Have you seen the Ask me Anything (AMA) segment on popular sites like Reddit, Tumblr, Quora, etc? Recently, a user asked if it was possible to add it in WordPress. AMA allows users to ask you questions anonymously and then you can answer those questions. In this article, we will show you how to add ask me anything (AMA) anonymously in WordPress.
What is Ask Me Anything Anonymously?
Popular sites like Reddit and Quora occasionally host famous personalities to their websites to answer questions submitted by their users. Users on Reddit can also host their own Ask me Anything forums.
Tumblr also has a similar feature which allows blog owners to receive questions from their users.
Both Quora and Tumblr provide an option for users to ask questions anonymously. The anonymity helps users who don’t want to reveal their identity when asking a question.
On your WordPress site, you can simply add a post or page where users can ask you questions in comments. While users can use fake names to post anonymous questions, it’s not encouraging for many users.
Having said that, let’s take a look at how you can add an ‘Ask me anything anonymously’ feature in WordPress.
Adding Ask Me Anything Anonymously Feature in WordPress
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Ask Me Anything (Anonymously) plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Tools » Ask me anything page to generate the shortcode.
The plugin allows you to display ask me anything feature on post/page or in a widget. You will need to create a post/page with Ask me Anything shortcode, even if you decide to show it in a sidebar widget.
Basically, the plugin uses WordPress comments for questions and answers, and all WordPress comments need to be associated with a post type.
Once you have created a post or a page with the shortcode, then you can configure the plugin options.
When you visit the post or page, you will see the Ask me Anything feature nicely displayed there.
Adding Ask Me Anything in Sidebar Widget
First you will need to create a WordPress post or page with the Ask me Anything shortcode inside it. Note the post or page ID, as you will need it in the next step.
After that you need to visit Tools » Ask me anything and select sidebar widget for location. The plugin will switch its options for the sidebar widget. Now you need to enter your post or page ID.
Once you are satisfied with the options, then copy the shortcode and paste it in a Sidebar text widget.
You can do this by going to Appearance » Widgets page and adding a text widget to your sidebar from the list of available widgets.
Next, paste the shortcode inside the widget area and click on the save button to store your changes.
You can now visit your website to see the plugin in action.
Answering and Moderating Questions
User questions are stored in your WordPress database as comments. You can simply visit Comments page to see them. See our guide on how to moderate comments in WordPress.
You can answer a question by simply clicking on the reply link below the question. You can delete a question if you don’t want it to appear on your website.
All questions will appear anonymously on your website. Approved questions and your answers to them will appear below the AMA form.
That’s all, we hope this article helped you add Ask me Anything anonymously feature to your WordPress site. You may also want to see these 11 ways to get more comments on your WordPress blog posts.
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Ilana Hipshman says
Hello, I have an inquiry.
I followed the rules exactly, first creating a post, then using the ID of that post in the plugin to create a sidebar widget. Everything seems to have worked, except the widget shows up with the shortcake, instead of the actual plugin.
Where may I have gone wrong?
WPBeginner Support says
Simply add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.
add_filter('widget_text', 'do_shortcode');1-click Use in WordPress
Admin
Abby says
I’m using the plugin as more of a confessional than a question and answer section and it seems like it will work really well for this! I have a few questions,
How do I change, “Someone asked” to Someone said or perhaps remove that piece altogether?
How do I remove the Gravatar?
Is there anyway I can add reactions to the comments (questions)?
Thanks in advance
Arun Basil Lal says
You can change ‘Someone asked’ to anything you want using the shortcode attribute ‘anonymous_name’ and remove the Gravatar by setting the attribute ‘avatar_size’ to 0.
So your shortcode will look something like:
[askmeanythingpeople anonymous_name=”A random person asked” avatar_size=”0″]
To add reactions, you will need to find a plugin that adds reactions to WordPress comments. And that will add reaction to this as well since questions and answers are simply WordPress comments.
Fadolla says
Hello Syed :
can u help me about my WordPress site, when i want to login to the admin panel it always must login two times with the first time it show this Error below .
” ERROR: Cookies are blocked or not supported by your browser. You must enable cookies to use WordPress. ”
what can i do to make it right?
thank before hand .
Aezaz says
Hi Fadolla,
Enable your browser cookie and then try again.
Arun Basil Lal says
Thanks for featuring my plugin
James says
Can you see at what time exactly the person commented, for instance 15:11:58, Wednesday, 4 May 2016 in the comments section.
Arun Basil Lal says
This will need some edit to the code, I will add this in the next update of the plugin.
Arun Basil Lal says
I just released version 1.2 and it includes the full time-stamp as requested. Date will be shown as: “on December 7, 2016 at 3:31 am “.
Hope that helps.
WPBeginner Support says
You are welcome, and thanks for sharing this useful plugin with the community.
Admin