Comments on: What's the Best question and answer Site?

What's the Best question and answer Site?

_aa_ — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:04:14 -0800

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?

By: danb

danb — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:06:34 -0800

They seem to have left out the most important criterion: how many times Steve Wozniak has posted.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:10:08 -0800

Their method is dumb.

By: cmonkey

cmonkey — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:11:07 -0800

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.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:15:51 -0800

I think the best proof of our comparative worth is that this question would have been deleted from AskMe as chatfilter.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:15:52 -0800

mouthwateringness is objectivity lightly grilled with butter.

By: cortex

cortex — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:24:25 -0800

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.

By: cortex

cortex — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:25:20 -0800

Also plus, we need a QEmotherfuckingD file.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:29:00 -0800

So you can sharpen your QEmotherfuckingD and shank us with it in the yard? I think not.

By: cortex

cortex — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:29:06 -0800

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.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:29:50 -0800

What a stupid article. All of the sites reviewed suck.

By: matteo

matteo — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:32:35 -0800

their favorite Q&A sites suck

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:33:55 -0800

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.

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:34:41 -0800

Heh. "Filtering."

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:39:13 -0800

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.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:40:31 -0800

Somebody email this bugger. We need to have a little chat with him.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:41:22 -0800

Yeesh, what weirdness. It's like a book report on a Fark post.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:42:48 -0800

Wade Roush

By: danb

danb — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:03:29 -0800

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.

By: five fresh fish

five fresh fish — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:23:36 -0800

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.

By: frecklefaerie

frecklefaerie — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:27:05 -0800

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.

By: peep

peep — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:31:03 -0800

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.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:32:32 -0800

I hate myself.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:41:13 -0800

QEmotherfuckingD. heh heh.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:51:56 -0800

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.

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:56:30 -0800

That's too bad; I would have been all over that grilled cheese question!

By: Mach5

Mach5 — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:59:10 -0800

I found the guy before and emailed him. I'll post if he replies.

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:59:35 -0800

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

By: gleuschk

gleuschk — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:59:37 -0800

Yep, the secret is pickle relish.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 19:15:30 -0800

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.

By: stefanie

stefanie — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 19:51:12 -0800

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.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 19:56:18 -0800

Let's enjoy it while it lasts.

amen.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 20:15:56 -0800

MC QEmotherfuckingD in the house!

By: niles

niles — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 20:18:31 -0800

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.

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 20:33:05 -0800

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.

By: carsonb

carsonb — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 05:40:26 -0800

thanks danb. nice to have all those links in one place.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 06:55:40 -0800

"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!

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 07:21:11 -0800

She delivered a karate chop to the head. It was the only way.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 07:35:38 -0800

Metafilter: A Karate Chop to the Head.

By: orange swan

orange swan — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 07:39:55 -0800

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.

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 19:25:40 -0800

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.

By: cgc373

cgc373 — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 19:36:50 -0800

No kitten, no cabal, no caboodle. I'm starting to think those Matrix philosopher d00dz were right.

By: ewkpates

ewkpates — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 08:00:23 -0800

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!).

By: niles

niles — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 08:32:50 -0800

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

(in - dee - cent)

By: ND¢

ND¢ — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 09:09:18 -0800

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.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 09:22:43 -0800

God, I love you. I even mailed your CDs, if you can believe that.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 09:41:15 -0800

COPY AND PASTE MOTHERFUCKER!

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 09:41:56 -0800

and also some of us can unicode

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 09:55:05 -0800

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!*

By: carsonb

carsonb — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 06:49:08 -0800

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.

By: blasdelf

blasdelf — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 14:22:23 -0800

Option-4 = ¢

Got it on the first try, too.

By: ewkpates

ewkpates — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 10:13:49 -0800

Whatever ND$. Love ya. Peace out.