"what type of answer do you want... google searches or actual expertise with a personal spin?"

Well, the difference is not really between "searches or actual expertise", but between your expertise, and someone else's. Frankly, I would rather have something from some established source rather than a personal account from a user, when looking for an answer to a question. In my experience, the former is a lot more reliable, and can be a jumping off point for more searching of my own if necessary.

Of course, the situation is different if it's an opinion question or if a question is literally addressing other Mahalo users. Then it would be kind of dumb to feed Person X's account to the questioner as an answer.
Source(s):
Personal experience (oh, the irony)

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It is all about a balancing act between the two options you mentioned. This also depends heavily on the question asked, there are often times that a personal response makes more sense.
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I would prefer actual expertise with a personal spin. That's what's most important to me.

I try to do that in most of my answers.

I notice some people will go as far as asking, "explain why" and "don't just link wikipedia".

However, if you can provide me a link to a website that is valuable and has lots of information regarding the question I asked, then that is helpful too.

The quality of the link also has to be good. Anyone knows about wikipedia. People want more depth than that.

I would appreciate links to a site that has active discussions or a big FAQ area for me to explore.

That's my 0.02 cents at least.
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I like both in the same answer. I tend to give my answers the same way. That way the person didn't just Google it, and the asker can get an idea from what the answerer says why they answered the way they did.

I did see recently where an answerer responded to the question that one of the question was merely opinion and didn't belong here. I see lots of questions like that, but I don't mind. Sometimes I really do want to get a wide variety of ideas on the subject, and the more detailed the answer and the more inclusive of why they answered that way, the more complete picture I have of that topic.
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Both, you get people with personal experience but the links to the subject matter are what gets you a more definitive answer.When in doubt go with both as there are people that just sound convining. So never take just 1 persons view if it is important.
Source(s):
experience, amazon askville. google, Yahoo answers a member in all 3

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Generally I prefer a thoughtful response as opposed to links being thrown up for me to have to dig through.
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Yep. I'm echoing what many of you have said. Perhaps it depends on if you want an objective or subjective answer. For the former I'd like a concise and factual synopsis and conclusion with a few pertinent links. For the latter, I'd like an insightful and fair opinion based on personal or second-hand experience - again with a few links if that will support the answer.
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I like to see a little bit of both. Personally, I like it when people put in a well thought out answer. Plus, they need to make sure that they actually read the entire question. I often put extra questions within the description of my question and some people don't bother reading that far. If I get a bunch of links, I typically don't click on them, especially if they are to a Wikipedia site. I like the link to be there as a source, but I don't actually double check the source to see if it's there. What's most important to me is that people do a bit of research on their answer, write out a fun and interesting response, and then provide the source for their answer.
Source(s):
personal opinion

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I can look up stuff on the web myself; so, what I am looking for is a combination of personal experience, rational thought, and supporting links if appropriate.
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data(from the web) + personal insight = Neat Answer
Source(s):
Personal Insight

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The most important thing to me is that my question gets answered well and as completely as possible. I don't care if it's googled, copied and pasted, or comes out of memory or experience as long as it's what I want.

What I really hate is when someone says what is the best way to blank, and someone goes and gives a generic list of 20 sites that do blank without regard for which is the best. That is pointless, it's a waste of time, it's not going to be voted best, and it's not going to win you the dollars.
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It really depends on the individual question, but generally, I like to see a combination of both credible sources and personal experiences. Anyone can google something and find resources but having personal experience to add to those sources really makes an answer tip-worthy, in my opinion. Not only is that the type of answers I look for, it's also the type of answers I strive to provide.
Source(s):
personal experiences :)

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I would prefer a more subjective answer to a problem rather than a lot of links for two reasons.

1. If I just want links, i can tweak my query in Google and can get desired answers, but that does not lead me to the best possible answer.
2. There is a lot of data and less relevant information on a particular subject when I search on Google, so I want answer from an expert who can use that data to reach conclusion.

After that it depends on the question too. For example if I want to find out the best movie of 2008, then the answer can be written along with some data from different sources and then the opinion. But if a question is like the one I am answering now, it would be hard to find some sources for it.
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In addition to my comments above I think that formatting and grammar are very important to getting best answer.

When I see a nice cleanly organized list, bullet points, perfect grammar and a conclusion/bottom line at the end I think, "gee this is a very well researched and thought out answer."

As a group we need to really focus on delighting the paying customers so that they say "holy cow, I got five amazing answers for just $2?!!? Next time I'm gonna tip M$5 and I'm going to use this thing every day!"
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Now, I'm going to go ahead and give you my opinion on this question without reading through all of these answers. After all, I'm not going to be "googling" this question, now am I? lol No, this is a "what would you do?" question, or a "what is most important to you?" question. So far I have pretty much just been answering questions based on what I know personally, or questions that I can give my personal opinion on. I do use Google to help answer a question if I need a little "refresher" on the topic or subject as I don't see a problem with using Google. But for me personally, I like answers that are simple and easy to read, those that include mostly unbiased information. I think the best answer is "Google searches WITH actual expertise and a personal spin". Remember, keep it simple. Don't just post links either.
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A list of links shows that you actually do not know anything about the subject, most people who ask a question have already done the googling and have already hit all the same links. personal experience is why people are asking questions, or htey could just type the question into google themselves.
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Personal knowledge of course! For a bunch of links there's Google!
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it really depends on the question

but in general-authentic personal knowledge----anyone can google an answer themselves----but sometimes spewing facts and figures doesn't answer a question..

I have helath conditions--I have gotten better personal info fromother people than is available on the web or from doctors
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I prefer authentic personal knowledge mixed with knowledge backed up by sources (but not just a list of links).

Unless it is an opinion question, I like answers with at least one source to support it. Personal expertise is great but you never know if someone really is an expert in that field.
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