Frequently Asked Questions

1. How to ask?
2. How to answer?
3. How do the ogi coins work?
4. What happens in a battle?
5. How can I give a rating for an answer?
6. Why is a confirmation necessary?
7. How can I win prices?
8. What does the service cost?
9. How can I register?
10. Where can I see my questions and my answers?
11. Forgot your password?
12. What happens after a negative rating?
13. What kind of questions are allowed?
14. How can I report a violation?
15. Where can I hand in suggestions to the hiogi team?
16. How can I change my account data and preferences?
17. Why are tags useful?
18. How can I send a private message?
19. How can I edit my profile?
20. How can I contact the support team?

You didn't find the answer you are looking for? See our Newbie Guideline for further information, tips and tricks and discover what hiogi is all about.

How to ask?

All you have to do as a registered hiogi is to save your twitter name in your personal settings in "my hiogi" and follow hiogi on twitter. Afterwards you can send your questions via SMS using this format d hiogi texttexttexttext to +44 7624801423 (Global!) or 40404 (US) or 21212 (Canada). Please make sure you activated your 'Phone & IM' settings in your twitter account.

As a registered hiogi you can ask any question for free by entering http://mobile.hiogi.com into your mobile browser of your phone. Click on your personal area "my hiogi" and enter your question. You will find the answer also in "my hiogi".

As a registered user you can also ask free questions on the iPhone or ipod touch by entering http://iphone.hiogi.de in your safari browser. Log in and get any answer within minutes.

As a registered user you can aks free questions via email from your PDA/Blackberry by sending the your mobile phone number and the question in the subject line to . A maximum of 300 signs is technically possible.

Example of a correct subject line for an email question:
004491701234 Who knows a good Indian restaurant in downtown london?

How to answer?

Please register for free and log in. By clicking on an open question on the homepage you can reserve the quesion for 8 minutes in order to find a good answer. You might be challenged in a battle! Once you are done with entering the answer and an option tag source please click 'send'. Now a third hiogi will confirm your answer or decide on the best battle answer and send the question back to the hiogi who asked it.

How do the ogi coins work?

ogi coins are very precious, because each coin resembles one chance to win a price by the end of the month! You can collect ogi coins by performing different activities on the hiogi site. Each question is ranked from 1-5 coins depending on its difficulty and you will receive these coins after giving a correct answer or confirmation. The difficulty of a question is automatically being calculated by an algorithm mainly based on time and clicks. You will only loose coins again afer having received a negative rating to your answer/confirmation (double coins substraction) or a neutral one (single substraction of relevant coins).

Here are further ways of how to collect ogi coins:

• Registration (1 coin)
• Answers (2-5 coins according to the difficulty of the question)
• Invite a friend (20 coins. Your friend simply needs to enter your nickname during the registration)
• Confirmations (1 coin)
• Rate an answer (1 coin)
• Login (1 coin / day)

What happens in a battle?

Two hiogis fight for the best answer. The first one who enters the question has 8 minutes to find an answer. The second one gets the time that is left. After both hiogis submitted their answer a third hiogi decides which answer is better and sends it out. The winner gets the coins.

How can I give a rating for an answer?

Please log in and click on "my hiogi". Here you can find all your personal questions and answers. You can rate answers that you received with positive, neutral or negative. A "negative" shows that the answer was not helpful and punishes the answerer with a reduction of twice the coins the question was worth.

Why is a confirmation necessary?

This is an important quality assurance both for the person asking and for the person giving an answer.

How can I win prices?

Each ogi coin you collect during a calendar month resembles one chance of winning. You automatically participate in drawing. All winners are being informed via email. Please enter your adress details to receive your winning via postal mail.

What does the service cost?

The usage of the hiogi website and questions via mobile internet or email are completely free. Possibly your provider might charge you fees for data traffic.

How can I register?

To sign up please visit our website (www.hiogi.com) and keep your mobile handy.

1. First click on the "Register for free" button in the right upper corner of our website.
2. Please fill out our short registration form (username, password, email and the city you live in). Your username will be the only information displayed on your profile. Once you read and accepted our Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy click "Next".
3. After you complete the sign up form, we will send an email to the address you provided. Clicking on the confirmation link will lead you back to our website and to the next step of our sign up process.
4. Now we ask you to register your mobile phone by texting us the identification code that is displayed on the Website. This enables our system to link your questions and answers to your username and profile and to save them to your account. This gives you the opportunity to view them whenever you like.
5. Your account is now activated.

Where can I see my questions and my answers?

You can find all your questions and answers in your personal "My hiogi" are once you are logged in.

Forgot your password?

Please click on "Forgot password" and enter your nickname plus email address. Since we encrypt all passwords, we will generate a new one for you and send it to you via email. Please log in with your nickname and the temporary password that we sent to you and change your password in your preferences in "my hiogi".

What happens after a negative rating?

The hiogi who gave the answer will loose twice the amount of ogi coins he received for the answer. The person who aksed can decide if he or she wants to recieve an alternative answer. If so, the question will be republished so that the community can find a better answer. A negative rating cannot be changed and should include a comment for the answering person to learn from it. hiogis who received more than 10% negative ratings will be monitored on a special watch-list. If a hiogi violates our terms and conditions, he or she will be excluded from hiogi.

What kind of questions are allowed?

All questions are allowed that do not violoate national or international laws. hiogi especially condems and deletes any questions that violate youth protection acts or third party rights. Personal, sexually explicit or discrimminating questions as well as chats are strictly forbidden and will cause a permanent deletion of the respective account.

How can I report a violation?

By reporting a violatin you can help us to keep this site clean and to keep a high quality of questions and answers. Please use our viloation button on the site, in case you find any offensive, explicit or illegal content.

Where can I hand in suggestions to the hiogi team?

We are thankful for any feedback about hiogi and constantly try to improve the site. Please leave your suggestion in our Feedback-Forum or use our .

How can I change my account data and preferences?

You can change your preferences any time by logging into "my hiogi" – "Preferences".

Why are tags useful?

Tags group your questions and answers into the tags/topics you enter. You will see all your tags on your overview page in "my hiogi"

How can I send a private message?

Simply click on any nickname that you want to write private messages with. On the profile page you will find the subject and text fiel to write your message. Your Inbox and Outbox can be found in your "my hiogi" area under "Messages".

How can I edit my profile?

Please go to "my hiogi" - Profile. You can upload a picture and select different individual options.

How can I contact the support team?

Please use our contact form under http://www.hiogi.com/contacts/ or write us an email to .