do some FAQ for companies…Can I advertise my tea company on steepster?; Can I rate my own teas? – etc.

Jason select said

Great idea. I’ll answer those as well. If you think of any specific ones a tea company may have about using steepster, feel free to put them as a reply here.

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How does the website determine which teas go into the “Related Teas” section of a tea’s page?
and/or any related questions about how Steepster’s search engine works

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I think all of @Angrboda suggestions are great.

- Related to what Spoonvonstup said, I would like more details about how to search more effectively (whether or not certain search symbols can be used, and how: like, for example, wildcard characters, AND, OR, NOT, etc.). Wildcard characters, for example, can really help if you’re not sure how to spell something.

- I would like to know how to change the number of results displayed per page.

- Based on previous threads, it may help to make it clear who the actual administrators of this site are (The only one I am aware of is you, Jason)

- There have been numerous times when, while searching the discussion ‘archives’, I ran across a great comment or link to another site in a discussion thread which is very old (perhaps 6 months or a year or more ago). My reaction is often to want to thank the person for posting their perspective/information WITHOUT calling attention to the community at large, which would happen if I merely reply to the person’s post. I don’t see a problem with doing this on current/recent discussion threads, but it seems unnecessary if the thread is not ‘active.’ I would rather simply private message them with my thanks. Unfortunately I can’t do that unless they are following me. Is it possible to send someone a simple one-lined message?

Control, control, I want more control!

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Jason select said

I’ve also been asked to provide some info about how people might review tea companies as a whole, so I’ll discuss a temporary solution for that.

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Why do some teas have a “Buy Now…” button, and others do not?

Are these teas affiliated or endorsed by Steepster? Did the tea companies pay for this option? Or is this something any user can add to any tea?

A good way to fill in missing FAQ content might be to just look at all of the buttons and/or linked elements on a typical tea entry, and explain what each of them means and how to use them. Quickly glancing, I see:
Add Tasting Note (How do I.. Why would I… etc)
Add to Shopping List (What is this for? etc)
Add to Cupboard (Why would I…? etc)
Edit Tea Info (last edited by …) (Can anyone do this? etc…)
Buy this tea now (see above)

Steepster Score (how is this determined, etc.. this has already been discussed in depth, of course)
Rate this Tea (how to… why.. etc)

Tea Name (covered under.. How to Add a tea. This name isn’t right? Can I change the name? etc)
Tea Type (pu-erh, green, rooibos..) – What are these tea types? I don’t see my tea type. etc..
Tea Company (are these affiliated with Steepster? This isn’t the right company. How do I add..)

Tasting notes (How/why do I: comment, like, etc? Why is this tasting note up at the top, and mine is down at the bottom? Can I re-order notes by rating / popularity by likes or comments / recency? Why isn’t there a tasting note for every rating? Why isn’t there a rating for every tasting note? If I rate a tea more than once, which one will show up by default?)

Related Teas (what are these? how are these chosen?)
Popular Teas from…. (Why am I seeing this? How are these picked?)

Jason select said

All good ones. I’ll take a crack at these.

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I would love it if we could see the rating numbers. I know when I’m at 82 out of 100, not what I think is 82.

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Based on the request from the current discussion topic, “If you see a question that gets asked a lot, or are wondering something you’ve never been able to figure out, post the question here and I’ll fill in the blanks.” and the responses posted from the, “How to use text formatting symbols. Formatting can be fun!” discussion topic, I have included the following content from that latter thread.

Below are some of the ways to format text in Steepster that I have discovered using every symbol on my standard English keyboard (I believe these symbols are within the standard ASCII character set).

Surround the text with these symbols—with no spaces on either side (or it won’t work) to get the desired effect. I put spaces in the examples on the right otherwise the symbols won’t show up. I had to use ……… to add white-space, as the editor/parser won’t accept tabs or white-space:

BOLD……………………………………………….* BOLD *
ITALICS……………………………………………. _ ITALICS _
BOLD-AND-ITALICS………………………..* _ BOLD-AND-ITALICS _ *
UNDERLINE………………………………………+ UNDERLINE +
MAKES-FONT-SIZE-SMALLER………………………~ MAKES-FONT-SIZE-SMALLER ~
SUPERSCRIPT…………………………………….^ SUPERSCRIPT ^
STRIKETHROUGH……………………………- STRIKETHROUGH -
……………………………< YOU CAN’T SEE ME UNLESS YOU’RE THE AUTHOR AND YOU TRY TO EDIT THIS POST >
→………………………………………………………………. – >

With the exception of the last set of symbols, you can use any combination of these such that the symbols on the right hand side must be in the reverse order of those used on the left hand side: First In Last Out (FILO), like a stack. 123Words about the noble leaf321.

I am guessing there are more I have not discovered (like how to align with tabs, add white-space, add more than one consecutive carriage return, etc.). Does anyone know of any others? Jason?

Jason select said

I think this is most of them. I’ve been putting together the FAQ and will check to see if I can find more. Thanks for this!

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Barb said

I’m very new and I would also like to know how to edit (or even delete) a note. Having a great time so far but noticed a silly typo as soon as I posted!

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