# Is Discourse suitable for use for a question and answer type page?

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-discourse-suitable-for-use-for-a-question-and-answer-type-page/17772
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [July 20, 2014, 7:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-discourse-suitable-for-use-for-a-question-and-answer-type-page/17772 "2014-07-20T07:36:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![leisuretronics](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/leisuretronics/32/114585_2.png) [@leisuretronics](https://meta.discourse.org/u/leisuretronics)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2014, 7:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-discourse-suitable-for-use-for-a-question-and-answer-type-page/17772/1 "2014-07-20T07:36:38Z")

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I’m looking for a platform that I can use to power a Q&A section of a website. I’m already planning on using Discourse for comments throughout the site but I’ve also read on Quora ([http://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-open-source-question-and-answer-web-platform-like-Stack-Overflow](http://www.quora.com/Is-there-any-open-source-question-and-answer-web-platform-like-Stack-Overflow)) that Discourse can also be used to run a Q&A section. However I haven’t been able to find any examples. Is this correct or am I mistaken? Here’s the quote:

> With the functionality like Voting and advanced tagging, it can be used as question-and-answers platform. Every feature that Stack Overflow introduced is available with Discourse to run a Question & Answers site.

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### Author: ![MaSe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mase/32/105393_2.png) [@MaSe](https://meta.discourse.org/u/MaSe)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2014, 2:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-discourse-suitable-for-use-for-a-question-and-answer-type-page/17772/2 "2014-07-20T14:59:49Z")

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As Discourse is a rainbow system it is suitable for Q&A too. However it will need some plugin (I do not know if there is any) to work good for this purpose, at least it is needed to have

- sorting by voting
- limiting of replies in single thread by one author
- subscription to new topics not posts
- extended categories or tags filtering
- something else.

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### Author: ![Pugwash](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pugwash/32/3760_2.png) [@Pugwash](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Pugwash)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-discourse-suitable-for-use-for-a-question-and-answer-type-page/17772/3 "2014-07-20T17:28:32Z")

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I don’t think Discourse originally set out to be a QA forum, more of a place for free-flowing discussion. Not sure if there are plugins out there that can repurpose the interface for QA but the key thing you’d need is the ability to up/down vote.

I’ve used Discourse for almost a year now in a loose QA context, software support to be precise, works great 😄

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### Author: ![lightyear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@lightyear](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lightyear)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2014, 3:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-discourse-suitable-for-use-for-a-question-and-answer-type-page/17772/4 "2014-07-21T15:05:35Z")

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> [@MaSe](#):
>
> However it will need some plugin (I do not know if there is any) to work good for this purpose, at least it is needed to have
> 
> - sorting by voting

I have [build a plugin for that previously](https://github.com/ligthyear/discourse-plugin-questions). It does, however, require some [significant patches to the Discourse Archetype System to work](https://github.com/ligthyear/discourse_patches/tree/master/capability_archetypes). So it isn’t an easy-as-pie-install at the moment. And aside from the first it misses the other features. But yes, Discourse can definitely be made to work that way.

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### Author: ![harunxxl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d9b06d/32.png) [@harunxxl](https://meta.discourse.org/u/harunxxl)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2014, 7:39am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-discourse-suitable-for-use-for-a-question-and-answer-type-page/17772/5 "2014-08-12T07:39:07Z")

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Dear @lightyear thank you very much ! Do you make any installation service for money ? I would be your first customer ! 🙂

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### Author: ![chapoi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/chapoi/32/537252_2.png) [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2025, 11:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-discourse-suitable-for-use-for-a-question-and-answer-type-page/17772/6 "2025-12-04T11:31:06Z")

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