Does it seem that sometimes the best answers go to the popular, well known, answerers regardless of the votes for other answerers. In other?

When I first joined mahalo, I wondered this myself, but I don't think it's true. If that was so, I would have never progressed and I've only been a member since about Halloween. Personally, when I try to pick a best answer, I don't even look at what other people voted helpful unless I am having a hard time deciding which one to pick.

The only time I'll look at the helpful votes is when it's an opinion based question where everyone has the correct answer. When it's something I really want to know, I pick the answer that helps me understand and gives me the information best... regardless of who answered it. So to some it might not seem helpful, but I am the asker, so I am picking what information helped me solve my problem.

I try to avoid this, but usually if one of my answers is sent to voting, it's simply because I couldn't decide the best answer or it slipped by me getting to it in time. Just remember that even though it seems this way, it usually isn't the case. I have even disagreed with some people on some other questions and how they have conducted themselves at times.

However, I do not let that be an indicator if they have provided a helpful answer on another question. I feel everyone needs to pick answers with no judgment on anything other than the question at hand.

Sometimes, yes it does...I ponder this from time to time myself. The conclusion I have arrived at is this....SOME of the users who have been here a long time such as @buddawiggi and @bunnyphuphu seemed like they always got favored...however...they have been here quite awhile and what I think is, they know what a good answer consists of, they know the key points that need to be addressed in answers and they know how to source well and do proper research. Now I have also seen some new users blow those two out of the water.

I think once someone becomes more comfortable with the site, how it works and how a quality answer looks, it becomes more fair. I will admit at first I scolded budda at times because he always seemed to get BA, but now I realize it's not because of that little dude who lost his mind...it's because he is smart, awesome and knows how things work. Same with that crazy wabbit....she knows how to answer with quality and humor!

Hopefully that all makes sense... Don't let it get to you, I assure you this isn't what is going on, it may seem like it and yes there are probably some users who intentionally vote for certain people, but majority of the people here don't vote because of the name, the vote because of the quality! Hope this helps! @tealmyster.

I have not really seen this kind of behavior here.. many times a new user just launches themselves into the Mahalo Answers scene and dominates the older users with their ability to give fantastic answers here. @opher is a great example of that he was voted as having the Answer of the Year just 3 months after signing up for Mahalo Answers. mahalo.com/answers/mahalo-answers-commun... I like to pick the best answer as unbiasedly as I can as a human but more often than not it is the veteran users who give the better answers so they in turn get a higher % of the best answers.. this is not always the case though, in my experience Mahalo users give credit where credit is due.

If you had an example of an inferior answer given by a Mahalo veteran being selected as best over a clearly better answer given by a newer user this would be easier to decipher as an issue.

I just recently joined Mahalo for the free iPad contest they are running over here, mahalo.com/answers/consumer-electronics/... I do see just like a digg or any other place that requires votes to get their answers or stories up to the top you need to be well connected in the community to happen. It makes it much harder for new people who join and do not have a following on the community. The contest I entered in here could prove to be that way.

I feel my entry is pretty good, but it gets pushed to the bottom as I do not have any friends/followers here. What do you think about it? mahalo.com/answers/consumer-electronics/...#aec4a9e6d48f0d81c7514e778439b4ab7163adacf739c6ed46276efcfd487f374.

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.