What's the Best question and answer Site?

December 27, 2006 4:04 PM

What's the Best Q&A Site?

I guess AskMeFi didn't make the cut.

I'm far too lazy to do the research, but using their method, how does AskMeFi hold up?
posted by _aa_ to MetaFilter-related at 4:04 PM (51 comments total)

They seem to have left out the most important criterion: how many times Steve Wozniak has posted.
posted by danb at 4:06 PM on December 27, 2006 [1 favorite]

Their method is dumb.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 4:10 PM on December 27, 2006

Can any site in the social Q&A space catch up with my clear winner, Yahoo Answers?

Compared to Yahoo Answers, I'd say AskMeFi holds up pretty damn well.
posted by cmonkey at 4:11 PM on December 27, 2006

I think the best proof of our comparative worth is that this question would have been deleted from AskMe as chatfilter.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:15 PM on December 27, 2006

mouthwateringness is objectivity lightly grilled with butter.
posted by quonsar at 4:15 PM on December 27, 2006

Plus, since asavage posts here, and the only good Yahoo! Answers response to the 5-second rule query was a stoned, paraphrased recollection of a MythBusters episode, I think we can stick this in the QEmotherfuckingD file.
posted by cortex at 4:24 PM on December 27, 2006

Also plus, we need a QEmotherfuckingD file.
posted by cortex at 4:25 PM on December 27, 2006

So you can sharpen your QEmotherfuckingD and shank us with it in the yard? I think not.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 4:29 PM on December 27, 2006

Also and furthermore.

Someone with some spare time and the will to piss it away on a silly blog project should do this:

Take a random sampling of AskMe questions. Posit them on Yahoo! Answers. Say, one a day. Consider the utility, wit, spelling, etc of the responses in Yahoo! in contrast with those garnered in the original AskMe thread. Discuss.
posted by cortex at 4:29 PM on December 27, 2006

What a stupid article. All of the sites reviewed suck.
posted by koeselitz at 4:29 PM on December 27, 2006

their favorite Q&A sites suck
posted by matteo at 4:32 PM on December 27, 2006

Wade's method did suck. If he'd used AskMe for those three questions—Is there any truth to the five-second rule (about food falling on the floor)? Why did the Mormons settle in Utah? Best way to cook a grilled cheese sandwich?—he'd have gotten better responses and would not have had to filter offensive answers from better ones, because site norms do that filtering for him.
posted by cgc373 at 4:33 PM on December 27, 2006

Heh. "Filtering."
posted by cgc373 at 4:34 PM on December 27, 2006

His judgment is screwy. He got only one answer to the Utah question on Answerbag and it was perfectly accurate, and for that he gives it only one point, to the two he gives others. It seems to me that getting exactly one, correct, answer, is the optimum result for a simple question of fact.

Perhaps he's deducting for the paltriness of responses but considering his own paltriness of sample data that's a stupid thing to do.
posted by George_Spiggott at 4:39 PM on December 27, 2006

Somebody email this bugger. We need to have a little chat with him.
posted by koeselitz at 4:40 PM on December 27, 2006

Yeesh, what weirdness. It's like a book report on a Fark post.
posted by koeselitz at 4:41 PM on December 27, 2006

Wade Roush
posted by koeselitz at 4:42 PM on December 27, 2006

Also, there was a MetaChat thread once on what not to post to Ask MeFi, and some people posted the questions to Yahoo Answers (e.g., How long can a normal, healthy 8 week old kitten survive inside an adult python? URGENT?). This MeTa thread has more examples.
posted by danb at 5:03 PM on December 27, 2006 [9 favorites]

If his questions had passed front page muster, he'd have become much better-informed as to the types of cheese one might use for a grilled cheese, opinions on the advantages of frypans versus presses, and an obscenity-laced tirade on the evils of processed white bread. And so on and so forth.

AskMe obviously kicks ass on all other question forums.
posted by five fresh fish at 5:23 PM on December 27, 2006

I bet he didn't want to pay five bucks AND didn't have the temerity to email a member to assist him in this project.
posted by frecklefaerie at 6:27 PM on December 27, 2006

Every time I see Ask Yahoo mentioned, I think of this thread. I found it while Googling "11 month old hitting." Here is my favorite response, no doubt posted by a respected child-rearing expert:

My question 4 u dear is are you hitting people in front of her. The reason is babies only copy what they have seen.

Nearly every other answer can be boiled down to: "You need to pop her one when she hits you."

So, so useful and insightful.
posted by peep at 6:31 PM on December 27, 2006

I hate myself.
posted by Dizzy at 6:32 PM on December 27, 2006

QEmotherfuckingD. heh heh.
posted by OmieWise at 6:41 PM on December 27, 2006

How long can a normal, healthy 8 week old kitten survive inside an adult python? URGENT?

This is the best entertainment provided by the internets since the Hiroshima thread.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:51 PM on December 27, 2006

That's too bad; I would have been all over that grilled cheese question!
posted by aubilenon at 6:56 PM on December 27, 2006

I found the guy before and emailed him. I'll post if he replies.
posted by Mach5 at 6:59 PM on December 27, 2006

This answer from the cat in a snake question:

karate chop to the head... it's the only way

is just going to be my standard AskMe answer from now on.

Q: Why would Target employees not be truthful about when they have had/will get Wiis in stock? Is there a secret handshake I can do to figure out the real story?

A: karate chop to the head... it's the only way

Q: I was hit by a bus while my car was not moving. Who do I sue in small claims court, the driver of the bus, or the private company that owns the bus?

A: karate chop to the head... it's the only way

Q: CheerUpFilter: I haven't exacty been the brightest ray of sunshine lately, and as it's 3:30am here and my mum's in the other room sleeping, I need something I can do that'll cheer me up without waking her up.

A: karate chop to the head... it's the only way
posted by ND¢ at 6:59 PM on December 27, 2006 [4 favorites]

Yep, the secret is pickle relish.
posted by gleuschk at 6:59 PM on December 27, 2006

Shhhh...do y'all really want more folks to discover AskMe? I mean, it's happening, and will keep happening, but this guy's absurd ignorance of the most thoughtful and interesting general answer site around keeps things manageable for a little while longer, at least.

Let's enjoy it while it lasts.
posted by mediareport at 7:15 PM on December 27, 2006 [1 favorite]

We get all pissy when someone here directs us to a site where we have to register; imagine how annoyed people would be if they'd been directed to a site where you have to register and pay to ask your question.

Sure, he'd have had better answers if AskMe had been included, but leaving it off the list probably saved him a whole lot of grief from his readers.
posted by stefanie at 7:51 PM on December 27, 2006

Let's enjoy it while it lasts.

amen.
posted by jessamyn at 7:56 PM on December 27, 2006

MC QEmotherfuckingD in the house!
posted by loquacious at 8:15 PM on December 27, 2006

A random thought that I had put on my user page a whilte back:

Re: Amazon Askville -
I have a little game I play called "If I Highlight Select Parts Of Your Question, And Choose The Search Option In Firefox, And The Answer To Your Question Appears In The Top Five Hits...YOU LOSE!". Questions like this and this let me rest easy knowing the Ask MeFi isn't going anywhere.

Both of his questions (I'm not counting the grilled cheese, cause that's dirty chatfilter) fail my test. And no, I'm not counting links to the sites he asked the questions.


So yeah, I'd agree with stavrosthewonderchicken: Their method is dumb.
posted by niles at 8:18 PM on December 27, 2006

How long can a normal, healthy 8 week old kitten survive inside an adult python? URGENT?

I love my little sister. Seriously, she's the best.
posted by blasdelf at 8:33 PM on December 27, 2006

thanks danb. nice to have all those links in one place.
posted by carsonb at 5:40 AM on December 28, 2006

"How long can a normal, healthy 8 week old kitten survive inside an adult python? URGENT?

I love my little sister. Seriously, she's the best."

WELL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAN, DID THE KITTEN SURVIVE? DID THE AIRHOLE-PUNCHING WORK? INQUIRING MINDS NEED TO KNOW!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:55 AM on December 28, 2006

She delivered a karate chop to the head. It was the only way.
posted by ND¢ at 7:21 AM on December 28, 2006

Metafilter: A Karate Chop to the Head.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:35 AM on December 28, 2006

Damn, that "What Not To Post To AskMe" Metachat thread is one of my fondest MeFi memories. We should do a thread like that once a year or so.
posted by orange swan at 7:39 AM on December 28, 2006

WELL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAN, DID THE KITTEN SURVIVE? DID THE AIRHOLE-PUNCHING WORK? INQUIRING MINDS NEED TO KNOW!

There has never been a kitten. Ask Yahoo is none the wiser.
posted by blasdelf at 7:25 PM on December 28, 2006

No kitten, no cabal, no caboodle. I'm starting to think those Matrix philosopher d00dz were right.
posted by cgc373 at 7:36 PM on December 28, 2006

ND$, I don't understand your name, but because of you, I, for one, welcome our new head-chopping-karate overlords (and their kitten-swallowing python lackeys).

Incidentally, the kitten probably suffocated. Ditto the alligator. Plus, read our bonus feature, Python hunting (for science!).
posted by ewkpates at 8:00 AM on December 29, 2006

ND¢! It's ND¢. I hope you brought your sacrificial lion.

(in - dee - cent)
posted by niles at 8:32 AM on December 29, 2006

As niles said, my username is ND¢ and is pronounced like indecent. But, try typing my username out. You can't. The whole point of my participation on Metafilter is to say incredibly engaging things and for people to be compelled to reply to them by mentioning me by name, but then to go to type out my username and to be unable to because they can't find the ¢ sign on their keyboards. These people will then look at their keyboards and go, "Where the fuck is the ¢ sign?", and then realize that it isn't there any more. They will then realize that something that they took for granted without even thinking about it, something that they thought would always be there, has disappeared, and that things, even things that seemed like they never would, change, and that one day they themselves, much like the ¢ sign, will not be there anymore, and for them to appreciate the impermanence of existence and live their lives a little more deeply after acknowledging that fact. It is also my rap name.
posted by ND¢ at 9:09 AM on December 29, 2006 [2 favorites]

God, I love you. I even mailed your CDs, if you can believe that.
posted by cortex at 9:22 AM on December 29, 2006

COPY AND PASTE MOTHERFUCKER!
posted by koeselitz at 9:41 AM on December 29, 2006

and also some of us can unicode
posted by koeselitz at 9:41 AM on December 29, 2006

Am I the only lonely mutherfucker on the planet who's actually memorized 3/4's of the option+keystrokes? I don't know why you people seem to think this is magic -- it's just this little chromium switch. See, that's not so hard, ND§, now is it?

*shit!*
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:55 AM on December 29, 2006

and that one day they themselves, much like the ¢ sign, will not be there anymore, and for them to appreciate the impermanence of existence and live their lives a little more deeply after acknowledging that fact.

when's this s¢htick gonna end? I'm up to my bunghole in deep living.
posted by carsonb at 6:49 AM on December 30, 2006

Option-4 = ¢

Got it on the first try, too.
posted by blasdelf at 2:22 PM on December 30, 2006

Whatever ND$. Love ya. Peace out.
posted by ewkpates at 10:13 AM on January 3, 2007