AskMe Front Page

December 12, 2003 9:05 AM

Given that Ask Metafilter had 40 questions posted yesterday (more than the number of posts to Metafilter proper, in fact), would it be possible to see more than 25 questions on the front page at a time? It seems kind of silly to have to go to the archives for questions posted earlier during the same day. Adjunct question: how's the server holding up under the onslaught of posts?
posted by Johnny Assay to Feature Requests at 9:05 AM (15 comments total)

Maybe people should be limited to one question a week/month.
posted by Orange Goblin at 10:08 AM on December 12, 2003

It will probably slow down a little bit after awhile. Right now folks are excited about it.

Or maybe not. But it was a wonderful idea and I am really glad Matt implemented it.
posted by konolia at 10:20 AM on December 12, 2003

Temporary solution here.
posted by anathema at 10:29 AM on December 12, 2003

"Maybe people should be limited to one question a week/month."

I see that some guy named "mathowie" is posting a lot. Maybe we ought to rake him over the coals a bit.

:)
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:40 PM on December 12, 2003

I am going to put some limits in place, probably on the order of one question per person per 3-4 days (week seems too long).
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:13 PM on December 12, 2003

Success is a bitch, isn't it?
posted by fuzz at 6:30 PM on December 12, 2003

Matt - What about putting textads into the pages in there? or adwords? There's gotta be a ton of hits on it, may as well get back a bit of the cost...
posted by SpecialK at 7:55 PM on December 12, 2003

Speaking of adwords, am I the only one who gets the "Christian Fundamentalists" adwords at the very top in the comment section of every single post (regardless of the content of the post itself, or the comments it generates)?

If it's not just me, I would then have to wonder how many hits adwords would generate on AskMe, since I don't see any correllation between the ads themselves and the nature of the discussions in the blue. However if it's just some sort of awful Jebus bug that only I get, I wholeheartedly agree that textads/adwords would be great on AskMe.
posted by contessa at 9:06 PM on December 12, 2003

I'll eventually add some adwords.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:43 PM on December 12, 2003

Oh, no! Limits! Well, I suppose it is inevitable. But I wonder, would it be more difficult to limit the total number of questions per user per week or month, rather than setting it up so that one cannot ask another question until after a certain period of time has elapsed?

In other words, instead of one asking a question, then not being allowed to ask again until 3-4 days later, could it be set up so that one is allowed, let's say 7-10 questions per 30-day period, during which he can post whenever he wishes, but once he's reached the limit must wait until the next cycle begins to post more questions?

Personally, I would probably be more likely to have "cluster" periods, in which I have more questions, either because I have more free time to ask and read answers at that particular point, or because I'm working on something or reading something that inspires more questions.
posted by taz at 2:07 AM on December 13, 2003

Speaking of front pages, is there any way to compile the three fronts into one page? I'd like to read MeFi, Ta and Ask all in one long thing. That'd be cool.
posted by bonaldi at 6:24 AM on December 13, 2003

Contessa ... that's just a warning that the fundamentalists are watching you, and will be there with the cool-aid in a few minutes.
posted by SpecialK at 6:30 AM on December 13, 2003

Contessa, I've not noticed it explicitly, but in the back of my mind, it seems like I've been seeing that ad a whole bunch. Considering I barely pay the ads any attention, it must be at the top. So, me too.
posted by notsnot at 10:43 PM on December 13, 2003

Maybe before Matt actually writes code that enforces a limit on questioning, the easiest thing might be just to put a notice on AskMe that politely requests that the poster limit the number of questions he or she asks. It's possible that self-policing might work.

taz's idea of a limit of 7-10 questions every thirty days is slightly more preferable to me than the limit of a single question every three or four days. The only problem with taz's idea is that people might be likely to "save up" their questions until the end of the cycle, when they'll feel they have to use them before they expire, so that in the last few days of the cycle you'd get a lot of noise and little signal.
posted by Prospero at 6:37 PM on December 14, 2003

Perhaps instead of just limiting the number of questions asked, some kind of a credit system could be used? I would think that people who post answers or questions that are particularly relevant to the community should have higher limits. This might be too fraught with complications, but I'd rather see multiple good questions from the same person than no questions at all, and I'd put up with a lot more from someone who's been genuinely helpful in response to other people's questions.
posted by Songdog at 6:52 AM on December 15, 2003