Why is there an AskMe limit?

December 18, 2004 5:27 PM

I just skimmed the past two months of MeTalk looking for this thread and didn't find it, so excuse me if it's a DP, but: When I went to post an AskMe question today, I got this: You've asked a question in the past week. There is a limit of one question per week, which you've used up. Make them count, because you'll only get one a week. [+]
posted by blueshammer to Etiquette/Policy at 5:27 PM (52 comments total)

And.... ?
posted by xmutex at 5:32 PM on December 18, 2004

I thought it was one a day? I can't remember off hand, but I think I've asked more than one question a week before.
posted by FunkyHelix at 5:35 PM on December 18, 2004

This was discussed earlier in Metatalk. You say you can't find it so I'll trust you and I won't bother to do a search either. mathowie said he would add this feature.
posted by grouse at 5:37 PM on December 18, 2004

Obviously it's Matt's party and he can do as he pleases, but I don't see the value in this. A quick check shows me that I average almost exactly one question a week since AskMe's inception, and those have admittedly included some boners, but I know some of the most valuable responses have been to spur-of-the-moment crises where there was truly no better resource to consult that Metafilter's accumulated wisdom. The post I wanted to make today was not a great one for community building -- I was looking for a picture of an old board game and Google and boardgamegeek failed me -- but I don't really see the value in restricting AskMe to questions that "count." On the Blue, sure -- but even there it is (or was) only a once-per-24-hours thing.
posted by blueshammer at 5:46 PM on December 18, 2004

I don't really see the value in restricting AskMe to questions that "count."

That makes one of us. Anyone else?
posted by squirrel at 6:10 PM on December 18, 2004

I think it's great. Last thing we need is daily questions from everyone.
posted by xmutex at 6:18 PM on December 18, 2004

I hope your question next week is as good as all the questions you've asked up until now, junkie.
posted by crunchland at 6:32 PM on December 18, 2004

I don't mind it.

While we're here, I was watching the first season of "The Kids in the Hall", and I wanted to know:

In Canada, is the word "beer" plural?
posted by interrobang at 6:44 PM on December 18, 2004

Sometimes.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 6:59 PM on December 18, 2004

crunch, you're welcome to check out the questions I've posted. I would say that the response they've garnered has been consistently interesting and broader than the topic itself, and I think I've only asked one question that got no response and only one question whose answer was that I forgot that I changed a software setting. Otherwise, I think a lot of it has been fruitful (if skewed toward OS X and home theater questions). But when, for instance, I asked about how to get something delivered to a friend unexpectedly hospitalized in D.C., I got two Mefites willing to make a personal delivery on my behalf, which I didn't take advantage of but which was a great solution to a problem, and yet it was less than a week after my previous question.

Anyway, to the broader point: I read AskMeFi all the time, and I haven't felt that there have been daily askers who have been gumming up the works. We get a fair amount of inappropriate questions, but if there is a common denominator to them, it's not that the askers are posting more than once a week.
posted by blueshammer at 7:32 PM on December 18, 2004

Here's where matt mentioned the new one per week limit. Within the past week, but as a comment rather than as a topic.
posted by filmgoerjuan at 8:00 PM on December 18, 2004

The one-a-week rule is a shame; I'd hate to have been unable to post My headlights are out!, which saved my ass, because I'd posted some less-urgent question less than a week before. The problem isn't that individual users are posting too many questions, but that some users, most of them new, are posting too many bad questions; the only solution is for Matt to set a high standard by deleting bad questions with a free hand - and maybe we could have a pretty pony repository of bad questions linked from the guidelines page?
posted by nicwolff at 8:01 PM on December 18, 2004

Dude - you've posted 54 questions so far. That seems like an awful lot of questions to me. Responses aren't supposed to be interesting or something to build community. They're supposed to solve a problem for you. I mean come on, how could you possibly have that many problems in the course of a single year?
posted by willnot at 8:01 PM on December 18, 2004

54 questions is about one a week.
posted by kenko at 8:05 PM on December 18, 2004

What I meant about interesting answers/community stuff is that, if you read the responses to many AskMeFi questions, you learn more than simply "the answer." I read more AskMe threads even if (a) I don't have an answer to provide to the question or (b) I'm not interested in exactly what's being asked -- there's a lot to learn tangentially.

will, I've never considered AskMe to be about solving problems so much as sharing knowledge. Things have not yet devolved to bad stand-up questions -- "So what's the deal with these airline food?" -- but when I inquired about, say, what was up with Mapquest, it wasn't because I needed a map.
posted by blueshammer at 8:19 PM on December 18, 2004

I think I'll have scrambled eggs for breakfast tomorrow morning.
posted by bingo at 8:25 PM on December 18, 2004

BTW, thanks for the link, filmgoerjuan.
posted by blueshammer at 8:26 PM on December 18, 2004

Last thing we need is daily questions from everyone.
What, then, exactly, do you think we need?
posted by Doohickie at 9:26 PM on December 18, 2004

smock. and spare gondola.
posted by quonsar at 9:57 PM on December 18, 2004

Last thing we need is daily questions from everyone.
What, then, exactly, do you think we need?

Monthly questions from everyone. Staggered in two-hour intervals.

I can book you for January 3 at 10 AM EST.
posted by Saucy Intruder at 10:12 PM on December 18, 2004

So "beer" is plural, huh?
posted by interrobang at 10:16 PM on December 18, 2004

One member who signed up in November was averaging a question every 2-3 days, some of them just "gee-whiz" questions and others EASILY Google-able. This may slow him/her down.
posted by planetkyoto at 10:50 PM on December 18, 2004

It's not just for new users, it's for all users. We had a day recently with like 50+ questions, and that's just too many. One way to reduce the total daily load to a manageable level (25-30 max feels about right) is to limit folks to curtail some of the questions, and help people weed out the low hanging fruit.

I think it's been a benefit since it was added, as there are less questions overall and they seem to be of slightly higher quality on the whole.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:57 PM on December 18, 2004

i think the new policy is ass, but then, hey, it's not my website, so i'll just stfu now.
posted by keswick at 11:12 PM on December 18, 2004

So "beer" is plural, huh?

What part of 'sometimes' was confusing to you? [/autosnark]
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 11:22 PM on December 18, 2004

You could always Ask Monkeyfilter if something comes up and your question for the week is used up.

(No jeering, please)
posted by agropyron at 11:32 PM on December 18, 2004

...help people weed out the low hanging fruit.

Ow! My tender metaphor lobe!
posted by squirrel at 1:22 AM on December 19, 2004

So, if you've used your Q up for the week, can you post an anon Q?
posted by Gyan at 5:32 AM on December 19, 2004

Who's got the key to the executive washroom?
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:36 AM on December 19, 2004

If it were a real emergency you could always shell out $5 for another account. If it's not worth $5 (and disapprobation if you are found out) then it's probably not a real emergency.
posted by grouse at 5:52 AM on December 19, 2004

I think you have to wait a week after getting a new account too, though.

You could always register a spare account NOW though and then when that emergency came up you would have it...

Or you could register about ten accounts and then ask whatever the hell popped into your head. =P
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 7:17 AM on December 19, 2004

Maybe four questions a month would be better than one a week? I seldom post questions there, but I'd have if I had two within five days and got shut out.
posted by jpoulos at 7:25 AM on December 19, 2004

I think one question a week is a good policy. AskMe can be really useful, but too often folks seem to forget there is an expectation that they've Googled for answers for a while (numerous attempts over a day or two) before posting.

How to get something delivered in a distant city? Call your mom, she'll know. If your mom and Google fail you on that one, you're not doing something right. Maybe a good question in that case would be "How do I improve my Google-ing skills?"

And what grouse said (I don't think there is a time limit for new users to post except for FPPs).
posted by McGuillicuddy at 7:32 AM on December 19, 2004

I strongly agree with jpoulos; if it's possible to set it up that way, four a month would be a much better policy. I almost never ask questions, but if I get involved with something I need help with, it's quite likely that I might have more than one question in a week. Also, it sort of stinks for me, since I don't even average one question a month, and I don't much like the arbitrary nature of the control when I haven't done anything at all to bring it on. Structuring it as four a month, though, would provide very generous latitude for anything I would ever want to ask.
posted by taz at 8:11 AM on December 19, 2004

What taz and jpoulos said. You can't schedule problems. I mean, most of them wouldn't even be problems if you knew about them in advance. They have a tendency to occur at inconvenient times.
posted by TimeFactor at 8:16 AM on December 19, 2004

1. Pay $5 to register a secondary username now.
2. Survive the seven day waiting period.
3. If an emergency comes up after you've already posted a question from your primary account during any given week, log in under your secondary account and post away.
4. Profit.
posted by Danelope at 8:17 AM on December 19, 2004

54 questions? 54?!? Dude, step away from the AskMe...

Four a month would be a much better solution, if it were possible to code, though.
posted by rushmc at 8:40 AM on December 19, 2004

Four a month is a great idea.
posted by CunningLinguist at 8:46 AM on December 19, 2004

The plural of "beer" is "two-four," eh?
posted by timeistight at 10:01 AM on December 19, 2004

I vote for four a month, in the light of nicwolff's "My headlights are out!" example.

However, if I had an urgent question and had blown my weekly question on "Does anyone remember the theme song from Room 222?", I'd email someone and ask them to post the urgent question for me.
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:40 AM on December 19, 2004

Beer me.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 11:25 AM on December 19, 2004

Actually, doesn't one a week save you from yourself better than four a month does? If you have four a month then you could, potentially, use them all up in 1-2 days and then have to go over three weeks without asking an AskMe question. At one a week, the most you'd have to wait would be 6+ days. A lot of people have back-up MeFi accounts for just this reason and I'm certain that you could find someone to ask the very urgent headlights type of question for you, as sidhedevil has already eloquently stated. We all dealt with emergencies okay before AskMe existed, and the one-a-week rule will, in my opinion, solve more problems than it causes.
posted by jessamyn at 11:43 AM on December 19, 2004

I do, Sid (wav) That was a great show.

A limit is ok, but a post announcing it clearly here first would have been much more ok.
posted by amberglow at 11:53 AM on December 19, 2004

jessamyn, I thought the limit was to cut down on overposting and discourage easily researched questions... I don't get why once a week would do that better than four a month. If it's a programming problem or just a pain in the ass for some reason, I can certainly accept it - but I definitely don't need to be saved from myself.
posted by taz at 1:12 PM on December 19, 2004

I understand the reason, but I don't like it (vigilant enforcement of the rules would be better, though more time-consuming for Matt). I agree with taz et al that vital questions can't necessarily be scheduled or rationed out, and besides, the real problem is people posting dumb questions. Will no one rid us of the damn "I like butter. Do you like butter?" posts?
posted by languagehat at 1:16 PM on December 19, 2004

If you have four a month then you could, potentially, use them all up in 1-2 days and then have to go over three weeks without asking an AskMe question.

If you had absolutely no self control whatsoever, then I suppose so.
posted by rushmc at 5:03 PM on December 19, 2004

*mmm... butter*


Practically speaking, the one/week limit has already been implemented. I would prefer four/month, but I don't hear anyone volunteering to code it.

*NOT IT!*
posted by squirrel at 5:27 PM on December 19, 2004

I'm one of those who doesn't like this new limit. (And note that I rarely post questions, so it's not like it's going to affect me directly.)

Sure, some people post too many stupid questions, but this is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
posted by litlnemo at 7:05 PM on December 19, 2004

Yes! Throw out the baby! We hates the baby. No nasty baby, only precious ponieses.
posted by nicwolff at 7:28 PM on December 19, 2004

So, it's settled, then. I've had seven beer tonight.
posted by interrobang at 9:38 PM on December 19, 2004

interrobang, it's actually better to use the old Roman system of beernumerals, wherein [] = a sixpack, so you would say I've had []I beer tonight. This achieves two things: it directs the reader's attention away from the controversial "beer" vs. "beers" usage, and totally convinces them that you've really consumed that much beer. Note that in this numbering system, anything over [][] beer is simply refferred to as "^!!", so it's also very easy to remember.
posted by taz at 10:46 PM on December 19, 2004

Four a month would be a much better solution, if it were possible to code, though.
posted by rushmc at 8:40 AM PST on December 19

agreed. i try to hardly ever post questions -- just stuff that's either hard to research with google because there's a) too much information or b) not enough -- but i can see a situation where i'd like to ask two questions in one week. There definitely needs to be a limit however, because people are turning to ask mefi without doing even preliminary research on their own, and it pushes questions off the page (i hardly ever click through to the archives, or even get to the bottom of the ask.mefi page -- if it's not in the first ten/twenty or so it won't get seen.)
posted by fishfucker at 11:58 AM on December 20, 2004