What kind of questions can I ask?
You can ask about any food or drink content that concerns you. Global or local, it all counts to those who consume it. And yes, you can answer your own question.

What can I do if my question gets no answers but I really want to get one?
Review and rephrase your question to make it more specific, and try checking you have relevant tags. Then repost it. .

Can you give me any hints to make my questions (and therefore my data posts) more easily noticed?
The more specific you are with your question, including its title,; the easier it is for other ONF users as well as search engines to find and rank your question. You should also add relevant tags that succinctly sum up the question. “From where is the milk powder sourced for Brand X Baby Formula sold in the UK?” is going to be much easier for search engines and other users to find than simply “Is Brand X baby formula safe?” Adding these tags would assist visibility even further. .

How can I produce data?
If you think conducting your own original research is beyond your means, you can alternatively link and refer to concrete research findings on the web, in libraries, periodicals, journals etc… or you can even collaborate with others as a team (see the Collaboration page) to conquer a particularly difficult or expensive data challenge. Don’t forget the Golden Rule of Research: Reference what you post. If you post some really useful data, you may even find your article becoming used as a benchmark for that topic in the world data bank of food. .

How does the Reputation system work? See our Reputation page.

Do I have to create an account and log in to use the site?
No. You can immediately start asking and answering questions anonymously if you like. However, be aware that as long as you remain anonymous that we can only trace you by using cookies. If you change computer or clean your cookies, we will not be able to recognise you and all your previous data and reputation will be orphaned: you will have to start afresh. As you begin to enjoy and trust ONF we recommend registering a log-in account that will protect your data in our system. Finally, the system (and other ONF users) will accord you the greatest levels of trust if you actually sign up with OpenID or with an identity you already own through a service such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc. This effectively guarantees everyone that you are a real person. Signing up with a permanent account is as easy as following the Log-in link. .

Why can't I vote on a question or answer directly from the search results?
Our Naked Food doesn’t let you vote just on the title of a question or answer. This helps keep the quality of voting high, and is one of the distinguishing features between ONF and other social voting sites. .

What is Community Mode, and when does it kick in for a post?

• When you have edited your own post on five separate occasions or there have been five edits by the community (10,000 Reputation is required to edit Q&A of other people).
• When a question attains 25 answers.
• When a question or answer receives a positive balance of 25 upvotes (upvotes - downvotes = 25).
• When a member chooses to check the "Community Mode?" box at the initial submit.

Members can still earn badges when working on posts in Community Mode.

Should I vote someone down if they stray off-topic from food or drink integrity, even if it may be a good question in itself?
Yes! With sympathy to the person who wrote about a non-food or drink topic (e.g. general health or medicine), but we simply have to be strict and vote off-topic content down. Otherwise, Our Naked Food will lose its focus and it will become that much harder to find food questions. Accordingly, if you want to see the Our Naked Food environment applied to another field (with a separate website), you can write in and tell us you want an ONF-like site for that topic. We are open to partnerships with motivated people with a very strong interest in other fields that could benefit from what we have built. .

Will Our Naked Food upgrade its community rules from time to time?
Over time, people will exploit and game any system, so it is important to recognise that any reputation system sometimes has to be tweaked in order to stay effective. It is the price of success, and if left unattended results in a warped system that new people and "legitimate" members regard as unfair… and likely leave. We welcome your views on how to make the community rules work better ? after all, we are a community site!