I am new to this site and am anxious to derive the optimum from it. I
placed a question on the significance of Prof Dennis Hart Mahan,West
Point,(18211-1870) in formulating Lincoln's Civil War strategy and in
his influence in the professionalisation of the US Army.
I did receive a positive response and questions from two and based
upon these responses I assumed that a dialog would develop which would
enable me perfect my knowledge of the subject, refine further my
question areas and arising from this to renegotiate my
arrangements,(remuneration, etc)with one or both of the experts.
Both experts seem to have signed off and I now wonder why. Did I fail
in some way to observe a convention? (I am happy to permit access to
the discussions that took place so that an answer can be provided).
In short therefore my question is: what went wrong with my question?

Hi, 

It appears that really nothing "went wrong" with your question.
Perhaps your expectation of a "dialog" was a bit off base but really
nothing went wrong.

This service is developed around a "single question, single answer"
formula. It looks like the Researchers began working with you trying
to find a "single answer" point for your question. I happen to know
that those two are really interested in your topical area so they
probably pounced in there and tried to find as much as they could.
Which, as it turns out, they helped you in finding the memoir book.
But apparently they didn't feel that this little tidbit comprised a
"complete" answer for you or wasn't worth the bid you offered.

The service doesn't really lend itself well to long discussions,
though if you look at some of the answers we have done, long
discussions do happen. But for the Researchers, we want to know that
we have "done something for you" and the only way of "knowing" that is
to give a complete answer to a direct question.

Your question is a bit vague, and covers a lot of area. The same
format in another subject may not have attracted Researcher attention
at all. But like I said before, these two are very interested in this
type of thing so they wanted to help you out if they could, despite
the fact that there was probably not a "direct" question involved, and
very little chance of getting to a point quickly that would warrent
collection of the bid. They just wanted to be helpful, and it looks
like they succeeded.

Your question here is direct and has a point that I can say "I've
answered that" its not open at all. You've asked a direct question
which I can see a clear answer too. Your other question has no "end
point" that can easily be seen.

The Researchers are also under the Terms of Service which tell us what
types of questions can be answered and what is expected of us. You
might want to take a look at those (see the bottom of the page under
the comment area for a link to that page) so that you can better use
this service.

Thanks, 

webadept-ga