Glossary
What are office hours?
Office hours are a recurring, open time slot when an expert is available to answer whatever people bring to them.
In more detail
The idea comes from universities, where a professor keeps a set time each week for students to drop by. Communities borrow it for the same reason: a predictable slot turns scattered DMs into one place and one time.
Office hours differ from an AMA in three ways. They repeat on a schedule. They are usually smaller and more conversational. And the questions are often personal ("can you look at my pricing page?") rather than broad. Some run as a drop-in queue, where people add their question and the host works down the list. Others use booked slots.
The value compounds when the answers are written down. The fifth person who asks how to structure a first cohort should find the answer from the first office hours session, not wait for the next one.
Example
Weekly mentor office hoursGood practice
Small habits that make the difference.
Same time, every time
People plan around a slot they can remember. Moving it every week kills attendance.
Open the queue early
Let people post their question before the session so the host can prepare and the shy can take part.
Write the answer back into the thread
After each question, post a two-line summary. That is what the next person will search for.
Cancel in public
If you cannot make it, say so in the thread. Silence teaches people the slot is optional.
How Dium handles it
In Dium, a Wave can run in office hours mode with a next session time, a length and a repeat (weekly, every two weeks or monthly). When a session ends, Dium archives it and schedules the next one, skipping any dates already missed.
Related terms
AMA (ask me anything)
An AMA (ask me anything) is a time-boxed event where one guest answers open questions from a community, usually in writing.
Read definitionLive Q&A
Live Q&A is a session where an audience asks questions in real time and a host or panel answers them on the spot.
Read definitionKnowledge base
A searchable collection of answers a group has already worked out, kept so people can look them up instead of asking again.
Read definition