BioStar is a forum based on the Stack Exchange platform where experts and those seeking solutions to problems of computational biology exchange ideas. The main strengths of BioStar are its large and active group of knowledgeable users, rapid response times, clear organization of questions and responses that limit discussion to the topic at hand, and ranking of questions and answers that help identify their usefulness. These rankings, based on community votes, also contribute to a reputation score for each user, which serves to keep expert contributors engaged.
The BioStar community has helped to answer over 2,300 questions from over 1,400 users (as of June 10, 2011), and has played a critical role in enabling and expediting many research projects.