Does anyone else think Askville has really taken a dive recently? See details for what I am referring to?

See details for what I am referring to. Recently I am finding Askville less and less interesting, mainly for two reasons:1) We are being flooded with pointless, uninteresting questions that seem to be submitted for no apparent reason other than for someone to see their words on the Web. I am actually asking questions for which I need an answer, not to waste time.2) Because of increasing traffic (see item 1 above), any given question spends very little time in the limelight, thus we are - or at least I am - finding many of my more recent questions are going unanswered, or nearly so.

Perhaps this has already been discussed to death, in which case I apologize for not checking this ahead of time. Asked by Joe_Freeman 56 months ago Similar questions: Askville dive recently details referring Amazon > Askville.

Similar questions: Askville dive recently details referring.

Yes. I think I agree with you. Over the last week or two it seems that a lot of questions are being asked in which it seems that the questioner already knows the answer, and these are typically things which can be checked using google or your favourite search engine in around five seconds.

I guess in many cases this is just a consequence of people trying to acquire a few quest coins in as easy a fashion as possible. Not only is it really easy to think of questions that can be asked quickly if you’re asking trivia questions that you know the answer to, but you can guarantee that you’ll get five answers from people trying to "earn" a few quest coins themself. Of course, there isn’t, in principle anything wrong with this sort of thing, it’s just not the reason that I’m here, and it makes it very difficult to find the kind of stuff that I am looking for so, for me, it reduces the value of the site quite considerably.

I wonder to what extent either of your two points is influenced by Amazon’s recent change in policy regarding mechanical turk. There are two possible ways in which the decision to dramatic reduce the number of questions being sent to mechanical turk could conceivably have influenced things (I’m not sure whether there’s really any evidence in favour of either of these points, but it’s about the only think I can think of which more or less coincides with what seems to be a fairly dramatic change in the nature of the questions we’re seeing here): The "pointless" questions are typically easy to answer and consequently the professional question answerers who are being paid essentially by bulk were really keen to answer them, leading to them getting answered fast and disappearing before they much bothered anyone else here. The people that were answering almost every question at MTurk probably aren't any more and there's much less incentive for anybody else to answer questions unless they find them interesting -- I answer a lot of questions about books, education and trivia because these are things which interest me, but questions of the "where can I buy..." form aren't likely to get many answers from interested parties and there's much less input from paid question answerers URL1 may just be that Amazon has stepped up its advertising recently and the number of newbies around is quite hard at the moment.

This could well be a transient thing and many of the people asking questions that might not seem terribly interesting in time could very well become very valuable members of the community with time. I have one other thought on this: what is askville intended to be. The "play" element of Amazon's tagline sort of implies that it's acceptable to treat it as a game and to ask "game-type" trivia questions.

It seems fairly organic at the moment and I think it will develop until it resembles the form which the bulk of the community are happy with; I guess it could resemble a useful Q&A site where I could have fun or it could degenerate into a coin-grabbing exercise which doesn't have much to hold my interest. I'll be interested to see how things develop, and how others view this issue. Sources: Just my opinions, again.

I see what you mean. For some reason, I’m finding fewer questions that I want to answer, or want to follow these days. I’m not sure why.

Could this have anything to do with the scaling back of Mturk? Or perhaps some of the regulars have been busy because of the holidays? There DOES seem to be an increasing number of newbies posting questions that seem elementary--and a few that seem pointless--but some of the newbies are developing into interesting Askville community members, too.

Like any community, Askville always needs new blood, so I wouldn’t want to discourage newbies. Some of my recent questions have gone largely unanswered, too, but others have been answered very quickly--and very well--so I don’t yet see that as a trend. I hope it isn't.

I’ve observed that there are a number of good answerers here who seldom ask questions. I wish some of them would work hard to find good questions to ask. Good questions really keep the momentum going even more than good answers.

Sources: My opinion .

I think that the quality of questions does very from week to week. First of all the quality of questions does very. Sometimes you get very well thought out questions, and other times you barely get a question that is a complete sentence.As for if they are "good" or "better" keep in mind that that is an opinion you are forming, from the asker's point of view it maybe the best question that they could come up with.

I know you are concerned that lots of the questions are uninteresting, and don't have a purpose. This may be the case with lots of the questions that get asked.My theory is that there are people that are concerned that they don't earn enough coins, therefore they post random questions just to earn a coin (or a few more if the question actually gets answers and they exercise their voting option). I don't think the amount of time that the question stays on the front board will really determine if it gets an answer.

I think questions that have proper topics will be seen by those who are watching those topics. Besides, if you have a burning question that doesn't get attention, you can always PM the leaders of the topic and ask them to give their answer. Most of the leaders on topics are happy to answer your question.

So I would say, just relax and enjoy answering a silly question now and then, keep in mind if you answer them, you can clear it off the board and make room for the "better" questions. Sources: my opinion HappyWife&Mom's Recommendations The Little Book of Dumb Questions Amazon List Price: $5.99 Used from: $5.52 .

They ask, therefore they are You'd swear someone rewrote Descartes while we weren't looking or something. There has been an overwhelming influx of people cluttering up Askville with all manner of pointless, puerile, idiotic drivel. You'd swear some of them see this as their opportunity to seize fifteen minutes of fame.

I've noticed that it's just a few people who are perpetuating most of this nonsense. And worse, they're convinced that their actions are one hundred percent justifiable. No, not only justifiable, but laudable!

I made a similar observation myself a few days ago when I realised that random crap had become one of the most prominent topics in Askville - you might be interested in this question I posted. The unfortunate downside of all this crap is that the genuine questions are becoming harder to find as they get lost in the clutter, and of course it's frustrating many people no end. I know the delight I felt in Askville when I first joined has been almost entirely eliminated.

I noticed that Microsoft's QNA service has a Question rating feature - "Questions can be rated for their usefulness once a best answer has been selected. ". Askville might need to implement something like this before this rising tide of rubbish overwhelms the entire 'ville.

Partly to try to counteract the crap I'm trying to start asking questions that will hopefully lead to more interesting discussions and dialogues. But as you can see from the first effort - Is white collar crime more or less harmful to society than violent crime? - it's hardly received any interest.

Another nod to impact of the lowest common denominator in determining popularity, huh? Phototakeouter's Recommendations Stupid and Contagious Amazon List Price: $12.95 Used from: $0.90 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 63 reviews) Ron White: You Can't Fix Stupid Amazon List Price: $18.98 Used from: $7.15 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 12 reviews) .

I certainly agree that there are more uninteresting questions This is the first question I've seen in 24 hours that I wanted to answer. The volume of "where can I get this or that" or beauty tip or just plain silly questions is getting out of hand. The uninteresting (to me) questions outnumber the interesting ones by a hundred to one.

I can't see much to do about except to not respond. If they don't get coins maybe they'll stop asking. Yours is not the only such post.

Sources: opinion edfoug's Recommendations New York City's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving In the Five Boroughs (Gamble Guides) Amazon List Price: $9.95 Used from: $6.13 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 8 reviews) Dive in Style Amazon List Price: $40.00 Used from: $13.77 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 5 reviews) .

(see details)" "Yet another Askville glitch?(See details).

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.