Anonymous askme: what percentage fail to get posted? November 5, 2004 4:27 PM   Subscribe

Since 12 October 2004, when the AnonAskMe feature was created, there have been 37 questions asked anonymously. Matt, how many, if any, questions have you passed over and not posted? Any reason why?

(I'm not critiquing the decision to not post the question, just trying to get a complete picture on how people are using the feature.)
posted by NotMyselfRightNow to MetaFilter-Related at 4:27 PM (18 comments total)

I dunno how many I haven't approved, but a lot of them are for questions that are pretty innocuous. I didn't approve them because someone should just ask the questions sans anonimity. I've also passed on a few that were for clearly illegal or borderline illegal behavior. Mostly drug related. If I had to guess, I'd say that 75% of questions get through.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:57 PM on November 5, 2004


Also, Matt: how long is your queue? Sounds like not very long. If we've submitted a question, and not seen it appear, should we assume you've rejected it after a day? 2days?

It sounds like you're comfortable with many of the questions you reject actually appearing on the site, just not as anonymous questions. I can understand your desire for people not to overwhelm you with anonymous questions, but I encourage you to let others decide what they're comfortable asking out in the open. Rejecting a question because it doesn't meet *your* standards for comfort seems a bit counter to the spirit of offering the feature in the first place. You can't know, for example, if the person is asking anonymously because they have a situation with another member or lurker which would make asking problematic for them. Just approve them, please!
posted by scarabic at 5:27 PM on November 5, 2004


scarabic, I just didn't want to encourage overuse of the anonymous feature. Some of them are really harmless, and I fear everyone will just use it by default if almost anything gets through. I'm trying to save them for special things that really obviously warrant it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:35 PM on November 5, 2004


Well, it's tough to argue with you, not knowing what the examples are, but what do you mean by "overuse?" Do you mean people using it so much that it takes up your time, or do you just mean that you think they're being lame somehow?

As an example, I remember someone asking a computer question anonymously, but what if you're modding a box for someone as a gift, and don't want to clue them in? That wouldn't be an "obvious" need for anonymity, because the admin doesn't know you have a nephew who reads your MeFi comments sometimes. But it's still a legit need for anonymity.

I guess I just wonder: why dole out anonymity sparingly at all? Unless it's a time issue for you, I'm not seeing the reason.

Also: when we ask anonymously, do *you* know who we are?
posted by scarabic at 5:46 PM on November 5, 2004


when we ask anonymously, do *you* know who we are?

Matt knows who you are. Anonymous questions come with downsides. You can't question the question asker, it's hard to get follow-up information if you need it, there's no way to tell if the person is serious, there's no history with the poster that you can recall to help you in answering the question. The anonymous questions help add to the MeFi knowledge base, but they don't add to the community in the same way. Plus, the AskMe queue is long already with questions running off the page pretty fast. If you want to ask questions without using your name because you need to be anonymous from your nephew, that's what having a friend ask the question for you is about which we've seen people do fairly successfully. I'll ask about your box mod if you want, and I'm sure many other people would as well.
posted by jessamyn at 6:54 PM on November 5, 2004


I encourage you to let others decide what they're comfortable asking out in the open.

I encourage Matt to continue deciding.

You can't know, for example, if the person is asking anonymously because they have a situation with another member or lurker which would make asking problematic for them.

Why can't Matt know? The erstwhile question-asker can explain why the question should be anonymous. Hopefully people will be honest, and not just create bullshit stories to try to slip one past Matt.

Just approve them, please!

Actually, please approve fewer of them. There are a good number of questions should never have made it out anonymously, like that stupid hairy-back one.
The biggest problem with the anonymous questions: why the hell should any of us tell you intimate details about personal things, if you haven't the guts to own your question about that personal thing?

Openness and honesty and forthrightness go both ways, guys. When you don't trust me to not think less of you for X, I don't trust you in telling you about my experience of X.
posted by five fresh fish at 7:11 PM on November 5, 2004


Okay, why do we have this feature at all?

jessamyn - I really don't get your response there. Why ask a friend to ask your question for you when we have this anonymous feature? Why do we have this anonymous feature? Doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose to tell your friend the question if it's something you want to keep private? And don't many of us know who is friends with whom, sometimes, anyway, enough to preclude any real anonymity?

Why can't Matt know? The erstwhile question-asker can explain why the question should be anonymous.

I'm not saying he can never know, but he won't always know. You can't always include your reasons in the question ("my nephew, for whom this is a gift, might be reading this so I'm submitting anonymously"). Maybe Matt could add a field for notes or comments. Or you could email him after you submit your question. That all seems incredibly inefficient, and I still don't understand why anyone who wants anonymity can't just have it.

You can't always judge these things objectively, since standards of what is embarassing, etc are entirely subjective. There are also peculiar unknowns in each anonymity request. I offered a reasonable enough example of that.

It would seem, from his comments, that Matt just sorta weighs the question on face value, maybe factors in what he knows about the member. If he can't think of a reason why it should be anonymous - then it's rejected. There's no way to tell that your question has been accepted for content but rejected on the basis that Matt doesn't think it's touchy enough. So you don't know that you should/could go ahead and re-ask in the clear.

That seems like a really weak process, whereby people don't get anonymity when they want it, and a lot of questions Matt is okay with don't get posted. Matt's judgement is above reproach, imho, but the need for privacy is a highly subjective thing.

FFF seems to just want fewer anonymous questions because he doesn't like them. I know a lot of people think anonymous questions are stupid, TMI, whatever, and so will argue against anything that will lead to more of them. FFF doesn't think anyone deserves to ask a question anonymously. But that's beside the point. Matt went to the trouble to build the feature for some good reason. Why restrict it now? Do anonymous questions hurt the server? Cost money? Are people thinking this would lead to an unsupportable volume in questions? There may be a reason, but I'm still not seein' it.
posted by scarabic at 8:06 PM on November 5, 2004


Anonymity facilitates a lack of accountability. If everyone can ask questions anonymously, then nobody is going to pause before posting a question to ask themselves whether that question isn't poorly worded, something they could have found out with google in thirty seconds, or just a waste of everyone's time. In fact, some of them will be deliberate wastes of everyone's time. And by 'waste of time' I mean both the collection of five-second moments wasted by thousands of users scanning the questions, and also by the annoyance and disappointment that they will feel as they realize that AskMe has gone to shit.

After all, why can't all posts, and all comments, not just on AskMe but on the whole site, be completely anonymous? The answer is the same: because it would remove the sense of accountability that makes this site worthwhile to begin with.
posted by bingo at 8:52 PM on November 5, 2004


...like that stupid hairy-back one

Well, um, some of us found it helpful and informative. You know, in case we ever develop hairy backs. Not that I have, mind you. But just in case. And probably the guy that posted it was glad for the anonymity so that everyone wouldn't think "eeeewww, he's that hairy back guy" every time they read his comments on MeFi. Of course I'm just guessing here.
posted by TimeFactor at 9:36 PM on November 5, 2004


why do we have this feature at all

because it's been demonstrably useful.

even though it doesn't conform to your expectations or your extremist logic.

there's a thing called compromise. you don't have to take everything its logical extreme. there are other things called judgement, competence, and leadership. matt has those things. he's doing just fine.
posted by andrew cooke at 2:33 AM on November 6, 2004


Why ask a friend to ask your question for you when we have this anonymous feature?

Because - in your example - you just needed to not have your name associated with it, but might need to be able to respond to comments. If I post to AskMe and say "I'm posting this for a friend...." then people can reply "well, could you ask your friend about this one thing....?" and it doesn't bog down the system terribly, though it does make it somewhat awkward nonetheless. Otherwise, there's no way to ask a question of the poster which to my way of looking at it, diminishes the usefulness of AskMe a lot. Answering most questions is an iterative process. Often the asker participates in the answering of the questions by offering more information or narrowing down what they are asking for. I don't mind the anonymous questions but I'm much more partial to the non-anonymous ones because you know you are working with the question-asker to solve a problem, not acting like a Dear Abby confessional booth. We all have to answer the anonymous questions publicly [which I think is a very good thing, btw] I think the "if it's really important/embarassing" standard is completely appropriate and has been working well so far. Matt's got an email address and AIM handle for "extenuating circumstances" and since he's only rejected, what, twelve questions or so, it doesn't seem like it would be totally taxing to just follow up with him if you have one specific question that didn't get through.
posted by jessamyn at 7:02 AM on November 6, 2004


jessamyn: A friend of mine posted a question anonymously, and although this friend was frustrated by his or her ability to respond, he or she found the answers quite useful.
posted by Eamon at 7:33 AM on November 6, 2004


glad for the anonymity so that everyone wouldn't think "eeeewww, he's that hairy back guy" every time they read his comments on MeFi.

If he believes that the MeFi citizenry are that shallow, then surely our responses to his question are worthless to him.

And what incentive do the hairy-backed have to answer his questions, if he has such a poor opinion of hairy backs as to hide his face in shame? Whenever he reads a post from them, he must be thinking "ewww, that's one of the hairy back guys!"

Pretty damn selfish to want avoid judgement by others when by posting anonymously, one is proclaiming judgement against others.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:41 AM on November 6, 2004


even though it doesn't conform to your expectations or your extremist logic.

Hey - I'm just asking a question here. I don't understand the reason why anonymity is doled out sparingly, like a rare metal, and I'm asking why that is. I'm not attacking Matt for fuck's sake. He does an amazing job and I'm interested in what he does and why.

FFF - I see your point about why people wouldn't want to respond in the clear to a question that's too embarassing to ask in public. But a lot of times it works out pretty easily. The asker is facing an embarassing situation, and answerers who were in that situation years ago chime in with their stories. They're well past it and don't mind talking about it. Or the answerers are relating second-hand info along the lines of "a friend of mine went through the same thing and here's what happened."

It's not all "I have two dicks, do you?"
posted by scarabic at 10:03 AM on November 6, 2004


I only know one other person that posts here and I don't even talk to him (shout out to Ted), but I do know he follows my posts because I got an email from his girlfriend when I posted this (yes Ted, more than 20).

Because I know that my posts are watched by at least 2 people that know me, I would not want to ask anything too personal. So, in my situation I think that the anon feature is good. However, the inability to follow up anonymously is a big downside to the feature.

I'm happy to post for anyone who wants to ask a question, but not under their username. I don't know any of you, except Ted so don't feel embarrassed to drop an email to me. And, I'll post follow ups for you too.
posted by Juicylicious at 10:27 AM on November 6, 2004


If everyone can ask questions anonymously, then nobody is going to pause before posting a question to ask themselves whether that question isn't poorly worded, something they could have found out with google in thirty seconds, or just a waste of everyone's time.

That's an interesting theory, but I see no evidence to support it. As far as I can tell the feature seems to work out pretty well. The questions are interesting, it's usually easy to see why they were asked anonymously, and people don't appear to be overusing it.
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:56 AM on November 6, 2004


FFF, I don't get your objections.

If he believes that the MeFi citizenry are that shallow, then surely our responses to his question are worthless to him.

Doesn't that make the assumption that ALL MeFi members are the same? Do you really think they are? If I asked a question like that, I would be afraid of SOME MeFi members opinions of me. But I would also assume that other members would have good advice. Also, it IS possible for someone to be an asshole who makes fun of people and yet also have good advice. People are complex.

You also claim that it's unfair to ask anon questions but expect non-anon answers. Why? The questions are REQUESTS, not demands. If you don't want to answer, don't. We're not all embarrassed by the same things. So I might feel totally comfortable putting my name on the answer of someone else's anonymous question.

I think this "buck up, be honest" stuff is unrealistic. Maybe you're that rare sort of person who is totally comfortable with himself, but most of us have issues we need help with, some of which we can't talk about if people know who we are.

I've been personally helped by answers to other people's anonymous questions. I think they're great.

I do agree with the problems jessamyn mentioned, but I think they are all solvable, depending on who Matt cooks up. For instance, once Matt allows anon responses, questioners will be able to elaborate. If Matt wants, he can assign each of us a number, which gets appended onto the end of the anonymous id. For instance, I could be anonymous87112. Then you could click that name for history. Matt could even limit the number of anon posts to three-per-day or something.

I agree with scarabic that Matt's decisions seem arbitrary. But I've noticed that Matt gets better at arbitration with experience, which is to be expected.
posted by grumblebee at 12:11 PM on November 6, 2004


fff: As soon as I posted (yeah, it was me), I realized how silly it was to be anonymous before a bunch of people who I've never met and and I don't know any of their real names nor they mine. I hadn't thought that people would be embarassed to answer and nobody is requried to answer. I was most interested in how women react to hairy backs and said so in the post.

I like the anonymous feature. There haven't been any serious abuses of it that I'm aware of. And I've found the answers to other anonymous questions helpful or interesting. As long as it isn't too much of a burden on Matt it adds to AskMe.

And on preview what grumblebee said.
posted by TimeFactor at 12:20 PM on November 6, 2004


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