Setting up your first Q&A space in Jetonomy

The most useful thing a Q&A space does is turn one person’s solved problem into search inventory for the next 50 people with the same question. That does not happen automatically - it happens because the space type is set up correctly, seeded with real content, and configured so the “accepted answer” mechanism works the way it should.

This post walks through the full setup: from creating the space to the moment your first accepted answer earns its green badge.

Why Q&A, not Forum

Jetonomy ships five space types. Most new installs reach for Forum by default, and that is fine for open discussion. Q&A is different in one important way: it is built around a single best answer.

A Forum topic accumulates replies. A Q&A question accumulates replies too - but the person who asked gets to mark one reply as the accepted answer, and that accepted answer floats to the top permanently. Visitors landing from search see the accepted answer immediately. They do not have to read through 12 replies to find the fix.

If your community exists partly to help members solve problems, that distinction matters. See which space type fits your use case for a fuller breakdown.

Step 1 - Create the Q&A space

From your WordPress admin:

1. Go to Jetonomy - Spaces - Add New.
2. Set the Space Type to Q&A.
3. Give the space a short, specific name. “Help” or “Questions” or the name of the product it covers. Avoid generic names like “Forum” - the name sets member expectations.
4. Write a one-sentence description that tells members what to ask here.
5. Set the join policy to Public, anyone can post. Gating the Q&A behind login kills search indexing and cuts off the new-member discovery path - the person searching Google for your error message is not logged in yet.
6. Save.

The space is live. It is empty, which we will fix in a moment.

Step 2 - Review the trust level defaults

Trust levels control what members can do as they build a posting history. The defaults work out of the box for most Q&A spaces:

Level	What members can do in Q&A
0 (New)	Read, post questions, post replies
1 (Basic)	Use mentions, post images, edit own posts
2 (Regular)	Flag content; access trust-gated spaces if any
3 (Member)	Edit titles on others’ posts; close own duplicate questions
4 (Trusted)	Hide spam without mod approval
5 (Leader)	Full moderation queue access

One decision worth making now: whether you want a moderation buffer for new members. From Jetonomy - Settings - Trust, you can set new-member posts (trust level 0) to go to Pending before publishing. This is useful if spam is a concern or if your community requires accurate information (medical, legal, technical). The tradeoff is friction for your first legitimate users. Most communities start with the buffer off and turn it on if spam appears.

Promotion is automatic based on participation quality - accepted-answer rate, post survival, time on site. You do not manage it manually.

Step 3 - Seed 10 to 15 questions before you launch

An empty Q&A space feels abandoned. Visitors land, see nothing, and leave without asking. The fix is seeding: populate the space with real questions from your support inbox or product documentation before you announce it.

Seeding procedure:

1. Pull the top 10-15 questions from your last 30 days of support emails or help desk tickets.
2. Post each one as a new question in your Q&A space. Use the actual wording customers used, not the polished version you put in docs. Search matches are better when the question text matches how real people phrase the problem.
3. Write the correct answer as a reply to each question.
4. Mark each answer as Accepted. You are acting as both asker and answerer during seeding - that is fine.
5. Tag each question with 1-2 relevant tags.

Fifteen seeded questions with accepted answers means visitors landing from search find real content from day one. It also models the behavior: members see accepted-answer badges and know what “solved” looks like.

Step 4 - Pin the most common questions

Pinning surfaces topics above new posts regardless of recency. Use pinning for:

• The most-searched question in your product or community
• “How to ask a good question here” - format, what to include, how to tag
• “How to mark an accepted answer” - many members do not do this unless they see an example

Limit pins to 3-5. More than that and pinning loses its meaning.

To pin a topic: open the question, click the topic actions menu (the three-dot icon), select Pin.

Step 5 - Configure the moderation queue

Even with trust levels handling automatic promotion, you want a moderation queue review cadence from the start. From Jetonomy - Moderation:

1. Set the queue to send you an email digest when there are pending items. Daily is sufficient for most communities; hourly if you have high volume.
2. Review the queue once a day. The typical actions are Approve, Spam, or Decline.
3. For questions that duplicate an existing question: close the new one as a duplicate and add a comment linking to the original. This keeps the accepted-answer inventory clean - two questions with the same answer dilute search.

Time investment at a small-to-medium Q&A: 5-10 minutes per day.

Step 6 - Post your first real question

The first organic question from a real member is the moment the space becomes real. Two things to do when it arrives:

1. Reply quickly - even if the reply is “looking into this.” Speed on the first reply sets the tone that the space is active.
2. Prompt the asker to mark an accepted answer once they have one. Many members do not know the feature exists until they are told about it. A single line like “If this solved it, hit the Mark as Accepted button on the reply” is enough.

Once the first accepted answer exists in the space, the flywheel is running.

What a healthy Q&A space looks like after 60 days

Metric	What to look for
Accepted answer rate	50%+ of closed questions should have an accepted answer
Time to first reply	Under 24 hours for most questions (community velocity indicator)
Duplicate rate	Under 10% (seeding + search is working)
Trust-3+ members	At least 2-3 by day 60 (organic promotion is working)

If the accepted-answer rate is low, add the “how to mark accepted” prompt to your reply template. If duplicates are high, your question titles are not descriptive enough - edit them to match the exact words people search.

Common setup mistakes

Setting the join policy to logged-in only. This cuts off search indexing. Google cannot index content behind a login wall, so the Q&A never becomes search inventory. New members cannot find the space from search.

Skipping the seed phase. Launching an empty Q&A and announcing it sends your early members to a blank page. Seed before you announce.

Using Q&A for discussion. Q&A is designed for problems with solutions. If the conversation is open-ended debate or brainstorming, use a Forum space. Mixing the two types in one Q&A space creates confusion about whether there is a right answer.

Marking accepted answers as admin, not asker. The accepted-answer mechanism works because the person who had the problem decides what solved it. Admin-marked answers carry less trust signal.

---

The setup is straightforward once you understand what the accepted-answer mechanism is for. The Q&A space type is doing one job: turning one person’s solved problem into a permanent, searchable answer for everyone else who has it. That job starts working the moment your first accepted answer earns its badge.