I would like to implement a section of my site that can be used for QA, like Quora or the SE sites. So far, the only solution I can find is to use a specialist theme, which I don't want to do - I want the feature to be part of an existing site.
What methods or solutions can I use that might work for me in this instance?
Topic stackoverflow plugin-recommendation Wordpress
Category Web
I would go the route of an existing plugin if you're not wanting to do all of the development yourself and wanting to integrate Q&A into an existing site.
There are several WordPress plugins that will give you functionality like Quora, StackExchange, etc. - without the need for a completely new or independent theme:
I've used a couple of them and have had no issues or problems integrating them into existing sites and/or blogs.
To make that part of my existing site, I'd use custom post type, Say a post type as QA and registered users can do post( ask questions) and others can comment(give answers). Using the Roles and Capability feature of wordpress we can create moderators/editors/users for question answer section.
We can configure wordpress to accept posts of that post-type (QA) to be submitted on front-end (with form on ask question page) and the wordpress comment system is ready to use as it is.
We can create a wordpress query with different parameters to show result as we want.
finally, the ratings can be handled by plugins, there are plenty of good plugins available in Wordpress plugin directory to start with.
NOTE -
StackExchange uses some in-house developed systems, It is not an easy task to replicate it in your wordpress site ( specially the realtime part ). And the feature you might get from a full functional forum software is possible to replicate in Wordpress but very difficult.
For light weight QA forum with less feature I'd recommend using this technique
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