Ask the damn question on the front page

January 4, 2004 7:08 AM

Ask the damn question on the front page, already! A few recent examples of a growing Ask MetaFilter trend that's starting to annoy me. I'd move for a few guidelines: 1. Ask a question on the front page. 2. Make some effort in striking a balance between salience and brevity on the front page.
posted by nthdegx to etiquette/policy at 7:08 AM (27 comments total)

The nitpick part of me thinks it would be nice if every post to Ask Metafilter could be phrased as a question, complete with associated punctuation mark (hint: "?"). However, that's not my main point. My point is this:

If you're going to ask about buying a new bicycle, it would be better if you revealed the fact that you don't have any legs on the front page. Anything that allows readers to gauge just how helpful they can be without them having to go into a thread can only be a good thing, imo. I have no problem with adding more information as a comment, but the degree of brevity with some of the posts strikes me as problematic. There are ways of doing it, and not doing it.
posted by nthdegx at 7:16 AM on January 4, 2004

I completely disagree. The less room a post takes up on the page, the better, so long as a general idea of the subject is given, which is true in all the cases you link. If you see "I'm trying to install a p2p client," you know whether you can be of assistance or not; since I know I can't, it saves me time and effort to just see the one sentence and move on rather than reading an entire paragraph of details that mean nothing to me. And nobody's making you "go into a thread"; if you don't want to bother, for heaven's sake don't.
posted by languagehat at 7:23 AM on January 4, 2004

I completely agree (with nth).
posted by mischief at 8:08 AM on January 4, 2004

I completely disagree (with languagehat).
posted by ook at 8:08 AM on January 4, 2004

I'm with nth and mischief and ook--we should be able to get all relevant (if rudimentary info) from the Q itself, and not have to go into the thread (although I usually end up looking inside anyway).
posted by amberglow at 8:20 AM on January 4, 2004

I don't bother looking inside if the question is too vague. I see now that I could have answered rocketmans p2p Q, but I assumed he was running some other OS and never looked inside. In short - nthdegx got a good point, and I agree.
posted by dabitch at 8:54 AM on January 4, 2004

I agree with quonsar.
posted by jpoulos at 8:57 AM on January 4, 2004

whatever he thinks.
posted by jpoulos at 8:58 AM on January 4, 2004

The [more inside] should be used when the question is longer than a conservatively sized paragraph. That said, there are bigger problems in the cosmos.
posted by PrinceValium at 9:05 AM on January 4, 2004

There's no bigger problem that can't be solved by some mathowie coding. If I've learned anything on Metatalk, it's that.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 9:34 AM on January 4, 2004

I agree with everybody except languagehat. The whole habit people have of being vague to get people to click on the link / thread is irritating enough in MeFi proper.
posted by Space Coyote at 11:05 AM on January 4, 2004

I don't care what any of you think, I haven't made up my mind on the subject.
posted by crunchland at 11:08 AM on January 4, 2004

"If you see "I'm trying to install a p2p client," you know whether you can be of assistance or not"

That simply isn't the case. I can talk about p2p clients for windows, but it isn't until you get inside the thread that you discover it was for OSX.

Things only take up more room if they go over one line. Some of these posts could be four times the length, give the reader some vital info and still not take up an ounce more space. That said, I don't think anyone seriously has a problem with a 2, 3 or 4 line post, I'd certainly prefer that to 2, 3 or 4 words that communicate very little.

"And nobody's making you "go into a thread"; if you don't want to bother, for heaven's sake don't."

Heh. To be certain "there are bigger problems in the cosmos", but MeTa's not the place to talk about them. I don't think it's that big a deal, and I'm certainly not on anyone's case about it. I don't mean to pick on the p2p for OSX question so much, it just happens to be a good example. Ask Metafilter is a new thing, and I think some pervading idea of what constitutes a good post is good for the site, so here's my two pennies.
posted by nthdegx at 11:28 AM on January 4, 2004

Every time you click an AskMe post, a kitten dies.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 11:31 AM on January 4, 2004

what quonsar thinks.
posted by quonsar at 12:04 PM on January 4, 2004

ooo, that was fun! again! again!
posted by amberglow at 12:13 PM on January 4, 2004

I agree with myself.
posted by konolia at 12:40 PM on January 4, 2004

Oh great, now that '70s song "We Just Disagree" is going to earworm me all day, in spite of quonsar's best efforts to replace it.
If you ask me.... oops, wrong page.
posted by wendell at 12:49 PM on January 4, 2004

I agree that the "stylistic postings" that occur on Metafilter are inappropriate in a question-answering forum such as AskMe. It's not about being clever, it's about being clear, to maximize the chances of getting a useful answer.
posted by rushmc at 1:30 PM on January 4, 2004

I disagree with languagehat.
posted by languagehat at 3:35 PM on January 4, 2004

Well I guess I'm just a big asshole.

But I'm not really sorry.
posted by rocketman at 7:12 PM on January 4, 2004

I ate someone who disagreed with me.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 7:21 PM on January 4, 2004

I ate someone who agreed with me.

Fucker so didn't see it coming.
posted by Space Coyote at 9:55 PM on January 4, 2004

I think that we should change the slogan on the page from "ask and ye shall receive" to [More Inside].
posted by woil at 10:31 PM on January 4, 2004

Not at all, rocketman. It was just a good example. I've posted queries not in the form of a question, so to a degree I'm picking myself up here, too.
posted by nthdegx at 2:58 AM on January 5, 2004

I take everything personally. And I also agree with nthdegx. He/She is just trying to make things better. What's wrong with that?
posted by Witty at 5:08 AM on January 5, 2004

Do not eat the green acid!
posted by me3dia at 2:35 PM on January 5, 2004