<commit_before><section class="static">
  <h1>FAQ for users</h1>

<a href="#electeds">(FAQ for elected officials)</a>

<h3>Is AskThem free?<h3>
	<p>Free of charge, open-source, non-profit, non-partisan, with open data for civic engagement.</p>
	
	<h3>How does AskThem work?</h3>
<p>Question and petition public figures. Get signatures to threshold. Share on social media. Push for a public response. Then comment on the response and share more, creating a continual connection with public figures.</p>
		
<h3>Will my question be answered?</h3>
<p>Depends. If threshold, we deliver it publicly over email and social media, and it goes to "need answer" section on AskThem. Some elected officials have opted-in.</p>

<h3>Which elected officials so far have agreed to respond to popular questions on AskThem?</h3>
<p>Updated gallery of participating elected officials and verified Twitter users can be found here. Ask your elected officials at every level of government to participate. It's free and works like a social media service like Twitter. Elected officials and verified Twitter users simply agree to answer one or two questions per month that reach the signature threshold. They may choose to answer as many as they like, whether or not they reach the signature threshold, there's no limit and no cost. Of course, not every question that reaches the signature threshold will receive a public response on AskThem from its target. But all questions from confirmed registered users on AskThem are displayed publicly, viewable on the site and shareable on social media to gather more support.</p>
	
<h3>How are questions moderated?</h3>
<p>Very lightly- by our terms of service, any question can be displayed, barring certain conditions. Flagging, curating good question community ethos through Advisory Council. "Good questions' project. Previous Q&A efforts & engagement platforms provide examples.</p>
	
<h3>What elected officials can visitors target with questions and petitions?<h3>
	
	<p>For the first time in a free & open-source website, AskThem has brought together over 10,000 elected officials, with more on the way, as follows:</p> 
		<ul>
			<li>All 100 U.S. senators and 438 U.S. representatives (from 435 Congressional districts, plus at least three delegates)</li>
			<li>All 50 U.S. state governors</li>
			<li>Approx. 7,383 U.S. state legislators in all 50 states</li>
			<li>Mayors of the top 60 U.S. cities by population</li>
			<li>Including all city council members in the Knight Foundation communities of Philadelphia, PA & San Jose, CA, with more Knight cities to come shortly</li>
			<li>All city council members in Chicago, IL, with more major cities to come shortly</li>
		</ul>	
			
	<p>Coming soon in 2014, we will make it possible to see even more elected officials simply by entering a street address - the most of any open-source website:</p>
		<ul>
			<li>1,214 U.S. mayors, covering virtually every mayor across the country.</li>
			<li>Tens of thousands of county elected officials, covering every county government across the U.S.</li>
			<li>Thousands more city council members in the top 60 U.S. cities</li>
			<li>Coming soon, tends of thousands of municipal elected officials (city council members) in the states of: CA, FL, MA, OR, PA, TX and WA</li>
			<li>... and any verified Twitter account. This includes official Twitter accounts of elected officials, but also public figures such as spokespeople, companies, media personalities, and celebrities of all types.</li>
		</ul>
		
		<p>... charitable donations to AskThem can help us expand our open questions-and-answers platform faster to all of the above cities and states. Help us grow!</p>
		
<h3>What are the signature thresholds for different jurisdictions of elected officials? How were they determined by AskThem?</h3>	
	
	<p>First, we'll continually adjust signature thresholds - for a class of elected officials (e.g. mayors) or for an individual target - based on user feedback and site analytics. This is a very dynamic process and we'll be blogging openly about our findings & user activity. For example, if a given level of elected official is regularly receiving more than five questions per month that reach the signature threshold, we will examine raising it. We're interested in public input & elected official feedback on this question, and on the actual live data.</p>
	
	<p>Second, any individual elected official who is a verified responder in AskThem can request of our team to customize his or her signature threshold (within reason). So for an elected official who agrees to respond publicly to one or two questions per month that reach the threshold (and with at least half of the signatures-to-threshold coming from constituents), she may choose to raise her individual threshold on AskThem, or test different goals.</p>
	
	<p>Third, our medium-term goal is to set a ballpark of signature thresholds at 0.1% of a jurisdiction's population, as determined by the U.S. census and open data. This will not necessarily be the final threshold, or binding, but it offers a baseline, and will enable us to experiment with more-precise calculations. For example, if the 2012 population of Chicago is 2.175 million people, the signature threshold for the mayor of Chicago may start at 0.1% of that, viz. 2,175 signatures, and be adjusted from there according to site analytics. If the average size of a U.S. Congressional district is 710,767 people, then at least 710 signatures may be the required threshold for a U.S. representative. We have not yet fully implemented such granular calculations, but the opportunity is tremendous for open linked data & future iterations.</p>
	
	<p>Currently, then, the default signature thresholds for different jurisdictions of public figures on AskThem are as follows:</p>			
		<ul>
			<li>Federal member of Congress (U.S. senator or representative): 5,000</li>
			<li>U.S. state governor: 200</li>
			<li>U.S. state legislator (state senators and assembly members):100</li>
			<li>U.S. major city mayor: 100</li>
			<li>Verified Twitter account: 500</li>
			<li>Elected official w/ unknown jurisdiction: 500</li>
		</ul>
			
		
<h3>What Twitter accounts can visitors target with questions and petitions?</h3>

<p>Any Twitter account with a verified blue check. Non-verified Twitter accounts cannot be asked questions through AskThem at this time, but soon, we plan to allow non-verified Twitter users to opt-in.</p>
	
<h3>How do I know my question has been delivered or answered?</h3>

<p>We'll send you email updates.</p>	
		
		
						
<a name="electeds">
		<h1>AskThem- Frequently Asked Questions For Elected Officials</h1>
  <div class="related_data">
    <h3>Is AskThem Free?</h3>
    <p>Yes, there's no cost to you. AskThem is completely free, not-for-profit, and non-partisan.  We are an open source project and our data is available for the public benefit.</p>

    <h3>How is AskThem funded and how is it affiliated?</h3>
    <p>AskThem is a project of the non-profit <a href="http://participatorypolitics.org">Participatory Politics Foundation</a>, creators of OpenCongress.org, a leading government transparency website with 26 million Web visits and 300,000 registered users. AskThem is supported by a charitable grant from the Knight Foundation's <a hre="http://www.knightfoundation.org/funding-initiatives/tech-engagement/">Tech For Engagement</a> initiative.</p>

    <h3>What is the Knight Foundation and are they politically affiliated?</h3>
    <p>The Knight Foundation is a private, non-profit foundation that funds programs that use technology to foster engagement. The foundation is not affiliated with any political party-but instead supports individuals as agents for engagement-with a focus on youth leadership, social entrepreneurs and local institutions. The foundation’s funding was primarily received from newspaper publications as well as from personal gifts by John and <NAME>, and many private donors.</p><commit_msg>primarily just sync'ing with latest<commit_after><section class="static">
  <h1>FAQ for users</h1>

<a href="#electeds">(FAQ for elected officials)</a>

<h3>Is AskThem free?<h3>
	<p>Free of charge, open-source, non-profit, non-partisan, with open data for civic engagement.</p>
	
	<h3>How does AskThem work?</h3>
<p>Question and petition public figures. Get signatures to threshold. Share on social media. Push for a public response. Then comment on the response and share more, creating a continual connection with public figures.</p>
		
<h3>Will my question be answered?</h3>
<p>Depends. If threshold, we deliver it publicly over email and social media, and it goes to "need answer" section on AskThem. Some elected officials have opted-in.</p>

<h3>Which elected officials so far have agreed to respond to popular questions on AskThem?</h3>
<p>Updated gallery of participating elected officials and verified Twitter users can be found <a href="http://www.participatorypolitics.org/elected-officials-who-have-signed-up-for-askthem/">here on PPF Blog</a>. Ask your elected officials at every level of government to participate. It's free and works like a social media service like Twitter. Elected officials and verified Twitter users simply agree to answer one or two questions per month that reach the signature threshold. They may choose to answer as many as they like, whether or not they reach the signature threshold, there's no limit and no cost. Of course, not every question that reaches the signature threshold will receive a public response on AskThem from its target. But all questions from confirmed registered users on AskThem are displayed publicly, viewable on the site and shareable on social media to gather more support.</p>
	
<h3>How are questions moderated?</h3>
<p>Very lightly- by our terms of service, any question can be displayed, barring certain conditions. Flagging, curating good question community ethos through Advisory Council. "Good questions' project. Previous Q&A efforts & engagement platforms provide examples.</p>
	
<h3>What elected officials can visitors target with questions and petitions?</h3>
	
	<p>For the first time in a free & open-source website, AskThem has brought together over 10,000 elected officials, with over 100,000 more on the way, as follows:</p> 
		<ul>
			<li>All 100 U.S. senators and 438 U.S. representatives (from 435 Congressional districts, plus at least three delegates)</li>
			<li>All 50 U.S. state governors</li>
			<li>Approx. 7,383 U.S. state legislators in all 50 states</li>
			<li>Mayors of the top 60 U.S. cities by population</li>
			<li>Including all city council members in the Knight Foundation communities of Philadelphia, PA & San Jose, CA, with more Knight cities to come shortly</li>
			<li>All city council members in Chicago, IL, with more major cities to come shortly</li>
		</ul>	
			
	<p>Coming soon in 2014, we will make it possible to see even more elected officials simply by entering a street address - the most of any open-source website:</p>
		<ul>
			<li>1,214 U.S. mayors, covering virtually every mayor across the country.</li>
			<li>Tens of thousands of county elected officials, covering every county government across the U.S.</li>
			<li>Thousands more city council members in the top 60 U.S. cities</li>
			<li>Coming soon, tends of thousands of municipal elected officials (city council members) in the states of: CA, FL, MA, OR, PA, TX and WA</li>
			<li>... and any verified Twitter account. This includes official Twitter accounts of elected officials, but also public figures such as spokespeople, companies, media personalities, and celebrities of all types.</li>
		</ul>
		
<p>... charitable donations to AskThem can help us expand our open questions-and-answers platform faster to all of the above cities and states. Help us grow!</p>
		
<h3>What are the signature thresholds for different jurisdictions of elected officials? How were they determined by AskThem?</h3>	
	
	<p>First, we'll continually adjust signature thresholds - for a class of elected officials (e.g. mayors) or for an individual target - based on user feedback and site analytics. This is a very dynamic process and we'll be blogging openly about our findings & user activity. For example, if a given level of elected official is regularly receiving more than five questions per month that reach the signature threshold, we will examine raising it. We're interested in public input & elected official feedback on this question, and on the actual live data.</p>
	
	<p>Second, any individual elected official who is a verified responder in AskThem can request of our team to customize his or her signature threshold (within reason). So for an elected official who agrees to respond publicly to one or two questions per month that reach the threshold (and with at least half of the signatures-to-threshold coming from constituents), she may choose to raise her individual threshold on AskThem, or test different goals.</p>
	
	<p>Third, our medium-term goal is to set a ballpark of signature thresholds at 0.1% of a jurisdiction's population, as determined by the U.S. census and open data. This will not necessarily be the final threshold, or binding, but it offers a baseline, and will enable us to experiment with more-precise calculations. For example, if the 2012 population of Chicago is 2.175 million people, the signature threshold for the mayor of Chicago may start at 0.1% of that, viz. 2,175 signatures, and be adjusted from there according to site analytics. If the average size of a U.S. Congressional district is 710,767 people, then at least 710 signatures may be the required threshold for a U.S. representative. We have not yet fully implemented such granular calculations, but the opportunity is tremendous for open linked data & future iterations.</p>
	
	<p>Currently, then, the default signature thresholds for different jurisdictions of public figures on AskThem are as follows:</p>			
		<ul>
			<li>Federal member of Congress (U.S. senator or representative): 5,000</li>
			<li>U.S. state governor: 200</li>
			<li>U.S. state legislator (state senators and assembly members):100</li>
			<li>U.S. major city mayor: 100</li>
			<li>Verified Twitter account: 500</li>
			<li>Elected official w/ unknown jurisdiction: 500</li>
		</ul>
			
		
<h3>What Twitter accounts can visitors target with questions and petitions?</h3>

<p>Any Twitter account with a verified blue check. Non-verified Twitter accounts cannot be asked questions through AskThem at this time, but soon, we plan to allow non-verified Twitter users to opt-in.</p>
	
<h3>How do I know my question has been delivered or answered?</h3>

<p>We'll send you email updates.</p>	
		
<h3>How do I delete my AskThem account?</h3>

<p>Send us a request on our <a href="/support">support forum</a> with the URL of the AskThem profile to delete - we'll briefly confirm your deletion request through the email address associated with that account, and then will delete it right away. Will take just a little while.</p>
		
						
<a name="electeds">
		<h1>AskThem- Frequently Asked Questions For Elected Officials</h1>
  <div class="related_data">
    <h3>Is AskThem Free?</h3>
    <p>Yes, there's no cost to you. AskThem is completely free, not-for-profit, and non-partisan.  We are an open source project and our data is available for the public benefit.</p>

    <h3>How is AskThem funded and how is it affiliated?</h3>
    <p>AskThem is a project of the non-profit <a href="http://participatorypolitics.org">Participatory Politics Foundation</a>, creators of OpenCongress.org, a leading government transparency website with 26 million Web visits and 300,000 registered users. AskThem is supported by a charitable grant from the Knight Foundation's <a hre="http://www.knightfoundation.org/funding-initiatives/tech-engagement/">Tech For Engagement</a> initiative.</p>

    <h3>What is the Knight Foundation and are they politically affiliated?</h3>
    <p>The Knight Foundation is a private, non-profit foundation that funds programs that use technology to foster engagement. The foundation is not affiliated with any political party-but instead supports individuals as agents for engagement-with a focus on youth leadership, social entrepreneurs and local institutions. The foundation’s funding was primarily received from newspaper publications as well as from personal gifts by John and <NAME>, and many private donors.</p>
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