How may I console this friend of a friend?

September 22, 2004 12:50 PM

Okay so, um, a friend of a friend of mine recently posted an AxMe question that he or she already knew the answer to in order to get it and the (thorough and complete and links aplenty'd) answers into our lovely little database here. Now he or she feels a little guilty for taking advantage of fellow member's credulity. How may I console this friend of a friend?
posted by WolfDaddy to etiquette/policy at 12:50 PM (21 comments total)

Smack 'em upside the head and make 'em post a good MeFi thread. Actually just making 'em post a good MeFi thread is enough.
posted by riffola at 12:56 PM on September 22, 2004

...

What?
posted by SweetJesus at 12:58 PM on September 22, 2004

assisted hari kari.
posted by crunchland at 1:00 PM on September 22, 2004

How may I console this friend of a friend?

You can comfort them with the knowledge that they probably live too far away from me to have their ass kicked. It's a big joke in library circles that 50% of the questions to "ask a librarian" services are just other librarians testing out the service, doing research or just screwing around. This wastes everyones time and annoys the pig. I'm not sure if it sucks more to do this or to tell people you[r friend] did this to them, but I'd just encourage you[r friend] to apologize to the people whose time he/she wasted and try to be a better dude in the future.
posted by jessamyn at 1:16 PM on September 22, 2004

yeah. like everyone's time got wasted. haven't you got a shushing bee to attend or something?
posted by quonsar at 1:22 PM on September 22, 2004

i'm confused. why do this?
having done this, why worry about it?
posted by andrew cooke at 2:01 PM on September 22, 2004

Well, the point, andrew cooke (and jessamyn) is that AskMe is, ultimately, a searchable Q&A database that many MeFi members could (and do) use as a jumping off point for finding answers to questions they might have in a format that's more personable and unpredictable than searching Google or similar.

Thus, why not pose questions to get answers into the database, even if you already know the answer, or where to look for it? And if this is okay, and I'm not sure it is, should you answer your own question and state why you're doing what you're doing, or just act dumb? The more complete AskMe is--within certain limitations--the more useful it will be to those who wish to use it.

This are the questions raised in my mind that made me post this under etiquette/policy.
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:33 PM on September 22, 2004

Which question, WD?
posted by mischief at 4:33 PM on September 22, 2004

The more complete AskMe is--within certain limitations--the more useful it will be to those who wish to use it.

All well and good, except that nothing happens in a vacuum. Tragedy of the commons and all that. The more we post to AskMe asking things just to "flesh out the database", the more people with legit questions will see them scooting off the bottom of the screen more quickly. The more we ask questions that we know the answers to, the more people who actually need answers to questions will have to compete for the finite attentions of people who like doing this work for free. The more people seem to be just asking for their own personal ideas of "what the Q&A database needs" the less people pay attention and help because they feel they're not helping people, they're just doing data entry. My feeling, and perhaps I'm alone in this, is that AskMe is already getting less useful just in the sheer volume of traffic coming across it. This combined with the not-really-there archiving scheme and lack of robust tools like keywords means that questions aren't lingering on the main page long enough to get sort of grappled over the way they did a few months back, which led to better and more thorough answers. No huge deal, people still seem to like it, but until there's better mechanisms in place for this Q&A database idea you have, it seems like it would be prudent to ask the questions you need or want answers to, not ask questions for posterity, not yet.
posted by jessamyn at 4:45 PM on September 22, 2004

jessamyn, you're not alone. Give 'em hell.
posted by languagehat at 4:56 PM on September 22, 2004

jessamyn, that makes a whole lot of sense, and your thoughts have made mine more clear on the matter. I'll take a "not for posterity, not yet," position in dealing with the issue. Thanks!
posted by WolfDaddy at 5:19 PM on September 22, 2004

Metafilter: haven't you got a shushing bee to attend or something?

(sorry jess--couldn't resist)

Which question? Was it your shower curtain thing?
posted by amberglow at 5:43 PM on September 22, 2004

Oh, sorry, is my dissimulation not working? I mean, kevspace is a member here, and he is my friend. So there. :-)

To answer your question, amberglow and mischief, yes.

Mea culpa. *hides*

Ask Metafilter: oh, sorry, is my dissimulation not working?
posted by WolfDaddy at 7:14 PM on September 22, 2004

Why do I feel like I just finished watching Kubrick's 2001?
posted by mischief at 8:21 PM on September 22, 2004

who's HAL?
posted by amberglow at 8:29 PM on September 22, 2004

He's yours for the right price.

Guess he's no longer one step ahead of IBM, eh?
posted by WolfDaddy at 9:55 PM on September 22, 2004

do these pants make my ass smell like fish?
posted by quonsar at 10:27 PM on September 22, 2004 [1 favorite]

I dunno, q, but they sure make it look pretty.
posted by WolfDaddy at 1:09 AM on September 23, 2004

(shiver)
posted by crunchland at 3:53 AM on September 23, 2004

Was it the AxMe on trucker masturbation?
posted by shepd at 12:04 PM on September 23, 2004

In what way does this what the what, to whom, and when? And why? Wherefrom and whom and whoever? And why should I care?

I did not read this thread.
posted by chrid at 4:24 PM on September 23, 2004