Are questions from Twitter an improvement to Mahalo? How do they compare to email questions?

I don't believe the Twitter users are necessarily loyal Mahalo Answer members, yet rather loyal Twitter users. I do see that these members may drive traffic to the site, yet it's more likely to be ephemeral traffic, meaning the user is not checking back here. Will any of the Twitterers become brown belts?

I'm not talking about the current community members who are strong answerers, or askers, yet rather those who tweet a question just for the thrill of it. That is the question of the day. So, it's two fold: 1.

Twitter users create questions, which creates more content. 2. These questions create more traffic, yet the question is it quality traffic.

Now, there could be a debate on this, and some may claim that any traffic is good traffic. The difference between email questions and Twitter questions: Twitter questions are limited to 140 characters. Email questions are not limited.

------ 1. More undecided questions. I don't think those asking from Twitter will come here to choose a best answer.

I agree, they are not going to always or usually choose a best answer, and that's why it's up to the voting. 2. Repeated questions--not by the same user but by different users.

I think I counted 5 questions on where to find the text or clips of Obama's speech last night. Definitely, these questions are repeated simply because there is no warning method to them (at least not for now). If there is a way to initiate a warning to tell them that the answer was already asked, then this may create more thoughtful questions from this medium.3.No sorting of questions into categories.

They are all "from Twitter. " I agree, this is a problem.It lends itself to the possibility of NSFW questions, or questions that simply cannot be categorized, which makes them hard to find later on. 4.

More untipped questions. Not that this is a bad thing, but I see people wanting a lot of information but not wanting to tip. I agree.

We can't make the generalization about these people asking questions, but many of them are not going to add a tip here, even if they can, as they are not given an easy interface to do so.5. More technical questions. This could be true, or more local or specific questions.

The best idea for Mahalo Answers is to have some sort of local question concept. I believe this will come in the future. If I'm asking about a pizza restaurant in California, I do not care to answer this question unless I'm in California, or at least know the area.6.

A lot more "stupid" questions or questions that make no sense. This could be true, but not always. Maybe there are drunk askers, those who don't check their spelling, etc. The reason could even be because of the way they are asking, or texting.

The limitation of characters makes it so they cannot specify sometimes. Anyone care to agree/disagree with me? Anyone have a solution?

Have something you can add? I have a solution, but it has not been created. It's kind of like they should require Twitter users to not be as anonymous and require more info to ask a question etc.

Easier asking = more questions. More questions = more buzz. More buzz = more members.

More members = more questions, better questions, and more tips.

I don't like this whole association with twitter. I'm not saying it isn't a good business decision. By offering service with twitter this site can make itself the premier Q and A site around, based purely on twitter's popularity.

Sooner or later there will be a twitter command to have a question answered for free, and mahalo will be its driver. It's great for everyone on twitter, and it's great for mahalo ad traffic. What it isn't good for it me.

I answer questions because I hope that people will appreciate what I have to say, and listen to my reasoning. Through twitter, not only is a great deal of that lost, but people generally don't care what the answer that they end up getting is. And that grinds my gears.

Cheers, SDL.

I'll answer as a total newb to MA... I had forgotten all about MA till I remembered I could tweet a question. Just a quick "@answers" and suddenly my question goes way beyond just my followers. That brought me in to MA and while I was here I answered several of the "no tip" questions just because I could and added the widget to my website.

Interesting question. I think that there needs to be a new "tab" or "section" where the twitter questions appear. Users who are in the mood for "quick fire" answering (short, concise answers) can go there to answer many questions in a row.

However, I find it annoying that all these silly questions are clogging up the main page.

I am torn about the twitter questions just like you Darcy. More questions to answer is good, but there is just too much clutter now. I think I mentioned in a previous question that one way to encourage askers to vote on best answers would be to penalize them for not doing so.

However, I don't think this would be effective at all in this case. Perhaps best answers for twitter questions should be worth fewer points because they typically involve less research and analysis? @Easyeboy good point about the NSFW questions being introduced through twitter.It is really a double whammy because not only is the twitter category all inclusive, the users asking don't even know that a NSFW category exists.

The twitter integration doesn't look like it is going anywhere so a compromise is all I can hope for. Can the dropdown menu include an option to show all/none of the twitter questions? This would let users browse the more in-depth questions without jumping through as many pages and would let users with only a couple of minutes jump right to the quick questions.

This still doesn't deal with the NSFW aspect though. The only thing I can think of would be to put the same stumbling block for the twitter category as we do for legal, and NSFW categories.

I think the twitter questions are a good idea because there are a lot more questions being asked. However, that is all I see now! There are so many questions "from Twitter" and they are being repeated many times over.

I think there needs to be a way for users to filter out the twitter questions as already mentioned by @ssharon and @eatthatpopcorn. The twitter questions also don't add much long term value to the service as users are less likely to search for these questions and answers because they are so short.

I don't believe the Twitter users are necessarily loyal Mahalo Answer members, yet rather loyal Twitter users. I do see that these members may drive traffic to the site, yet it's more likely to be ephemeral traffic, meaning the user is not checking back here. Will any of the Twitterers become brown belts?

I'm not talking about the current community members who are strong answerers, or askers, yet rather those who tweet a question just for the thrill of it. That is the question of the day. So, it's two fold: 1.

Twitter users create questions, which creates more content. 2. These questions create more traffic, yet the question is it quality traffic.

Now, there could be a debate on this, and some may claim that any traffic is good traffic. The difference between email questions and Twitter questions: Twitter questions are limited to 140 characters. Email questions are not limited.

------ 1. More undecided questions. I don't think those asking from Twitter will come here to choose a best answer.

I agree, they are not going to always or usually choose a best answer, and that's why it's up to the voting. 2. Repeated questions--not by the same user but by different users.

I think I counted 5 questions on where to find the text or clips of Obama's speech last night. Definitely, these questions are repeated simply because there is no warning method to them (at least not for now). If there is a way to initiate a warning to tell them that the answer was already asked, then this may create more thoughtful questions from this medium.

3. No sorting of questions into categories. They are all "from Twitter.

" I agree, this is a problem. It lends itself to the possibility of NSFW questions, or questions that simply cannot be categorized, which makes them hard to find later on. 4.

More untipped questions. Not that this is a bad thing, but I see people wanting a lot of information but not wanting to tip. I agree.

We can't make the generalization about these people asking questions, but many of them are not going to add a tip here, even if they can, as they are not given an easy interface to do so. 5. More technical questions.

This could be true, or more local or specific questions. The best idea for Mahalo Answers is to have some sort of local question concept. I believe this will come in the future.

If I'm asking about a pizza restaurant in California, I do not care to answer this question unless I'm in California, or at least know the area. 6. A lot more "stupid" questions or questions that make no sense.

This could be true, but not always. Maybe there are drunk askers, those who don't check their spelling, etc. The reason could even be because of the way they are asking, or texting. The limitation of characters makes it so they cannot specify sometimes.

Anyone care to agree/disagree with me? Anyone have a solution? Have something you can add?

I have a solution, but it has not been created. It's kind of like they should require Twitter users to not be as anonymous and require more info to ask a question etc.

Yea I agree the duplicates is a bit of a problem. It would be nice if a natural language system would simply send back those duplicates the best answer as voted on. I think the volume of questions is great.

I think it helps get a greater variety of questions. I wish there was something in the voting that helped raise to the top twitter answers. I see a lot of answers to twitter questions that are like books.

But if your sending in a question through twitter and receiving the answer through twitter I'm guessing you want a 140 char answer. I try to answer them like that if I can. But a lot of folks are giving a more complete answer that is way longer.

Just my 2 cents. Which with the current economy is only worth one.

In real estate it is location, location, location! On the Internet it is traffic, traffic, traffic! Twiiter questions are here to stay since it is about traffic which is generated by questions, questions, questions!

I am torn about the twitter questions just like you Darcy. More questions to answer is good, but there is just too much clutter now. I think I mentioned in a previous question that one way to encourage askers to vote on best answers would be to penalize them for not doing so.

However, I don't think this would be effective at all in this case. Perhaps best answers for twitter questions should be worth fewer points because they typically involve less research and analysis? @Easyeboy good point about the NSFW questions being introduced through twitter.

It is really a double whammy because not only is the twitter category all inclusive, the users asking don't even know that a NSFW category exists. The twitter integration doesn't look like it is going anywhere so a compromise is all I can hope for. Can the dropdown menu include an option to show all/none of the twitter questions?

This would let users browse the more in-depth questions without jumping through as many pages and would let users with only a couple of minutes jump right to the quick questions. This still doesn't deal with the NSFW aspect though. The only thing I can think of would be to put the same stumbling block for the twitter category as we do for legal, and NSFW categories.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.