Examples of repeated questions in Askme? April 21, 2008 2:02 PM Subscribe
The Charlie White photo question came up again in Askme. Are there other specific questions that have been repeated over the years? Just curious...
Here's the list of repeat questions.
posted by roll truck roll at 2:17 PM on April 21, 2008 [2 favorites]
posted by roll truck roll at 2:17 PM on April 21, 2008 [2 favorites]
What are some fun things I can do on my trip to New York?
posted by grouse at 2:18 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by grouse at 2:18 PM on April 21, 2008
I seem to recall that we've had several questions asking for what it's called when you're laying in bed and you suddenly feel like you're falling.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:21 PM on April 21, 2008 [2 favorites]
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:21 PM on April 21, 2008 [2 favorites]
What should I name my cat?
What's this bug I just skooshed?
posted by Class Goat at 2:22 PM on April 21, 2008
What's this bug I just skooshed?
posted by Class Goat at 2:22 PM on April 21, 2008
Also, it seems like a lot of people ask about confirmation bias and synesthesia.
posted by mattbucher at 2:31 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by mattbucher at 2:31 PM on April 21, 2008
Oh yeah, TPS is talking about the "hypnic jerk" line of questions.
posted by Partial Law at 2:35 PM on April 21, 2008 [1 favorite]
posted by Partial Law at 2:35 PM on April 21, 2008 [1 favorite]
"All Summer in a Day" also made it onto Ask The A.V. Club a while back. I think I need to track this one down, as obviously it's pretty memorable.
posted by Navelgazer at 2:35 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by Navelgazer at 2:35 PM on April 21, 2008
You're just saying that because it's what you expect to taste, mattbucher.
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:37 PM on April 21, 2008 [4 favorites]
posted by cortex (staff) at 2:37 PM on April 21, 2008 [4 favorites]
Why do books sometimes use dashes instead of spelling out proper names? was posted at least four times.
posted by phoenixy at 2:42 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by phoenixy at 2:42 PM on April 21, 2008
I tend to be a lumper more than a splitter, so a lot of questions look similar to me on AskMe. Here are some.
- Road trip questions. While a lot of them sound super specific (here is my itinerary, can you tell me how it looks to you?) by and large they wind up being the same.
- muscle toning questions, aka "does my gym routine look okay to you?"
- cheap, protein-rich foods and other versions of "how do I stay alive on a budget?"
- dealing with a dick neighbor, detals vary
- my neighbor thinks I am a dick, details vary
- "does this seem like alcoholism to you?"
- given this data (giant data dump follows) what should I do about my career?
- given that I no longer want to have sex with my partner who I am TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH, what should I do about my relationship?
- my parents are ruining my life, what do I do?
- something is odd about my genitals (data dump follows) what should I do?
- I have self-image problems, tips?
- my new pet is exhibiting a strange symptom/behavior, what should I do?
- do I need to go to the emergency room about this or not?
- how to find a therapist.
- medication questions "has anyone had this side effect?"
- travelfilter
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:43 PM on April 21, 2008 [4 favorites]
- Road trip questions. While a lot of them sound super specific (here is my itinerary, can you tell me how it looks to you?) by and large they wind up being the same.
- muscle toning questions, aka "does my gym routine look okay to you?"
- cheap, protein-rich foods and other versions of "how do I stay alive on a budget?"
- dealing with a dick neighbor, detals vary
- my neighbor thinks I am a dick, details vary
- "does this seem like alcoholism to you?"
- given this data (giant data dump follows) what should I do about my career?
- given that I no longer want to have sex with my partner who I am TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH, what should I do about my relationship?
- my parents are ruining my life, what do I do?
- something is odd about my genitals (data dump follows) what should I do?
- I have self-image problems, tips?
- my new pet is exhibiting a strange symptom/behavior, what should I do?
- do I need to go to the emergency room about this or not?
- how to find a therapist.
- medication questions "has anyone had this side effect?"
- travelfilter
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:43 PM on April 21, 2008 [4 favorites]
SHOULD I EAT THIS!
posted by klangklangston at 2:47 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by klangklangston at 2:47 PM on April 21, 2008
There have been at least three (1, 2, 3) "name that song that features a saxaphone" questions in which the poster was thinking of Baker Street.
posted by Jorus at 2:56 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by Jorus at 2:56 PM on April 21, 2008
I always hear "cortex" as having purple qualities. What is this called?
posted by mattbucher at 2:58 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by mattbucher at 2:58 PM on April 21, 2008
Nononono, I'm asking about questions as specific as the Charlie White example.
It's a question asking about very certain photo , and there can be only one answer. A made up example would be "What's the building in this picture" or "what's the name of that song at the beginning of (blank) movie?". It's pretty obvious why the Charlie White photo keeps coming up, it's so damn freakshow strange. Hence the query about what other specific things are knawing at the human conscious, prompting repeated questions to Askme.
Don't let me down Cortex.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:58 PM on April 21, 2008
It's a question asking about very certain photo , and there can be only one answer. A made up example would be "What's the building in this picture" or "what's the name of that song at the beginning of (blank) movie?". It's pretty obvious why the Charlie White photo keeps coming up, it's so damn freakshow strange. Hence the query about what other specific things are knawing at the human conscious, prompting repeated questions to Askme.
Don't let me down Cortex.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:58 PM on April 21, 2008
William Sleator's "House of Stairs" has been the answer to a lot of questions.
Also, "O fortuna" from Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana."
No links from me. I'm lazy. But I'm right.
posted by dersins at 3:04 PM on April 21, 2008
Also, "O fortuna" from Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana."
No links from me. I'm lazy. But I'm right.
posted by dersins at 3:04 PM on April 21, 2008
If I wanted to try and find duplicate questions in the archives automatically, my current 2-path idea for how to maybe pull it off is this:
1. Some sort of comparison of keywords in the text (above and below the fold) in questions, looking for strong matches of key terms. Likely to work when asker is pretty clear in defining what they're looking for.
2. Similar keyword comparison search for the text of best-answered replies in questions. Likely to work in cases where (1) does not, aka "O fortuna" questions where the asker knows they're looking for "that song" but the real consistency will be in the answer they couldn't produce that prompted them to ask in the first place.
That's all I've got so far.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:09 PM on April 21, 2008
1. Some sort of comparison of keywords in the text (above and below the fold) in questions, looking for strong matches of key terms. Likely to work when asker is pretty clear in defining what they're looking for.
2. Similar keyword comparison search for the text of best-answered replies in questions. Likely to work in cases where (1) does not, aka "O fortuna" questions where the asker knows they're looking for "that song" but the real consistency will be in the answer they couldn't produce that prompted them to ask in the first place.
That's all I've got so far.
posted by cortex (staff) at 3:09 PM on April 21, 2008
Pony Request! We set up a form where people type in the name of the thing they are trying to ID, and it returns any previous AskMes that...
oh wait...
posted by jpdoane at 3:20 PM on April 21, 2008
oh wait...
posted by jpdoane at 3:20 PM on April 21, 2008
Oh man, thanks for that "hypnic jerk" link. I get those every day and was wondering what the hell was up with that.
posted by puke & cry at 3:40 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by puke & cry at 3:40 PM on April 21, 2008
No, "cortex" is scarlet, not purple. "jessamyn" is cornflower blue, and "mathowie" is a deep metafilter blue.
posted by jtron at 4:10 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by jtron at 4:10 PM on April 21, 2008
No, "cortex" is scarlet, not purple. "jessamyn" is cornflower blue, and "mathowie" is a deep metafilter blue.
Holy hell, I'd never noticed before.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:21 PM on April 21, 2008 [4 favorites]
Holy hell, I'd never noticed before.
posted by cortex (staff) at 4:21 PM on April 21, 2008 [4 favorites]
Show-off.
posted by puke & cry at 4:39 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by puke & cry at 4:39 PM on April 21, 2008
MOM! MOMMMMM!
CORTEX IS WHIPPING ME WITH HIS SEATBELT!
posted by blasdelf at 4:49 PM on April 21, 2008
CORTEX IS WHIPPING ME WITH HIS SEATBELT!
posted by blasdelf at 4:49 PM on April 21, 2008
That's all I've got so far.
Yeah, it seems like it would depend on some complicated database queries, where as I was more querying the hive mind memory. the hypnic jerk is pretty cool though.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:45 PM on April 21, 2008
Yeah, it seems like it would depend on some complicated database queries, where as I was more querying the hive mind memory. the hypnic jerk is pretty cool though.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:45 PM on April 21, 2008
Dammit, Brandon Blatcher! I do NOT have the money to register a sockpuppet named "the hypnic jerk" right now.
posted by cgc373 at 5:57 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by cgc373 at 5:57 PM on April 21, 2008
I guess I wasn't the only person that thought "Hypnic jerk" would be a good user/band name.
posted by puke & cry at 5:58 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by puke & cry at 5:58 PM on April 21, 2008
Damn cgc373, get out of my head.
posted by puke & cry at 5:59 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by puke & cry at 5:59 PM on April 21, 2008
Is anybody else watching this 'The American Experience' about Roberto Clemente? George Will aside, it's really pretty good.
More recurring AskMes:
- I can't find a place to buy this thing.
- This guy's selling me this thing. Is he ripping me off?
- How can I get the most money when I sell my thing?
- Please confirm my existing feelings and/or opinions.
posted by box at 6:41 PM on April 21, 2008
More recurring AskMes:
- I can't find a place to buy this thing.
- This guy's selling me this thing. Is he ripping me off?
- How can I get the most money when I sell my thing?
- Please confirm my existing feelings and/or opinions.
posted by box at 6:41 PM on April 21, 2008
William Sleator's "House of Stairs" has been the answer to a lot of questions.
It even had a Metafilter post about it.
posted by smackfu at 6:48 PM on April 21, 2008
It even had a Metafilter post about it.
posted by smackfu at 6:48 PM on April 21, 2008
Imitating English.
Picture smiling.
You'll find more using this search
posted by tellurian at 9:14 PM on April 21, 2008
Picture smiling.
You'll find more using this search
posted by tellurian at 9:14 PM on April 21, 2008
I need a sliding scale { dentist | psychologist } in [location] because { my teeth are falling out | I'm batshitdepressed }
posted by 0xFCAF at 9:51 PM on April 21, 2008
posted by 0xFCAF at 9:51 PM on April 21, 2008
You forgot "my asshole roommate, let me show you him!"
There also seems to be a "I'm an adult who lives with my parents and they are raging assholes, moving out is categorically impossible." statement which re-appears from time to time among the questions. I actually have a lot of sympathy for people who haven't had an interruption from childhood emotional abuse which has them still stuck in a loop, but I'll be damned if I can think of any method of breaking the continuum of abuse as an adult that doesn't include leaving the nest. Always makes me "argh."
posted by Your Time Machine Sucks at 1:43 AM on April 22, 2008
There also seems to be a "I'm an adult who lives with my parents and they are raging assholes, moving out is categorically impossible." statement which re-appears from time to time among the questions. I actually have a lot of sympathy for people who haven't had an interruption from childhood emotional abuse which has them still stuck in a loop, but I'll be damned if I can think of any method of breaking the continuum of abuse as an adult that doesn't include leaving the nest. Always makes me "argh."
posted by Your Time Machine Sucks at 1:43 AM on April 22, 2008
Your Time Machine Sucks, that's just a subset of the larger set of questions, "I want to solve a problem. The obvious solution that a reasonable person would attempt is not an option." Of course, it is an option, they just don't want to.
I've come to recognize the phrase "not an option" as indicative of delusion.
posted by grouse at 1:49 AM on April 22, 2008
I've come to recognize the phrase "not an option" as indicative of delusion.
posted by grouse at 1:49 AM on April 22, 2008
Truly. "I wish to make an omelet, but for certain undisclosed reasons it cannot involve eggs or anything which could be perceived as being an egg substitute."
Damn, I see that Jessamyn already addressed the asshole parents. Just to round out my asshole statement-not-question hat trick: "A doctor/plumber/service provider of some kind was an asshole to me."
Though I love reading those ones because the sympathetic outrage is heartwarming, and I'd want to vent too. Also, it is generally just a matter of time before someone explains that when a doctor is an asshole, there is a reason for it which is unrelated to assholism, which is interesting as a phenomenon.
posted by Your Time Machine Sucks at 3:22 AM on April 22, 2008
Damn, I see that Jessamyn already addressed the asshole parents. Just to round out my asshole statement-not-question hat trick: "A doctor/plumber/service provider of some kind was an asshole to me."
Though I love reading those ones because the sympathetic outrage is heartwarming, and I'd want to vent too. Also, it is generally just a matter of time before someone explains that when a doctor is an asshole, there is a reason for it which is unrelated to assholism, which is interesting as a phenomenon.
posted by Your Time Machine Sucks at 3:22 AM on April 22, 2008
People ask about setting consulting/freelance fees all the time. The advice is almost always the same.
posted by acoutu at 2:21 PM on April 22, 2008
posted by acoutu at 2:21 PM on April 22, 2008
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posted by Partial Law at 2:12 PM on April 21, 2008