Advice-seeking and advice-giving practices in an online health-related Q&A forum

The article examines advice-seeking and advice-giving in the context of an online Q&A forum on a Polish health-related website znanylekarz.pl. The material consists of question-answer messages exchanged in two threads related to two diff erent disorders, i.e. anxiety and hypothyroidism. The analysis focuses on the form and content of questions and answers in terms of discursive moves and selected lexico-grammatical features. The data are analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The findings provide insight into the discursive practices pursued by laypersons and medical doctors in an online advice-giving setting. The results show that users’ posts include problem statements, questions/requests, and acts of appealing. Doctors’ responses involve assessments, advice and referrals. The most frequent structures used in the realisation of questions and requests are direct questions and performative requests. Non-agentive structures tend to be used most frequently for advice and referral moves. The results also indicate that users’ messages are more direct and contain fewer conventional politeness acts than doctors’ posts. Similarities and differences in the interactional practices between the two threads are demonstrated as well.