Quora this week announced its Top Writers program — a way for the question-and-answer site to recognize some of its most valuable contributors.

More than simple acknowledgement (and a Top Writers T-shirt), being a part of the site's elite group also means Quora support and promotion for meet-ups, as well as other unannounced surprises.

Quora CFO Marc Bodnick called members of Top Writers 2012 a "group of remarkable people with a talent for communicating with expertise, knowledge, authenticity, and empathy."

Of the 493 people in the group, the median writer has posted more than 350 answers; about 10 percent are students, and represent people from more than 30 different countries, according to Quora's blog post.

Top Writers were chosen based on recent contributions (high-quality answers written over the last year), overall contributions (high-quality answers written at any time), and topic expertise (high-quality answers written in one or more unique categories).

Criteria also included administrators and active reviewers who are not active writers on the site, but are integral to curating and editing the site.

"Some people in the group are experts in specific fields, while others are simply great writers with a talent for describing the human condition and the world around us," Bodnick wrote. Some, he said, are professional writers, but most are not. Still, all have contributed to the Quora community.

Additional members will be added to the 2012 class, before 2013's members are chosen next year, based on the previous year's activity. All of this year's Top Writers — attorneys, CEOs, doctors, military officers, photographers, software engineers, and others — are listed online, with direct links to their profiles.