Help Me Help You!

April 20, 2012 9:19 AM

Pony AskMeFi request: "No Best Answers" filter/tab.

So, on the Green, you can look to see where there are unanswered questions, and go and possibly help out someone who hasn't gotten any response. But even if someone answers "Sorry - I don't know.." the Ask will have one response, but then get lost down the page, never to find another helpful Mefite.

Now, yes, you have the issue that many Askers tend not to mark 'Best Answers,' but perhaps this filter could nudge that behavior, as well.

posted by rich to Feature Requests at 9:19 AM (12 comments total)

Are you talking about Stumped Questions? Go to AskMeFi, click on the Unanswered Tab and then look for the Stumped Questions column on the right. That's where the questions no one's properly answered go. It looks like they've moved things around, but it's still there.
posted by librarylis at 9:31 AM on April 20, 2012

Now, yes, you have the issue that many Askers tend not to mark 'Best Answers,'

Exactly.
posted by John Cohen at 9:33 AM on April 20, 2012

It sounds like you'd prefer to answer questions that don't have any best answers and you're having trouble finding them. The tab would collect them into one place so you could browse them easily.

I have a feeling this is probably a narrow interest area because I'm not sure that lack of best answer is enough of a distinguishing feature. As you mention, some people simply don't use the best answer feature. And in those cases, their questions are no different from questions where someone does use the best answer feature. A best answer does not indicate 'answered at all' is what I'm trying to say.

And in the case of "Sorry - I don't know...", you can flag those if you see them. Non-answers are routinely removed by moderators once they see them.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:34 AM on April 20, 2012

Yeah, what pb said. I get the narrow utility of what you're talking about but it seems overly fiddly to be worth working into the interface. Definitely, like he says, flag outright non-answer stuff, we nix those pronto when we're aware of them.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:39 AM on April 20, 2012

DENIED. The service is called "AskMe," not "AnswerMe". Or "AnswerYou". Or whatever. So CLEARLY the point of this subsite is NOT to answer questions, but to ASK questions, so for example if someone asks, "Yo, 'sup with that shit?" you should reply, "Yo, why you care dawg?"

I don't actually know if I'm using words like "yo" and "dawg" properly, by the way - I understand that this is how Americans used to talk many years ago. Times change, and nowadays you guys probably say something like, "Zagusha! Be this the true shibboo, my reptiloid thrangflobbles?" In which case, I guess one would reply, "But didda you pooplefrizzz that jizzz, my loopy kumquat???"

I think it's great that you young people chatter away in your own special language like this, but - honestly - sometimes I have no idea what you "loopy kumquats" are talking about.

Anyway, vote #1 quidnunc kid and I will definitely pooplefrizzz your jizzz.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 9:44 AM on April 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

Oh, yeah! This feature exists! I use my scroll wheel to access it from the front page of AskMe. The trick is to look for *no** little green check mark!
posted by carsonb at 9:58 AM on April 20, 2012

I, like the OP, would appreciate this feature but I understand the mod answer.
posted by subbes at 10:04 AM on April 20, 2012

Actually, it came out of me asking a question that didn't get much response on a busy Ask day (so within a half hour, it was already on the next page), and I've seen the same for other Askers.

There may be helpful suggestions, but no solid answer - so there are 'answers' but nothing that has really put the issue to rest.

But, alhtough I get the thought that it has 'narrow utility,' I'd argue with the statement that something marked with a 'best answer' doesn't indicate the question has been answered. Maybe that's just how I interpret it. (I am guessing that is why the followup mail asks for people to add the 'resolved' tag to their question, but that feature is also not used universally).

Yes, carsonb, people can scroll through the pages, or do a search for questions without 'resolved' tags. I was just noodling about how to help Askers by giving a bit more "ease-of-use" functionality to potential answerers. But I wager most folks are not so OCD about needing to find questions to answer that they regularly would go through the tasks of manually data-mining themselves.
posted by rich at 10:10 AM on April 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

We have a couple features already to help out with a fast moving front page. The first is My Ask, a tab that helps people find questions that they will be interested in. It includes questions with tags and categories they have selected, and a sidebar with recommended questions based on their answering history. So that's a way to get questions in front of people beyond the front page. The audience using My Ask isn't as large as the audience for the front page, but it's there to help find the right audience for a question.

The next option is the 'stumped' tag. If you feel your question wan't answered adequately, you can added the tag stumped and it will appear on the Unanswered tab in the sidebar. (There's also a feed for stumped questions that people subscribe to.) I think the stumped tag is a better indicator than 'lack of best answer' that something needs extra attention.
posted by pb (staff) at 10:26 AM on April 20, 2012 [1 favorite]

Fair enough.. I actually wasn't aware of the 'stumped' tag feature. Giving it some thought, I can see that provides much of the same functionality. Different paths to the same end. All good.
posted by rich at 10:36 AM on April 20, 2012

How come everyone's gotta be reptilian in the future always what about bird people that could happen?
posted by Potomac Avenue at 1:15 PM on April 20, 2012

DENIED. The service is called "AskMe," not "AnswerMe".
posted by the quidnunc kid

Indeed. AnswerMe is a VERY different sort of thing...
posted by blaneyphoto at 8:11 PM on April 20, 2012