Why do some people use the discussion board instead of the answer board on askville?

Similar questions: people discussion board answer askville.

Discussion v. Answer Discussions are a fun way to get to know other Askvillers. Answering doesn't provide that as readily.

Also, answering, while you get points, you also have to leave feedback and if you opt to, vote on appeals. Points are fun, feedback and voting on appeals can be a drag, letting the page load, etc. , when what discussers really want to do is talk (write) and listen (read). Discussers want to communicate.

There are a variety of reasons... A couple of the reasons I have posted on a discussion board instead of posting in one of the answer slots include: I had some information about the question, but not a complete answer. If I had posted using an answer slot, I would have probably been rated very low because I didn’t answer the complete question. The question was very "loaded" (e.g. A political or religious question), and because my opinion obviously did not match that of the question-asker, I did not want to risk a bad rating for my thoughts.

Other people have given additional reasons for sometimes using the discussion board instead of taking an answer slot. Some of them that I recall are: They don’t want to remain anonymous until voting is complete, so they just post on the DB. They have a funny answer to a serious question, or a serious answer to a funny question, and don’t want to be rated down for not answering in the "appropriate" tone.

They don't care about topic points or quest gold, and just want to discuss the topic. All the answer slots are already taken when they want to answer. They already "peeked" at the answers that had already been posted, which prevents them from taking another answer slot.

In short, there are a lot of reasons that someone might use the discussion board instead of taking an answer slot, so which one will depend on the person and the specific situation.

Actually, there are a numbe of reason why that happens. When Askville started, there were a relatively few number of people involved. They got to know each other pretty well.

People tended to congregate into certain topics depending upon their interests. So, it was a small family of people. Over time, Askville grew larger.

Many of the old timers left, since the atmosphere had changed. The ones who stayed discovered to their dismay that people that they did not know were asking and answering questions. Some of these "new people" were challenging the ways that things had been done on Askville.

These attempted changes upset the routine of Askvile. As time passed, the old timers form a clique. They decided to drop out of Askville in terms of asking and answering questions.

For them, doing those mundane activities is not chic. They really aren't into point in a big way, because they either are pretty much oblivious to the whole points thing or they are high enough up in the experience levels that they can rack up a whole bunch of points fairly quickly because of the way that the rewards are structured. Experience Points, Levels, and Quest gold 1.

What are experience points? Every time you answer a question on Askville you will earn or potentially lose experience points in the topics that were associated with that question. Askville uses experience points to determine how knowledgeable a user is in a given topic.

Experience points are broken up into various levels. To reach a certain level you need to have earned a certain number of experience points in that topic 2. How are experience points calculated?

Experience points are calculated after a question has been closed and users have voted on the question. The user that asked the question and the users that submitted answers to the question (maximum of 5 users can answer a question) will have a chance to vote on the question.An answer must get at least 2 votes for it to be rated. Any answer which doesn’t get the minimum 2 votes will be given a default score of “3 stars”.

The question asker’s vote on an answer counts for 2 votes. Each user will get the following experience points for their answer based upon how all the users voted: Experience Final Answer Score Points Earned Best Answer Bonus Additional 5 points 5.0 stars 15 4.5 stars 7 4.0 stars 5 3.5 stars 3 3.0 stars 1 2.5 stars 0 2.0 stars -5 1.5 stars -7 1.0 stars -10 We will calculate an answer’s “raw score” by averaging out all the votes and will round up or round down to two decimal points by ½ star increments to get to your final rating (e.g. Answer that has a “raw score” between 3.25 and 3.75 will receive final rating of 3.5 stars. And an answer with a score between 3.75 and 4.25 will receive a final rating of 4 stars.) See chart below for a graphical explanation of how the raw score translates into your Final Rating and your Quest Gold payout: The answer that gets the highest final rating will get the Best Answer bonus of 5 experience points and 5 Quest Gold.

Only 1 answer can receive a Best Answer Bonus. To qualify for the Best Answer Bonus, you need to receive a final rating greater than 3.5 stars, without any ties.3. What happens if two answers get the same Final Answer Score?

What are the tie-breaker rules to determine who gets Best Answer? To have a tie, two users would need to have the same exact “raw score”, before we do any rounding up or down. That said, if this scenario occurs, there will be no Best Answer Badge given, although any user can Appeal their Final Rating, which could potentially lead to a higher “raw score”.

4. Is it possible that no answer gets the Best Answer Badge? Yes.To qualify for the Best Answer Badge, you need to have a final rating of greater than 3.5 stars, without any ties.

If none of the submitted answers meet these criteria, then no Best Answer Badge will be given out.5. How many experience points do I need to move up a level? The following table tells you how many experience points you need to earn in a topic and how many bonus points you can earn per answer once you've reached a certain level: # of topic bonus Level experience points gold payout 0 0-19 0 1 20-174 1 2 175-749 5 3 750-1499 10 4 1,500-2,999 20 5 3,000-7,499 40 6 7,500-?75 6.

What is Quest Gold? Quest gold is a virtual currency on Askville that users can earn by participating on Askville.To encourage participation and reward great answers, Askville users can earn Quest gold based on specific actions you take. The table below summarizes the number of Quest gold you can earn for different actions.

Eventually you will be able to use Quest gold when we launch Questville.com (coming in late 2008). In the meantime, collect as many Quest gold as you can and show everyone how active and helpful you've been on Askville. In addition, from time to time, we may make available special, limited time redemption offers.

Action Quest Gold Earned Ask a question 1 Submit an answer to a question* 1 Use widget in an answer** 1 Vote on an answer* 1 Login to Askville (once per day) 5 Get a Best Answer Bonus 5 Get a 5.0 stars rating for an answer 15 Get a 4.5 stars rating for an answer 7 Get a 4.0 stars rating for an answer 5 Get a 3.5 stars rating for an answer 3 Get a 3.0 stars rating for an answer 1 Get a 2.5 stars rating for an answer 0 Get a 2.0 stars rating for an answer -5 Get a 1.5 stars rating for an answer -7 Get a 1.0 stars rating for an answer -10 * Gold earned by an answerer for submitting an answer to a question and for voting on other answers are revoked if the answerer’s response gets a final score of 2.0 stars or below. ** Gold paid out only if the answer gets a Final Answer Score of 3.5 stars or more. You can also earn bonus Quest gold based on what level you have reached in a topic.

The following table lists the amount of bonus gold you can earn based on the level you have achieved in a topic: bonus Level gold payout 0 0 1 1 2 5 3 10 4 20 5 40 6 75 You can only earn bonus Quest Gold for answers that had final ratings of 3.5 stars or more. For example, if you answered a question in a topic (e.g. Music) where you have earned enough experience points to be level 5 in that topic and you received a final rating score of 4 stars, you will earn 40 bonus gold on top of your normal Quest Gold payout for that answer. Below is a summary of your Quest Gold payout in this example: Level 5 user in topic “music” 5 Stars Answer = 10 Quest Gold + 40 bonus Gold = 50 Quest Gold 4 Stars Answer = 5 Quest Gold + 40 bonus Gold = 45 Quest Gold 3 Stars Answer = 1 Quest Gold + 0 bonus Gold = 1 Quest Gold 2 Stars Answer = -5 Quest Gold + 0 bonus Gold = -5 Quest Gold 1 Star Answer = -10 Quest Gold + 0 bonus Gold = -10 Quest Gold If a question is associated with multiple topics, we will reward your bonus Gold based on the highest level you’ve achieved in any of the topics.

For example, if you were level 5 in the topic “music”, level 3 in the topic “shopping”, and level 1 in the topic “mp3” then we would reward your bonus Gold based on your “music” topic level. http://askville.amazon.com/faq.html#_Toc144916238 Once you reach Level 6 in one or two topics that you like and are active in, you can devote a small portion of your time to answering those questions and rack up a lot of gold quickly. I liken the situation to people who are rich and retired.

They may have to spend a bit of time tending to their investments, but they don't have to work as hard as the young person entering the labor force. So, they spend their Askville time on the discussion boards and socialize and chit chat, which is fine for those who like that sort of thing, I guess. But, it also has two downsides to it.

One downside is that a lot of the topic areas wind up with many unanswered questions. Not everyone asks questiosn here purely because they are trying to get more quest gold. No, some people here really want to learn something.

Unfortunately, the best people are off chit chatting. It was a serious design error in Askville that needs to be corrected. The other negative is that the discussion boards are filled with some very interesting people--colorful and different also--who do not play nice with outsiders.

Askville is beginning to attempt to address the situation after months of neglect. Unfortunately management's steps so far have been rather ham handed and unfair, punishing the persecutors and the victims alike. For instance, if someone were to make a wild accusation on a discussion board that someone else had done something terrible and the person unjustly accused were to deny the accusations, under the current system, both would be punished for some specious reason or another, ignoring both the causation of the disagreement and the intent of the malefactor in provoking the disagreement in the first place.

The best advice that I can give to anyone new on Askville is to stay away from the discussion boards and stick to the main business of Askville, asking and answering questions. Until they are cleaned up, nothing good will come out of the discussion boards. Sources: personal experience and cited above Snow_Leopard's Recommendations The Theory of Incentives: The Principal-Agent Model Amazon List Price: $42.50 Used from: $20.00 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 6 reviews) Incentives: Motivation and the Economics of Information Amazon List Price: $45.00 Used from: $18.52 .

That's true but Sometimes someones answer is to long to put it into the answer spot. People like to discuss things in the db so they can get feed back from other askvillers. People make friends on askville so allot of times they will forward the question to there friends if they think they would be interested in the question.

Thanks for the question! TxStorm817's Recommendations Having fun and making friends in an international environment.(English Conversation Group): An article from: DISAM Journal Amazon List Price: $5.95 ARE WE HAVING FUN YET? 1985 BLUE bumper sticker Life Lists for Teens: Tips, Steps, and How-Tos for Growing Up, Getting Along, Learning, and Having Fun Amazon List Price: $13.99 Used from: $2.12 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 8 reviews) .

1 Sometimes we don't think our reply is worthy of using an answer slot. More of a quick comment than a full on answer. Other times we want to add to a discussion about the question or the answers, but not actually put an answer down.An answer is usually more complete than a discussion board posting.

Sometimes we don't think our reply is worthy of using an answer slot. More of a quick comment than a full on answer. Other times we want to add to a discussion about the question or the answers, but not actually put an answer down.An answer is usually more complete than a discussion board posting.

Have you ever had the Askville Mayor bust in to your discussion board to tell you it's getting too long...

This is to all of the people of askville who wishes to answer....................................

Somewhere in my Askville travels, I ran across this statement "every time someone posts in a discussion board, 1 coin.

Does it bug you when people ask questions on Askville that they, themselves could look up on Google and find an answer.

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.