The personal Q&A format is a variant of the social Q&A format where users set up a personal page or profile, where they take questions and have the option to answer them. Most services allow questions to be asked anonymously, but there's usually an option to turn it off for a reason.

Historically, the personal Q&A format could be viewed as an evolution of personal letters, or notable people attempting to answer several letters in a blog post, forum post, or web page on the internet for all to see. However, it's important to note that, at the time, Q&A software mostly focused on the format of you tossing a question out into a community or group, not asking a specific question to a specific person.¹⁾

You would then have to ask yourself: What would be the most efficient way to gather questions from a vast community? Sifting through each individual email, or repurposing survey software for the occasion? The answer would have to be the latter because survey software typically provides the end user with a somewhat more organized list of questions, reducing the amount of clicks.

The phenomenon was then noticed by Formspring.com (Formstack), who arguably pioneered the format by launching Formspring.me in November 2009.²⁾ In the following year, Tumblr would introduce a very similar “ask” feature on January 6, 2010,³⁾⁴⁾ which famously kicked off the whole fandom trend of “ask blogs”, then lesser clones like AskFM would attempt to serve as a rival platform around June 14, 2010.

Unfortunately, the format hasn't exactly stood the test of time. Formspring had financial problems,⁵⁾ was sold off and rebranded in 2013,⁶⁾ then shut down in 2015,⁷⁾ which eventually prompted a need for Retrospring, CuriousCat, and many other obscure clones. Recently, CuriousCat and Retrospring have decided they would shut down in 2024⁸⁾ and 2025⁹⁾ respectively, which brings us here.

Most issues with the personal Q&A format stems from the option to ask questions anonymously, since it can be abused for cyberbullying and harassment.¹⁰⁾¹¹⁾ This can be traumatizing for a young mind and has actually led to suicide,^{12)13)14)15)16)} but it can also be an unconventional form of self-harm.¹⁷⁾¹⁸⁾ In any case, the platform will release some assuring statement,^19)20)21)22) or they limit the anonymity.²³⁾

With this in mind, I want to reiterate that you shouldn't be afraid to turn off anonymous questions, if need be, and you don't have to answer every question.²⁴⁾ After all, you have control over what people see on your page. That said, don't be afraid to vent about these messages to close friends and family, like, humans can't read minds and bottling this shit up can lead to depression.

A social platform that solely focuses on the personal Q&A format is usually doomed to fail since people are not going to stay on them or click around for long periods of time, resulting in low traffic and low retention, which is 'bad' if you're a business using social media logic. From there, businesses will attempt to 'salvage' it though enshittification, typically by spamming your inbox or pivoting to a dating service.

In other words, the personal Q&A format arguably thrives best whenever it's just a small feature for a much larger social networking platform, not when it's the only feature. However, the feature isn't without flaws since the platform would have to combat anonymous cyberbullying regardless and, hopefully, their staff have thick skin and aren't so trigger happy to ban your account.

• In 2024, the FTC banned NGL from serving users under the age of 18, over deceptive practices and falsely claiming that the platform had AI content moderation.²⁵⁾

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