Politicians in 2016 have to at least make a show of engaging with the public online, but the platforms they choose to use may say something about them. While Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump hosted a Q&A session on Reddit last week, his Democratic rivals — Hillary Clinton and running mate Tim Kaine — will next week do the same on Quora, a questions-and-answers site that styles itself as more respectable than the competition.

Although this is mostly branding (Quora has more than its fair share of weird, inane, and idiotic questions), the site will likely have more challenging queries for the Democratic pair than Reddit had for Trump. This is because Trump's Q&A was hosted on his fan subreddit r/the_donald, with the board's administrators banning users who might have asked tricky questions on topics like Trump's refusal to publish his tax returns.

Most online Q&As only ever have an appearance of accountability of course, with those in the firing line able to pick and choose queries that suit them. Users can submit questions for Clinton and Kaine from today onwards, and the pair will answer a selection on Monday, August 8th. They won't be able to escape the shadow Trump has cast over the 2016 election though, with the most popular query on their Quora Q&A currently asking how, if Clinton wins the election, she will address "Trump supporters' major concerns."