Ask questions via twitter! Message any question to @answers on twitter. We'll publish the question and send you a reply each time there's a new answer.
Next Question

Answered Question

 
M$2.00  Funded By Mahalo ? |  April 24, 2009 03:19 PM

Vote: Should Mahalo pay 5 cents per question for registered users? Questions that have five or more responses receive 25 cents

People asking questions that are producing significant feedback for their question.
Interesting Question?  Yes (2)   No (0)   

Interesting: arjo, drmatt

RSS
 
 

Best Answer  Chosen by Asker

 
April 24, 2009 03:34 PM
No.

We don't need more questions so much as a way to filter them on our main page.
Asker's Rating:
• Yahoo answers penalizes the user for a question (-5 points). Whereas, Mahalo allows X number of free questions a day. In comparison to Yahoo answers Mahalo looks generous. Yahoo has a 65 million user base and plenty of questions.

Twitter is a good source for question volume.





Helpful Answer?  (0)   (0)    Tip albanian for this answer
Permalink | Report
   Reply  
 
 
 
April 24, 2009 05:28 PM
The trade off is rewarding a Quality question verses Spam Questions. Money is in the answer.

Report
 
 

Other Answers (3)

Sort By
 
April 24, 2009 03:59 PM
This is interesting... I would tend towards giving people a tip for good questions. I'd like to find a way to encourage people to write good, clear questions instead of the crap I've been seeing.

I REALLY want to help and answer questions, but some of these confusing questions are really starting to frustrate me.

Helpful Answer?  (0)   (0)    Tip drmatt for this answer
Permalink | Report
   Reply  
 
 
 
April 24, 2009 04:12 PM
I have to agree with the consensus thus far. While this would increase traffic by a little bit, it would degrade quality by a lot.

There are already countless questions where the people asking them have only a rudimentary grasp of the English language (and saying that is generous); just imagine how many terribly worded and ambiguous questions users would have to sift through if Mahalo started giving away money for asking questions in addition to answering them. In short, I think it'd start turning Mahalo into something akin to Yahoo! Answers.

Look at the linked question for a good example of what would happen were Mahalo to implement rewards for simply asking questions.

I think if one were to go about giving money for questions, it should be based on the number of users who click on it as interesting. But even then, as the community grew and got larger, you'd have people who would be gaming the system.
Source(s):
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/cars-trucks/what-happened-to-the-freedom-in-t...


Helpful Answer?  (0)   (0)    Tip cochese for this answer
Permalink | Report
   Reply  
 
 
 
April 24, 2009 04:53 PM
The 25 cent reward is dependant on the participation level of the question. Throw away the 5 cents and go with rewarding questions with high participation.

Report
 
 
 
April 24, 2009 05:04 PM
I'm not sure that I share your criticism with Yahoo answers. Yahoo answers has a widen breadth of answers and questions domains.

Eventually, machines will be able to read billions of pages and determine what is important helping the reader filter the noise out. H5 for example has an amazing parsing algorithm that can analyze documents and extroplotate summaries.

Report
 
 
cjd cjd
 
April 24, 2009 04:34 PM
I think that if everyone were to get paid for questions - wouldn't people just ask question rather than answer them.

I think it would also ruin the dedication of the Answering committee. People that are new will likely ask tons of questions rather than answers and get tips. Some members may be willing to answer - but the questions will be likely to be poor if they got paid.

Instead, something along the lines of a question that is by Mahalo standards interesting could gain a $1 and be pinned to the top of the tipped/non-tipped question.

Helpful Answer?  (0)   (0)    Tip cjd for this answer
Permalink | Report
   Reply  
 
 
 
April 24, 2009 04:53 PM
Mod: remove the 5 cent for the question. Pay for questions with high participation and high helpful vote counts. Reward quality questions.

Report
 
 
 
April 24, 2009 04:56 PM
Yahoo has 80 million plus questions.

The fun is in the answer. However, if you didn't have a good question then the venue for the answers dry up.

Some think, the solution is creating a better search alogrithm for finding the perfect question. The assumption is supply provides the perfect question. The problem is finding the perfect question.

This assumption downplays the intellectual thought behind the question. A good question requires excellent thought. Otherwise, a computer algorithm could be devise to generate millions of questions.

I have 97 percent approval for my questions. This tells me the questions that members answer find the question thought provoking. Why not reward the high quality question?

I agree that rewarding all questions is a bad idea. I thought 5 cents would entice but not reward. That is 20 questions for a dollar. Mahalo would have to build a filter to determine, if the question was valid (noun verb direct object).

How does Mahalo currently disgard noise?

I see alot of Twitter questions that don't make sense. The message is coded without an general meaning.

Report
 
 
cjd cjd
 
April 24, 2009 05:10 PM
@davepamn

I like the idea! Rewarding interesting questions is definitely worth it. Some members often tip questions that are interesting however it is more common for someone to tip a good answer.

The idea could be done by the Mahalo staff. If they see some interesting questions, which may have very popular ratings by the answerers, then they may tip the asker. Of course, it would mean only Mahalo users can be tipped.

In reply to the Twitter questions, sometimes they may be like "Why is this?" which is completely unexplained and you have to guess the answer. Sometimes it can be quite funny but it ruins the community. Yahoo's community is poor and has very poor grammatical language and often silly questions and basic if not non-helpful answers.

Of course, you can sort by the most interesting in Mahalo - so maybe if you appear in the top ten or something, you will automatically be tipped $1 by Mahalo.

Report
 
 

Answer this Question

How tips and payments work

This question has already been resolved. You may add an answer to it but you will not be eligible to win best answer or any associated tips.

Related Questions

No questions found.

Ask a Question


140 characters left
Top of Page
Buy Mahalo Dollars with Credit Card or PayPal

Top Members

This Week All Time
  • cfinke
    cfinke
    2nd Degree Black Belt
    27330 Points
    M$29.75 Earned
  • bunnyphuph...
    bunnyphuph...
    2nd Degree Black Belt
    21386 Points
    M$762.89 Earned
  • opher
    opher
    Purple Belt with a Brown Tip
    6142 Points
    M$238.49 Earned
   See All
 

Most Popular Tags

mahalo(1801)
music(496)
iphone(485)
google(392)
online(369)
food(341)
beer(288)
money(284)
movies(282)
apple(259)
aotd(235)
free(233)
health(228)
video(224)
dog(219)
   See All
 

Categories

Welcome New Members


 
 
Mahalo Dollars are the currency of Mahalo Answers.

Each Mahalo Dollar costs $1.

Once you earn more than 40 Mahalo Dollars, you can request to be paid via PayPal. Each Mahalo Dollar is currently worth $0.75 when paid out via PayPal. Learn More

 
 

Please log in to use this function.