Yahoo Answers academic study

February 7, 2011 9:53 AM

A new academic study of Q&A sites, but this one focuses on Yahoo! Answers.

"the majority of the questions on YA get at least one answer within a few minutes, however, it takes longer to receive an answer that satisfies the asker. We also demonstrate that the sooner an answer appears for a question, the higher chances it has being selected as the best answer by the asker."

posted by k8t to MetaFilter-Related at 9:53 AM (19 comments total)

No offense, but why is this in Meta? Mefi isn't even mentioned. This seems like an opportunity excuse to vent about how much better we are than Yahoo.
posted by desjardins at 10:10 AM on February 7, 2011 [3 favorites]

My takeaway is that hexapodia is the key insight. Wacky.

Shah says: We plan to explore this phenomenon in future research. So he has no clue either.
posted by bonehead at 10:20 AM on February 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

I agree with desjardins, this time.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:40 AM on February 7, 2011

I'm just going to lay my head down. Is that OK?
posted by boo_radley at 11:06 AM on February 7, 2011

Yeah, I guess that I thought that some folks are interested in the behind-the-scenes social scientific study of things like AskMe.
posted by k8t at 11:08 AM on February 7, 2011

Oh, fine: In a sense, yes, it is interesting and thank you for finding a study that's not behind an academic paywall. The analysis is cursory, and more that once delves into conjecture that is (I believe) unfitting for a study, ex: "(...) it still remains to be seen if these answers satisfy the needs of a given interrogator. To analyze this, we looked at the time lapsed between the time a question was posted and an answer was given and selected. " The data provided for the analyis (fig. 3) does not account for the fact that only experienced users of the site are permitted to rate ("Yahoo Answers General information faqs", 2011), which skews greatly the data of answer rating distribution. Without a sense of how many people are "Level 2" users, the data is meaningless, and the results of the study are questionable.
posted by boo_radley at 11:23 AM on February 7, 2011

That's like doing an academic study on internet usage, and focusing on the AOL experience.
posted by litnerd at 11:45 AM on February 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Hey, while we're relentlessly mocking Yahoo Answers, you should go listen to My Brother, My Brother and Me. It's an advice show by three brothers, but they beef up the "serious" questions with Yahoo Answers questions that can be mocked for their "how is babby made" quality. Super funny.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 11:49 AM on February 7, 2011

why is this in Meta? Mefi isn't even mentioned. --- When I saw this post earlier, I was going to ask the same thing, but I decided I didn't want to be "that guy."
posted by crunchland at 11:57 AM on February 7, 2011

I also have a lot of dogs. The best thing to do is tune your alto saxophone to f#, which is four steps up from the D it is tuned to now. The best way to tune it is to put it in the bath and then fill it with water until it is pitched to D - you need to be under water to do this, if you have olive oil you can rub it on your lips to help with your breath control. When you shave your dog you can use the hair to simulate that under water sound and then your saxaphone will always sound like it is in D which is what Charlie Parker played in. You'll also need a mouthpiece. If you need a dog you can buy one online - so get a good dog and a Selmer Mk VI.
posted by Elmore at 2:21 PM on February 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

It's OK, crunchland, I will be "that guy" enough for both of us.
posted by desjardins at 2:23 PM on February 7, 2011

Oh, sorry everyone, I thought I was posting on Yahoo.
posted by Elmore at 2:23 PM on February 7, 2011

Well, I'm glad 'that guy' turned up, because I've a feeling 'those guys' are going to start on me and I need some back up.
posted by Elmore at 2:25 PM on February 7, 2011

I will be "that guy" enough for both of us. --- I've been that guy for the better part of the last 10 years, but I'm on vacation.
posted by crunchland at 2:40 PM on February 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Um, whats the good ebay link for buying dogs? One of my dogs is really sleepy, and I need an energetic, but not too energetic dog that is also really pretty and knows how to shit in a specific area of my neighbours garden. Y'ah, don't bother posting the crappy links, I've seen them already thanks. I don't need another stupid dog. I don't care what brand it is, I just need it to be nice to me and know that it cannot fuck up the yard and goes away to shit and then comes back quietly without barking.
posted by Elmore at 3:23 PM on February 7, 2011

I've been that guy for the better part of the last 10 years, but I'm on vacation

Weird, every time I go on holiday I seem to meet 'that guy'.
posted by Elmore at 3:24 PM on February 7, 2011

This seems like it might go better on MetaTalk.
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:27 PM on February 7, 2011

Aaaand ... that was the comment where I thought it was in Ask for some reason. Nevermind.

So how's that edit window going?
posted by Kadin2048 at 3:28 PM on February 7, 2011

How is studdy formed? How Yahoo get paegrank?
posted by flabdablet at 4:11 AM on February 8, 2011