Posts, questions, polls and MCQs

You can share four kinds of things: a post, a question, a poll and an MCQ (a multiple-choice question with one right answer). All four start from Create in the menu. Members can also list a service, post a job or, in a community, run a test series, which have their own help topics.

A post is an update, story or article, with text and photos, that people can like and comment on. A question asks something, and people reply with written answers; you can accept the best one. A poll asks people to vote on 2 to 5 choices, with no right answer. An MCQ is a quiz question with 2 to 5 choices and one right answer, and each person gets one try.

Write a post when you want to tell people something: news, a story, an article, an offer or a guide. Ask a question when you want other people to reply with what they know. A post gets comments, while a question gets answers, and you can mark one answer as accepted.

Make a poll when you want a quick vote and there is no right or wrong answer, for example "Which day suits the weekly market best?". People pick one choice and can change their vote while the poll is open. Each person sees the running totals once they have voted.

Make a poll when you want opinions, because a poll has no right answer and people can change their vote while it is open. Make an MCQ when you want to test knowledge, because an MCQ has one right answer, each person answers once, and they see the right answer and your explanation (if you add one) after answering.

A question is open: people write their own answers, as many as they like, and you can accept the best one. An MCQ is a quiz: you give 2 to 5 choices and mark the right one, people pick a choice once, and then they see whether they were right.

Yes. Creating a post, question, poll or MCQ needs you to be signed in. Most things can be read without an account, but answering, voting, commenting and liking also need one.

Open Create in the menu and choose Post, or go straight to Write a post. Give it a title, write the text, add photos if you like, choose where it shows and when it goes live, then press Publish post. The preview shows how it will look before you publish.

Open Create in the menu and choose Question, or go to Ask a question. Type your question as the title, add details if they help (this is optional), then press Ask question. Ask it the way you would ask a neighbour; a clear question gets better answers.

Open Create in the menu and choose Poll, or go to Create a poll. Write the question people vote on, then add 2 to 5 choices. You can add and remove choices, and on a computer or tablet move them up or down, before you press Create poll. Choices cannot be changed after it is published, so every vote stays fair.

Open Create in the menu and choose MCQ, or go to Create an MCQ. Write the question, add 2 to 5 choices and tap the circle next to the right one. You can also add an explanation of why that answer is right, which people see only after they answer. Then press Create MCQ.

Create is in the top menu on a computer and in the bottom bar on a phone. It lists Post, Question, Poll, MCQ, Test series, Community, Service and Job, plus Scheduled, which shows what is waiting to publish.

The form is on the left in numbered steps, each with one line of help, and on the right is a live preview of how it will look, with SEO tips beside it. A finished step is marked Done and its number turns green. Back and Cancel at the top take you back without publishing.

On a phone the page fills the screen and has three tabs: Write, Preview and SEO. Write your item in Write, check it in Preview, and press the publish button (for example Publish post or Ask question) at the bottom of the screen.

Yes. The preview beside the form updates as you type. You can switch between how it looks in the feed, as its own full page and as a Google result, and between phone and computer size. For an MCQ you can also see it before and after someone answers.

No, usually not. While you write, the page keeps a draft on that device for 7 days. When you open the writing page again it offers "Restore it" or "Start fresh". Signing out clears the saved draft.

No. Ur Next Door does not keep unpublished drafts in your account; the draft is kept only on the device you wrote it on. If you want to finish later, you can schedule it for a later time and edit it before it goes live from your Scheduled page.

Something in the form needs changing before it can be published. Each problem is listed at the top of the form and shown again under the field it belongs to, for example a missing title. Fix them and press the publish button again.

The title box takes up to 160 characters, and a counter under it shows how many you have used. A title is required for every post, question, poll and MCQ. Keep it clear; people see it first in the feed and on Google.

A post must have both a title and text. For a question, a poll and an MCQ, the extra details are optional, so the title alone is enough.

The toolbar has headings, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, text colour and highlight. You can add links, quotes, bulleted and numbered lists, pictures, YouTube videos, tables, code and a button-style link. Clear formatting removes styles from selected text.

Put the cursor on the line and choose a heading from the Text style menu at the left of the toolbar (Heading 1 to Heading 6). Choose Normal text to turn it back. Headings make long posts easier to read.

Use the Bulleted list or Numbered list buttons on the toolbar. Each new line becomes the next item.

Place the cursor where you want it and press Insert image on the toolbar. You are asked for a short description of the picture, then the picture window opens, where you can upload a new picture or pick one you used before. You can add a caption after. To add photos as a gallery instead, use the Photos step below the text.

Yes. Press Embed video (YouTube) on the toolbar and paste the video link. Normal YouTube links, short youtu.be links and Shorts links work. If the link cannot be read, you are told and nothing is added.

No. The picture window only takes pictures, so a video file is refused with "That file is not a picture". To show a video in a post, put it on YouTube and add it with the Embed video (YouTube) button.

Yes. Pasted text is cleaned so it keeps its headings, bold and italic, lists, links, quotes and tables, and drops odd styling that would look wrong on the page.

Yes. The MD button on the toolbar switches the text box to Markdown, so you can type or paste Markdown and switch back to see it formatted.

Yes. Press Insert table on the toolbar, pick a size from the grid, then type into its cells. Tables you paste from a spreadsheet or document are kept too.

Use the Photos step in the form and press Add image. You can add up to 12 photos to a post, question, poll or MCQ. They show as a swipeable slider on the item page and on its card in the feed.

Up to 12 photos per post, question, poll or MCQ. Once you reach 12, remove one to add another.

The first photo in the Photos step is the cover. It is the picture on your card in the feed and the picture shown when someone shares the link. It is marked Cover in the form.

Use the Move left and Move right arrows on a photo in the Photos step, or drag it on a computer. Whichever photo is first becomes the cover. You can do this while writing or later when you edit.

Press the close button (Remove image) on that photo in the Photos step, then publish or save. The photo stays in your picture library for later use.

Photos in the Photos step use a wide frame (about 1.9 to 1), the shape link previews use. When you add a new photo, a crop window opens showing the whole photo. Zooming in or pressing Fill frame fills the frame, which cuts off the top and bottom of a tall photo; Fit whole image keeps all of it, with empty space at the sides. Press Apply crop when it looks right.

When the picture window opens, drag a picture onto it, press "Choose from your device", or paste a picture you have copied. You see a preview, its name and a progress bar while it uploads, and the picture is added when it finishes. Where the picture needs a set shape, such as in the Photos step, a crop window opens first; press Apply crop to go on.

On a phone the picture window shows "Add a photo from your phone". Tap "Choose a photo" and pick it from your gallery or camera. Big phone photos are made smaller for you automatically.

Yes. On a computer, copy a picture (for example a screenshot), open the picture window and press Ctrl+V. It uploads just like a chosen file.

Pictures are limited to 2 MB, but a big JPG, PNG, WebP or AVIF photo is made smaller in your browser before it is sent, so you do not need to resize it yourself. You may see "Getting your photo ready" while that happens. Only if it is still too big after shrinking are you asked to choose a smaller one.

A GIF is not made smaller for you. If it is over 2 MB you see its size and the limit, and you need to choose a smaller file.

JPG, PNG, WebP and GIF are the usual ones, and AVIF pictures are accepted too. Every picture is saved as WebP. An SVG file is not uploaded as it is: in the picture dialog your browser turns it into a picture first. Other files are refused with "That file is not a picture".

Yes. The picture window lists "Your pictures", the ones you uploaded before. Click one and press "Use this picture", or double-click it to use it at once. Once you have used pictures in more than one place you also get folders, and with more than 12 pictures a search by name.

The window says what went wrong in plain words and offers "Try another picture". "No connection" means your internet dropped, so check it and try again. "That picture could not be opened" means your browser could not read the file, so try another one.

Every picture you upload is saved as WebP, a picture format that takes less space, so pages load faster. It looks the same.

Every picture is saved as WebP. If a picture cannot be turned into WebP, the upload stops with this message and nothing is saved. Save the picture as a JPG or PNG and upload that instead.

Yes, where the picture has a set shape, such as a photo in the Photos step, a profile photo or a banner. When you upload a new picture there, a crop window opens where you can drag, zoom and rotate it, or use Fit whole image or Fill frame, then press Apply crop. You can also pick a picture you used before and press "Crop it". Pictures inside the text keep their own shape.

Yes. Press Cancel in the picture window while it uploads. It also stops a big photo that is still being made smaller.

Type # followed by a word in the title or text, for example #upsc. In the text, the editor suggests existing tags as you type. Hashtags turn into topic tags only once you are on Google; until then they stay as plain text.

Hashtags only become topic tags for members who are on Google, which means 5 items on your profile, each of 300 or more words, have an SEO score of 75 or more. Until then your #words stay plain text, and your post is never refused for them. Your progress is in the Get on Google card on your own profile page. In a community, the community's own standing decides.

Once you are on Google, up to 5 hashtags per post, question, answer, poll, MCQ, comment, service or job. Hashtags in the title and the text are counted together, and the same tag twice counts once.

Your item has more than 5 hashtags. The message says how many it has and how many to remove. Remove the extra ones from the title or text and save again.

Yes. Once you are on Google, a hashtag written in Hindi becomes a topic that keeps its Hindi name, with a web address in English letters, for example the address of #हिंदी ends in hindi. Hashtags in other scripts, such as Tamil or Bengali, stay in your text but do not become topic tags.

No. "World News", "world-news" and "worldnews" are the same topic, so a new hashtag joins the topic that already exists.

Yes, one link to another website per item. Until you are on Google it is marked nofollow, which means it passes no search credit to that site. Links to Ur Next Door pages and @mentions do not count toward it. A second outside link is refused with a message that tells you to keep one.

Each post, question, answer, poll, MCQ, comment, service or job can have one link to another website. Remove the extra links and save again. Links to Ur Next Door pages do not count, and the same address twice counts as one.

Until you are on Google, your outside link still works for readers, but it is marked nofollow, so it passes no search ranking credit to that website. Once you are on Google the mark is removed automatically. In a community, the community's standing decides.

Select the words, press Insert link on the toolbar and paste the address. If no words are selected, you are also asked for the words to show. Clear words like "the exam timetable" work better than "click here".

Type @ in the text and start typing a name, then pick the person or community from the list. They get a notification that you mentioned them. In a comment, typing @ and their username works too.

The community's creator and admins get the notification. Like any mention, it is only sent to people who can open your item.

A mention is not sent to someone who cannot open the item, for example when it is in a community they cannot see, or when one of you has blocked the other. They also get nothing if they turned off mention notifications in their notification settings. When you edit, only people newly mentioned are told, never the ones already named. For a scheduled item, mentions are sent when it goes live.

The "Show it in" step lets you choose "My profile only" or a community you belong to. On your profile it shows on your own page. In a community it shows on the community's page and in its members' feeds, so pick a community when the topic fits it. Some communities let only their editors post.

The list only has communities where you are an editor, admin or creator. Communities where you are an ordinary member are not listed.

Into that community. The writing page says "Posting in" with the community's name, and the post shows on the community's page and in its members' feeds.

Yes. In the "When it goes live" step, open "Schedule for later" and pick a date and time. The button then reads Schedule. Your item goes live by itself at that time.

At least 5 minutes from now and at most 180 days ahead. A time outside that is refused with "Choose a time at least 5 minutes from now" or "Choose a time within the next 180 days".

Posts, questions, polls, MCQs, services and jobs. A new community cannot be scheduled from the website.

Your own. You pick the time in your device's local time, and it is shown back to you in your local time on the Scheduled page.

On your Scheduled page, also under Create in the menu. It lists everything waiting to publish with its time, and lets you reschedule, publish now, edit or cancel each item.

On your Scheduled page press Reschedule on the item, pick the new date and time, and press Save. The same 5 minutes to 180 days rule applies.

Yes. Press Publish now on your Scheduled page, or on the banner at the top of the item's own page.

Press Cancel on your Scheduled page. Cancelling deletes the item; there is no separate "unscheduled" draft. To keep the text for later, reschedule it further out instead.

Only you, and if it is in a community, that community's admins. Everyone else cannot open it, and it is in no feed, search or tag page until it goes live.

Yes. Press Edit on your Scheduled page. The writing page shows when it is scheduled for; to change the time, use Reschedule on the Scheduled page.

No, not until it goes live. Likes, comments, saves, votes and answers all start once it is published, and a scheduled item cannot be archived.

It is treated as new at the moment it goes live, so it appears at the top of the feeds like anything just published. Mentions and hashtags take effect at that moment too.

A scheduled item can go live up to about a minute after its time, but it is never lost or published twice. If it is still on your Scheduled page well after its time, press Publish now.

Yes. You can create up to 20 posts, questions, polls and MCQs in total in a day, on the website and in the app together. Creating a test series counts toward the same 20. Answers and comments are not counted.

You have reached the limit of 20 posts, questions, polls and MCQs. It frees up 24 hours after the first item you made in that run, so wait and try again later. Your writing page keeps your draft on the device meanwhile.

You already published or scheduled an item of the same kind with the same title in the last 30 days. Change the title, or edit the earlier one instead of posting it again.

Yes. The same-title rule only looks at the same kind of item, so a post and a question can share a title. Two posts with the same title within 30 days cannot.

Open it and choose Edit from its menu. The full writing page opens with your item filled in; change what you need and save. A community's creator can also edit items in their community.

The title, the text, the photos and where it shows (your profile or a community). On an MCQ you can also change the explanation. Poll and MCQ choices and the right answer cannot be changed. Closing or reopening a poll is in the poll's own menu, not on the edit page.

No. Choices cannot be changed after publishing, so every vote stays fair. If a choice is wrong, delete the poll and make a new one.

No. The choices and the right answer are locked after publishing, so every answer stays fair. You can still change the explanation. If the right answer is wrong, delete the MCQ and create a new one.

Archiving hides an item from everyone but you, and you can bring it back with Unarchive. Deleting removes it for good, with its comments or answers, likes and saves, and cannot be undone.

Open it and choose Archive from its menu. It disappears from feeds, lists and search for everyone else, and its page shows you that it is archived. Choose Unarchive to bring it back. Posts, questions, answers, polls and MCQs can be archived.

On your own profile, in the Activity section, under the Archived tab. Only you see that tab.

Open it and choose Delete from its menu, then confirm. Deleting cannot be undone: its comments or answers, their likes and the saves go with it.

Yes, you can edit or delete your own comments and answers where they are shown. Deleting a comment also removes the replies under it.

Open the question, write in the box under "Your answer" and press Post answer. You need to be signed in.

Yes. There is no one-answer-per-person limit, so you can add another answer, or edit the one you wrote.

When the text of a post, question, poll or MCQ is longer than five paragraphs, its page shows the first five and a Read more button. Press it and the rest opens in place. A heading, list, quote or picture counts as one paragraph, and blank lines do not count. The whole text is in the page from the start, so nothing is lost and search engines read all of it. In the app the full text shows as before.

It shows up to 6 other posts, questions, polls, MCQs and the community's test series that are like the one you are reading: first those that share a hashtag with it, then those from the same community, newer and more liked first. When nothing is shared it shows what is popular. It only lists what you are allowed to open, never something from a private community you are not in or from someone you blocked. On a computer it is in the column on the right; on a phone it comes after the post.

Press Accept on the answer you found most helpful. Only the person who asked can accept. Accepting marks the question resolved and tells that answer's writer. Only one answer is accepted at a time, so accepting another moves the mark.

It shows who the post belongs to. For a post in a community it is the community: its name, member count, a short description, a button to join (or Request to join) and View community. For a post on a member's profile it is the author: name, headline, followers, Follow, Connect and View profile. If a community hides who posted, the card shows the community and never the author. On a computer it is at the top of the right column; on a phone it comes after the post and the Similar content list. The same applies to questions, polls and MCQs.

Press Accepted on that answer to remove the mark. The question stays marked resolved until you choose Mark unresolved from its menu.

Yes. Choose Mark resolved from your question's menu, and Mark unresolved to undo it. Resolved questions are listed under the Resolved filter on Questions.

Open Questions and choose Unanswered. There is also a Resolved filter for questions that have been solved.

It counts how many times the question has been viewed. Questions also show how many answers they have.

Sign in and tap the choice you want. The results appear once you have voted. You get one vote per poll.

Yes, while the poll is open. Tap another choice to switch your vote, or tap your own choice again to take your vote back.

Open the poll and choose Close poll from its menu. Nobody can vote after that: its choices can no longer be picked and it shows "This poll is closed". Choose Reopen poll to open it again.

From 2 to 5 choices, each different and not empty. Otherwise you see "Provide 2-5 unique, non-empty options".

Other members see only how many votes each choice got, never who voted. The poll's author can see who voted for each choice, and in a community so can its creator.

No. A poll shows "Pick an option to see the results" until you vote. The poll's author, and in a community its creator, see the results all the time.

Sign in and tap the choice you think is right. You then see whether you got it right, the right answer, how others answered and the explanation if there is one.

No. Each person gets one try, and the answer is final. A second try shows "You have already answered this MCQ".

An optional note from the creator on why the right answer is right, up to 2,000 characters. Readers see it after they answer, right or wrong, and on the website's MCQ page anyone can also read it under "Show answer". The creator can change it later.

On the website's MCQ page, yes: open "Show answer" under the choices to read the right answer and the explanation. It starts closed so you can try first. Cards, search results and the mobile app show the answer only after you answer.

Readers see how many picked each choice only after they answer. You, as the creator, always see the right answer, the numbers and who chose what. In a community its creator sees the same.

In the "Choices and the right answer" step, tap the circle next to the right choice. If none is marked, you are asked to mark which option is correct.

The explanation is limited to 2,000 characters. Shorten it, or put the longer reasoning in the context text above it.

Something on your profile, or in a public community, can be seen by anyone, even people who are not signed in. Something in an ask-to-join or private community is seen only by its members. Archived items are seen only by you, and scheduled ones only by you and the community's admins.

No. Blocking hides you both from each other's feeds, item pages and profiles, and they cannot react to or comment on your things.