Go on — ask it.

You do not need an account, an app, or any particular bravery. You open a link, you type, you are done.

Asking a question

Open the link for the talk you are in. You will see the questions other people have already asked, and a box at the bottom to write your own.

1. Type your question in the box.
2. Optionally put a name in the smaller field beside it. Leave it blank to stay anonymous.
3. Press Ask.

Your question appears in the list straight away, for you and for everyone else in the room.

Voting for someone else's question

Beside every question is a number and a boost button. Tapping it says I want to hear this answered too.

Questions are ordered by how many boosts they have, so the ones the room most wants answered rise to the top — which is where the chair looks first. This is the single most useful thing you can do, because it is how a good question from a quiet person gets heard.

• You have a limited number of boosts per talk, so they mean something.
• Tap again to take a boost back and spend it elsewhere.
• You can boost your own question, but it will not carry you far on its own.

Staying anonymous

By default you are anonymous. If you leave the name field blank, your question shows as Anonymous and nothing identifies you to the speaker, the chair, or anyone else in the room.

If you would rather be credited, put a name in. It can be your real name, your first name, your handle, or your job title — whatever you are comfortable with. You can change it between questions.

When questions close

The chair can close submissions — usually near the end, so the last few minutes are spent answering rather than collecting. When that happens the box greys out and the banner at the top says Submissions closed.

You may also see a last call countdown. That means there are a few seconds left to get a question in before it closes. Nothing is lost when questions close: everything already asked stays visible.

Getting an answer afterwards

Sessions run out of time. If a question matters to you, choose Email me the answer beneath it and give an email address.

What that does, and only this:

• Your address is stored against that one question.
• It is visible only to the chair of that talk and the organisation's administrators.
• It is never shown on the big screen, and never shown to other attendees.
• It is used to send you the answer to that question, and nothing else.

You have to tick the box to confirm. Nothing is collected unless you deliberately ask for it.

What makes a question land

The questions that get answered well tend to share a few things. None of this is a rule — ask anyway.

• Ask one thing. Three questions in one usually get the first answered and the rest forgotten.
• Keep it short. Two lines is plenty. The chair is reading quickly.
• Be specific. “How did you handle rollbacks during that migration?” beats “Any advice on migrations?”
• Check the list first. If someone has asked something close to yours, boosting theirs is stronger than adding a near-duplicate.
• It is fine to ask the basic one. If a term went past unexplained, you are not the only person who missed it.

If something goes wrong

My question did not appear. Check the banner at the top — submissions may have closed. Otherwise the connection may have dropped for a moment; the page reconnects on its own, so try again.

The page says “Offline”. The little dot near the top shows the live connection. On conference wifi it sometimes drops. It reconnects by itself and catches up on what it missed.

I cannot boost anything. You have probably used your boosts for this talk. Take one back from a question you care less about and spend it again.

My question has disappeared. A chair can remove a question that is off-topic or inappropriate. If you think it was a mistake, ask again or speak to the organisers.

I asked to be emailed and heard nothing. Follow-ups are sent after the event, once the speaker has had a chance to answer. Give it a few days.