Are we getting too many questions that aren't really questions?

I agree that this is a place to find answers but I also agree with whoever said that this is a very diverse place and some things that do not interest me may interest another. Spamming or over-promoting, however, is a real turn-off. Of course, when we come across that we can just ignore it personally.In the long run, though, it will hurt Mahalo's rep.

I personally do not want to start going to other sites and linking back to my Pages if Mahalo become's a spammer's paradise. It wouldn't do much for my credibility.

This is just my opinion. This isn't a place for just questions. This is a place to find answers.

A lot of people think, that the only way to get an answer is through a question, but that might not necessarily be true. I will take the Ipod link you have as an example. mahalo.com/answers/apple/do-you-have-a-3... This answer is valuable information.

Now not all of them are like this. I would say three of them are answers posted before the question is asked. The other is a contest with a decent prize.

These posts are people being proactive. However, I do agree that people that ask the same question over and over on different posts in different wording, should be stopped. Maybe they just don't understand that they can post all 4 of their differently worded question in the same post, or maybe they are just trying to pad their stats.It really depends on the way Mahalo wants to go with it.

When it comes down to it, they can go with the question answer way, where you can only ask a question that can be given an answer with evidence. A question like, "Who was the founder of Walmart?" and not have questions based solely on opinions, like "Do you think there is life on another planet". They have message boards for those kinds of questions.

Me, I like discussing things, debating, learning, and helping others learn.To me, this is more of a social network, like facebook or myspace without the garbage. It would be nice to not have spam, but I don't really see a lot of spam here. Maybe it because I am new still to the site.

Some of the questions that have been marked as unhelpful I actually found a lot to respond to in the question. Just because one of us think it is a simpleton question and should be ignored, doesn't mean it did not have value to the person adding it or to the person that researched the answer. Perhaps if nothing else 2 people learned new information.

To know a lot is awesome, but to think we know a good question from a useless question is arrogant. Everyone does not know what you know or I know. If you find the question beneath you then I think you should move on to another question that is worth your time.

I think it is fine the way it is,,, don't touch it... just check for errors... And start using social networking site to get some quick promotion. Use stumble upon and you will instantly get 100 extra visitors per day.

I think people need to stop spam questioning the site with dumb questions.

You know, I have to say I am responsible for posting a few questions to promote my How To pages on Mahalo. However, I don't know any better...i thought we were able to use the system to promote our pages. I have seen it done over the past week (thats how much of a n00b I am) and thought it was ok.

I apologize and assure you that I will find other avenues to promote my pages. I didn't know I was in the wrong here....

Definitely there are a lot of bogus questions here. I am particuarly annoyed when someone asks the same question 3 different ways from three different accounts all in a row. The question is really stupid usually so I assume it is someone trying to pad their point totals.

I think the uninteresting button should be made stronger or maybe a new spam button. Have it cost $0.25 to click it maybe but it should only take a couple of clicks with a price like that to shut down a question and either hide it or make it worth no points and no tip or both. If you wanted to use a free method something like ten clicks on uninteresting should do it.

Maybe that feature is even here now but I don't know about it. If it is here it should be publicized and encouraged.

I’m always lost in a sea of “questions�. I usually sieve through lots of questions before I manage to find some that I can answer or checking on category questions only to find that there are no new questions. I think everybody has limited time to spend online.

It’ll be good if there are features that enable questions to reach answerer easier or answerer to reach question easier. I hope Mahalo can provide these features: 1. Questions Categories : whenever there are new questions to a category, it shows: new, # (denoting number of new questions in the category) Let’s say I have expertise in investment, I’ll first look at any new questions in investment category.2.

Subscription of category questions.

I have noticed this too. It's doesn't bother me a whole lot, but I don't like to see the spam/self promotion type questions. I think it is ok to post a statement in the answers section if it is relevant to Mahalo.

Should there be another way to communicate them? Possibly. Maybe a little message board that let users communicate more openly without the question/answer/tip format would work.

Yes I too believe repeated questions annoys . Though there may be monetary benefits , I believe usually such repeated questions comes from new users . As they dunno the questions asked before they tend to believe that their question genuine and valid.

I wish mahalo to employ string based search engine or tag based where the site shows various possible questions which might be answered before so that a new user can get along and get answer quickly . Still wanna control they can give a warning that repeated questions may block the user like that . Apart from that there are unnecessary questions .

Like those which many people already knew,though it annoys a bit . Spirit of the site makes it meaningful. ' we are here not only to ask or answer but to refine our thoughts .

How simple might be the question you think there are always some dimension v never thought about , or to learn about . Thats where the spirit of this site lies .. 'What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean. ' - issac newton.

On Podcast #58, Joel and I had a disagreement. Joel says that the only bad simple question is a duplicate simple question. I say simple questions are OK as long as they’re actually interesting (in some way) for other users to consider and answer.

To prove his point, Joel actually asks the question on Stack Overflow: How do I move the turtle in LOGO? Do you think this question adds value? We still have this disagreement.

Should “trivially easy to find” be a benchmark for moderating the site? Should “general reference” questions be asked and answered here? Should we require some reasonable research being done?

Too many clueless users? We’ve seen it come up enough times now that I’m comfortable making a final decision: yes, some questions are too simple to be answered … at least on our sites. Not because they’re bad questions, mind you, but because these types of questions can be definitively and permanently answered by a single link to a standard internet reference site with no additional explanation necessary.

We discourage “answers” that are links, but for these questions, it’s hard to argue that anything else is required. The problem is coming up enough in the network that we’re thinking about adding a new standard close reason for it. General reference: this question is too basic; the answer is indexed in any number of general internet reference sources designed specifically to find that type of information.

The key distinction to make here, in my mind, is that all questions are ultimately in service of the people answering them. That is the audience you need to satisfy if you want to have any hope of creating and sustaining a community of peers learning from each other. The minimum bar for a question is not “is this on-topic?”, but rather “is this somewhat interesting and on-topic?”.

I’m not saying every question needs to be utterly fascinating, but please endeavor to make your questions more than a constant stream of no-duh underhanded softballs requiring nothing more than a quick cut and paste from Wikipedia, IMDB, or some other standard internet reference site. There’s nothing useful any expert can learn from ultra-basic questions. Allow your Q&A community to fill itself with enough “General Reference” type questions and you’ll soon find no experts there at all.

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.

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