Limits on posts for Askme, mefi

July 7, 2006 3:39 PM

This has to have been covered before, but why one question per subscriber per week on AskMeFi, but no discernable limit (or is there) on postings to MetaFilter?

Referrals to previous threads on this subject welcomed. I did a quick search and didn't come up with anything obvious.
posted by hwestiii to etiquette/policy at 3:39 PM (28 comments total)

I'm pretty sure that there's a limit of 1 post per 24 hours on Metafilter.. And there's a limit of 1 project per month on MeFi Projects.
posted by helios at 3:45 PM on July 7, 2006

Don't coddle, throttle!
posted by cortex at 3:49 PM on July 7, 2006

From the FAQ:

How soon can I post again after starting a thread in different parts of the site?
After you have posted a thread, you have to wait this long before posting a second thread in that same area. There is no similar limit for comments.

MetaFilter - 24 hours
MetaTalk - four days
AskMetafilter - one week
MetafilterProjects - one month

posted by Plutor at 3:50 PM on July 7, 2006

I had a horrible idea the other day that people should be limited to 1 AskMe per FPP, but then I realized that would just glut the market with crap FPPs. And anyway, we've had the "contributions to MetaFilter vs. using the community for AskMe" debate already.

What I would like to see, though, is some kind of limit on HiFi, because we've had a few people already drop in without any mefi history (0 comments across the board) and post music. I'm sure Matt's on it already, but the last thing we want is to be the $5 MySpace.
posted by Eideteker at 3:51 PM on July 7, 2006

Eideteker: "...the last thing we want is to be the $5 MySpace."

I don't see how it would be quite the same. All they can do is upload a song. They can't make a blinking background or even edit the description of the song ex post facto. I do agree that a throttle will be a good idea at some point, but those zero-across-the-board might be legitimate lurkers. I say if this gets them to throw in five ducks, then I'm for it. For now.
posted by Plutor at 3:58 PM on July 7, 2006

--why one question per subscriber per week on AskMeFi--

It's to limit the rate at which questions are posted to AskMeFi. If they're posted too fast, people don't get long enough to read a question before it gets moved off the front page by the next 25 questions. Some discussion of the AskMeFi volume problem.

So far that hasn't been a problem on MeFi.
posted by russilwvong at 3:59 PM on July 7, 2006

Plutor: I was thinking of MySpace as a band promotion place, which is (I think) how it started. And the person or persons to whom I'm referring joined up the same day their song was posted. If you knew that and took it into account, that's fine, but I just wanted to make sure people know what's going on.
posted by Eideteker at 4:02 PM on July 7, 2006

why one question per subscriber per week on AskMeFi, but no discernable limit (or is there) on postings to MetaFilter?

folks have already mentioned that there is a limit for MetaFilter, but I think an answer to your question is 'because AskMe and MeFi are very different in nature.' AskMe would be less useful if it weren't throttled back as much as it is. Whereas 'finding and discussing the best of the web' doesn't need as much brakes.
posted by carsonb at 4:04 PM on July 7, 2006

The weird varied rates of x posts per y days is due to controlling the flow of posts. People rarely post more than once in a while on MeFi, but back in the day when that was all there was to the site, the one a day (and one a week was discussed) limit was to keep anyone from hogging the community resource, and keeping things to a manageable 20-30 posts a day. These days, it's mostly social pressure that keeps things down around 20 posts per day.

Ask MeFi is a victim of its own success. The front page shows 50 questions and often it only covers a 4 hour period on a busy day. That means everyone suffers because questions get fewer answers per question when there are so many questions out there. I've considered making the limit 1 per two weeks as well, to really make stuff count and bring the daily question load down to a manageable level.
posted by mathowie at 4:07 PM on July 7, 2006

Ask MeFi is a victim of its own success. The front page shows 50 questions and often it only covers a 4 hour period on a busy day.

You know, the area on our profile page where we can see posts and questions by our "contacts" is one of the awesomenest features around. I wish that each site had some degree of that in its front-page sidebar. Probably too expensive, right?
posted by scarabic at 4:11 PM on July 7, 2006

Ask MeFi is a victim of its own success. The front page shows 50 questions and often it only covers a 4 hour period on a busy day.

Perhaps somebody could build a custom per-user feed/page based on popular tags people like to ask/answer in.
posted by onalark at 4:16 PM on July 7, 2006

Eideteker: "Plutor: I was thinking of MySpace as a band promotion place, which is (I think) how it started."

Ah, I did not know that. I just knew it as "that thing the kids are into nowadays." As you were.
posted by Plutor at 4:21 PM on July 7, 2006

Somewhat-related, I think it'd be neat if the MeFi Contribution Index (which seems to be oddly borked, lately) would show data from the other sites in addition to the Blue. You can now see a list of the top 25 people with the most MetaFilter posts, but I think it'd also be interesting to see who's posting the most questions on Ask, who's posted the most songs, and who's posting the most callouts in the Grey (Migs, presumably, would top that list).
posted by Gator at 4:26 PM on July 7, 2006

Defo, Gator.

And mathowie, would it be possible for you to provide info on, eg., the percentage of new users who only use AskMeFi, the number of long-dormant users who've started posting and commenting again since the inception of AskMeFi, &c.? Dunno why I'm so interested in such patterns, maybe because I proper shudder when I click through to a user's profile and find that they've never left a mark here or on MetaFilter, but Ask their asses off, and want to see what would happen to my fragile spine if it turned out that AskMeFi is now the top dog.
posted by jack_mo at 5:16 PM on July 7, 2006

I've considered making the limit 1 per two weeks as well

I would totally support this. Or maybe two per month since people claim sometimes that they need to ask two in succession sometimes.
posted by jessamyn at 6:43 PM on July 7, 2006

I( don't really feel courageous enough to post an FPP, but I've put in some AskMe questions (including one just a couple minutes ago). FWIW, since I signed on a few months ago I've posted AskMe answers frequently, but MeFi and MeTa comments seldom. That's a function of not really having something useful to add to the MeFi's and MeTa's -- too many inside jokes, maybe, or perhaps the persional nature of AskMe is simply more compelling.

What I'm curious about is not the percentage of users who use each section, but rather the frequency. How many post to each section as often as they can, as opposed to those who wait awhile?
posted by Robert Angelo at 6:51 PM on July 7, 2006

Eideteker writes "And the person or persons to whom I'm referring joined up the same day their song was posted. If you knew that and took it into account, that's fine, but I just wanted to make sure people know what's going on."

I know that if I had any musical talent and was in a band I'd like to promote that music on MetaMusic. However I might not want to out this ID in which case I'd spend the $5¹ to sign up with an ID based on my band name or my real name.

[1] as long as I could sign up without using the evil steaming pile that is paypal.
posted by Mitheral at 6:55 PM on July 7, 2006

maybe it's possible to set it up so someone can a question per week for the first two questions, then 1 per month after that?
posted by lester at 7:51 PM on July 7, 2006

I've considered making the limit 1 per two weeks as well

Two per month sounds great, but in order to know if it would really be effective, we need to know how many current AskMe questions are posted by folks who've posted during the previous two weeks. Do you have that info, Matt? If that number's trivial, a two-week limit wouldn't do much to stop the deluge.
posted by mediareport at 8:34 PM on July 7, 2006

Alternatively, making the db available in some way (such as a recently-mentioned csv) for plumbing by nerdy users would also produce such things.
posted by cortex at 9:15 PM on July 7, 2006

I just feel this incredible urge to apologise for not knowing any good websites or other stuff to post to the blue, and not being cranky enough to post to the gray. I know (from reading here) that users who use mostly only AskMeFi are scum-sucking bottom dwellers, and I'm sorry. But really, it would be worse if I posted to the blue. Much. Also, I stopped asking questions every week as soon as I knew that was bad form. I am probably not alone in these sentiments.
posted by b33j at 1:29 AM on July 8, 2006

"These days, it's mostly social pressure that keeps things down around 20 posts per day."

And that social pressure makes for high quality posts. What b33j said just above. Even with Newsfilter and Youtube links, the quality of FPP's is just too damn high here for we casual surfers to be able to contribute to the blue. My thanks and apologies to the community.

On topic, I think the post throttles might use some tweaking, but are generally working really well.
posted by klarck at 5:14 AM on July 8, 2006

I know (from reading here) that users who use mostly only AskMeFi are scum-sucking bottom dwellers, and I'm sorry.

b33j, I don't at all want to suggest you should participate more in areas where you really don't want to, but since you brought the subject up -- is there a reason you almost never comment in the Blue? Not posting, that's understandable. But what about commenting, stepping in with a "[this is good]" when you see something you like, offering your own viewpoint in one of the Big Issues threads, or even cracking out a forgettable one-liner now and then?

I think that part of the "People who only use AskMe are scum-suckers" theory comes from the fact that some of these people really only use AskMe -- they don't participate in the community part of the community, i.e., the Blue (and to a different extent, the Grey), where the discussions and the debates and the batshitinsane and the "This is great, thanks" comments are. To some people, I think, this is taken as a sort of "I don't want to interact with you people, I'll just stick to the strictly Q&A section," or something.
posted by Gator at 5:30 AM on July 8, 2006

In all seriousness (I was a teeny bit tongue in cheek earlier), I have nothing to say, feel underqualified to speak or occasionally unwelcome. That's fine, I don't mind that there's such a high standard (like klarck said). But the double standard - "don't post unless you have something worthy to say - why do you never say anything?" is a little unreasonable.

It's not that I don't want to interact. I think Metafilter is a marvellous place. I really like the diversity and the curiosity.

(Oh and, I accidently ended up with despicable leet-speak for my username because my first attempt with my regular username failed. How embrassment. Now none of my posts can be taken seriously. Unless I put another $5 in the pot (and end up 5000 users closer to newbie).)

It's no big deal. I'm not asking for a change in the direction of member behaviour. Just a realisation of the dichotomy of culture.
posted by b33j at 5:47 AM on July 8, 2006

b33j, I'm wondering if there's a misunderstanding about the terms here -- the standard is, and should be, as klarck said, very high for posts, but the bar for comments and thread participation is much lower. If anyone has actually made you feel unwelcome, that's a shame, but I don't think there is any double standard, at least not the one you mentioned.

Again, I'm not suggesting that you must participate where you really don't want to, but realize that "posts" are not "comments," so when you see people saying, "Don't post unless you have something worthy," it doesn't mean, "Don't comment unless you have something worthy." Y'know what I mean?
posted by Gator at 5:58 AM on July 8, 2006

Gator
Thank you. My mistake.
posted by b33j at 2:43 PM on July 8, 2006

I would totally support this. Or maybe two per month since people claim sometimes that they need to ask two in succession sometimes.

I just programatically scraped question data for the past 2000 askme posts, and given a two week interval, 14.8% of askme questions would have been blocked. That doesn't mean this would reduce questions by 14.8%, of course, since this rule would likely delay, not eliminate, many of those posts, but its still likely that the traffic decrease would be noticable.
posted by gsteff at 6:46 PM on July 8, 2006

(that includes ignoring anonymous)
posted by gsteff at 6:54 PM on July 8, 2006