Are two word questions enough details for askme

January 15, 2004 5:20 AM

I appreciate that this has been raised before, but wouldn't it be good etiquette for questions on AskMetaFilter to at least contain a question? Surely two words is not enough?
posted by skylar to Etiquette/Policy at 5:20 AM (7 comments total)

I think that's the category his question applies to. There's more inside. It's an interesting idea anyway, presenting an easily scanable topic for users to say, "Hey, I know something about that!" or "No clue, guy" quickly. Given the numbers of questions that go up daily, I think it's a good idea.
posted by yerfatma at 5:30 AM on January 15, 2004

i don't think it's a good long-term idea, but the format of askme needs categories a lot. it's ok though because it's still kinda beta, and matt has already agreed that categories are needed. so, no worries.
posted by rhyax at 5:52 AM on January 15, 2004

Those two words cover a lot of territory. The first thing that came to my mind was 'potato battery'.
] not good [
posted by mischief at 6:29 AM on January 15, 2004

Agreed. Not Good. I prefer a short sentence or two, with a [more inside] if necessary.

I sympathize with the spirit of the post though. Stuff tends to roll off the AskMe front page so quickly and the page get so long, that keeping the question short and to the point is really desirable. It might be worth thinking about giving a warning to the querant if their question is over (say) a hundred words.
posted by bonehead at 7:13 AM on January 15, 2004

Yeah, I could see where he was going with that post but it doesn't really help get the question answered. While on the one hand it might make some think 'Oh, I know about botanical electrical stuff', others will just think 'Huh?' and skip the post. To be honest, his additional comment inside the post was short and descriptive enough.

It would be nice to increase the duration that posts stay on the AskMe front page... I sometimes get the feeling that interesting topics are dealt a too-early death this way.
posted by adrianhon at 7:41 AM on January 15, 2004

I definitely agree that the front page post should contain a question--or, at least an implied question. Which is to say that the FPP doesn't necessarily need to have a grammatical, ends-in-a-question-mark question, but it should give a fairly clear indication of what the poster is looking for.

To contrast, take two examples that are currently on the front page:

Lately, I've been getting a lot of ambient hiss in the headphones I use with my PC. - Makes it fairly clear what jpoulos is trying to do, so contains an "implied question." Good.

This small, simple little restaurant in northern Virgina has completely turned me on to the comfort and charm that is Indian cuisine. - So? What is Witty looking for? I don't have any idea without looking inside. Bad.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 7:53 AM on January 15, 2004

I'm redoing the posting page, requiring that people develop a short, single sentence question that ends in a question mark, with an automatic more-inside box below to elaborate on the problem.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 9:46 AM on January 15, 2004