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Google answers is actually older then askme, I think. posted by delmoi at 11:08 AM on October 30, 2006
Oh good, additional incentive (coins) to ask questions. posted by Mitheral at 11:11 AM on October 30, 2006
Limit to 5 answers only? Redeemable coins? An example of how corporate hive-mind effs up a perfectly good system already in place. posted by crunchland at 11:22 AM on October 30, 2006
Those screenshots make AskMe look like the Promised Land. posted by loquacious at 11:26 AM on October 30, 2006
Google answers is actually older then askme, I think.
Yeah, but it's also fundamentally different, since you have to pay for answers with actual money. posted by smackfu at 12:08 PM on October 30, 2006
These sorts of things need a reputation system. Yahoo answers is worthless mainly because the people who have and take the time to answer are the ones who'd answer anything with the first thing that comes into their heads. And because they seem to have a median age of eleven and a half.
A slashdot-style moderation/karma system isn't the answer because the mods aren't exactly selected for cluefulness either. A reputation factor based on answer ratings by the asker would be much more valuable.
This wouldn't be perfect either because:
A. There's always the clueless asker who doesn't have the mental tools to evaluate answer quality or is psychologically unprepared to accept what probably really is the best answer, but it still provides some relationship to answer quality, as opposed to none.
B. Just because someone answered some questions objectively or subjectively well is not a reliable indicator of answering any other question well. However, it would be a useful confidence factor after accumulating many answers.
Pardon me, just thinking out loud. posted by George_Spiggott at 12:20 PM on October 30, 2006
we invented the Internet posted by matteo at 12:28 PM on October 30, 2006
Who's ville? posted by mullacc at 12:54 PM on October 30, 2006
UGH, I just checked the question I asked. I got four lame answers. I marked three "wrong" and one "okay" and the okay one got a "best answer" icon by default. I know I can be a bit of a tough customer but their interface is really truly teh suck. posted by jessamyn at 1:12 PM on October 30, 2006
The system they use is really odd. You can't answer a question that has answers displayed... it's always a blind answer system. And then you can go rate other replies to the question you answered. And you get "coins" for just rating answers. THough you can link to products available on Amazon!
Anyway, I also have invites if anyone cares or wants one. posted by GuyZero at 1:15 PM on October 30, 2006
Yahoo answers is worthless mainly because the people who have and take the time to answer are the ones who'd answer anything with the first thing that comes into their heads. And because they seem to have a median age of eleven and a half.
We're different because our median is more like 26. posted by Mayor Curley at 1:55 PM on October 30, 2006
You can't answer a question that has answers displayed... it's always a blind answer system. And then you can go rate other replies to the question you answered. And you get "coins" for just rating answers.
Wow. Talk about overthinking something. Every one of these corporate attempts at an answers site just makes me marvel anew at Matt's vision for AskMe. I've said it before, but when AskMe debuted, I was all "meh, ok," but as I watched it, I've fallen completely in love with its simplicity and effectiveness. Just a few simple guidelines- you can't be insulting, you shouldn't post chatty hypotheticals, don't waste our time with wisecracks - make it highly effective and extremely noise-free. All the others simply pale in comparison. posted by mediareport at 2:30 PM on October 30, 2006
Be warned you need a text enabled cell phone to receive an activation code in order to create an account. posted by Mitheral at 2:34 PM on October 30, 2006
"Just a few simple guidelines... make it highly effective and extremely noise-free."
I'd argue it's the legendary Hammer of Jessamyn that makes it noise-free. Have you ever seen Ask when she's asleep? It's a viper pit of dumbassery. posted by majick at 3:31 PM on October 30, 2006 [2 favorites]
mediareport, I think the guidelines are good, but it's the intense community self-policing of standards that makes it work. (along of course with the respectful, articulate, merciless Hammer) People who are capable of appreciating the excellent signal-to-noise ratio stay and do their part to maintain that ratio, whether their part is speaking or silence. People who get made fun of mostly either shape up or go away. posted by LobsterMitten at 4:41 PM on October 30, 2006
Be warned you need a text enabled cell phone to receive an activation code in order to create an account.
Holy fuck! Next thing you know they'll need a plaster mold of my face. posted by furtive at 4:52 PM on October 30, 2006 [1 favorite]
A member of their street team demanded a wallet inspection, too. And he didn't tell me when I'd get it back. posted by cortex at 4:54 PM on October 30, 2006
What's next? Askbury? Askington? West Askford? posted by smackfu at 5:40 PM on October 30, 2006
The Haberdaskery. Community mods would be called "askhats". posted by cortex at 5:48 PM on October 30, 2006 [1 favorite]
anyone else want in, like jess, I have a bunch (about 25) invites to get rid of. Not terribly impressive. Not at all.
Better (so far) then yahoo.
OH, yeah, I'd have a community called "Wise, ask questions." Then we'd be "Wise-asks" posted by filmgeek at 5:53 PM on October 30, 2006
"Often imitated, never matched"... posted by clevershark at 8:32 PM on October 30, 2006
but it's the intense community self-policing of standards that makes it work.
Yes, of course the community does its thing in AskMe like it does everywhere else on the site, and that's a big part of what keeps AskMe special. But the simplicity of the design - the boiled down elegance of those few standards combined with a $5 lifetime membership - is what stands out most to me when I compare AskMe to all the other answer sites. It's really striking how well it works here compared to there. posted by mediareport at 9:43 PM on October 30, 2006
(and by "works here," I mean works for askers, answerers *and* readers; AskMe is not just efficient and useful, it's also by far the most entertaining answer site I've seen) posted by mediareport at 9:46 PM on October 30, 2006
Agreed; the simple guidelines and tiny startup cost are very fine. I just meant that I think having a critical mass of reasonably articulate people at the start really has worked wonders for this place.
Hard to duplicate this when making a more wide-audience site - like Yahoo and Amazon seem to want to do. posted by LobsterMitten at 10:31 PM on October 30, 2006
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