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Who decides which questions get a Mahalo-funded tip and on what basis? (I'm not seeing much consistency there!)
Most questions get a Mahalo funded tip, but a fair few don't.
It makes perfect sense not to tip all questions, but I'm not seeing the logic of which ones are considered tip-worthy and which are not.
Some examples:
A perfectly sensible scientific question about antimatter - no tip.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/science-and-mathematics/is-antimatter-real-could-it-actually-exist-in-our-universe
A question about whether Harry Potter is worth reading - no tip.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/from-twitter/should-i-watch-or-read-or-listen-to-all-of-the-harry-potter-moviesbookshear-why-is-it-too-late-to-get-on-the-wizard-train
A question about why Stephenie Meyer's writing has been criticised - tip.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/books-and-authors/why-has-stepenie-meyer-been-critisized
I can't imagine what is driving these decisions except maybe someone is guessing what kind of answers they'll get, and guessing wrongly that a one liner will do.
Anyone want to explain?
It makes perfect sense not to tip all questions, but I'm not seeing the logic of which ones are considered tip-worthy and which are not.
Some examples:
A perfectly sensible scientific question about antimatter - no tip.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/science-and-mathematics/is-antimatter-real-could-it-actually-exist-in-our-universe
A question about whether Harry Potter is worth reading - no tip.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/from-twitter/should-i-watch-or-read-or-listen-to-all-of-the-harry-potter-moviesbookshear-why-is-it-too-late-to-get-on-the-wizard-train
A question about why Stephenie Meyer's writing has been criticised - tip.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/books-and-authors/why-has-stepenie-meyer-been-critisized
I can't imagine what is driving these decisions except maybe someone is guessing what kind of answers they'll get, and guessing wrongly that a one liner will do.
Anyone want to explain?
voted interesting: jfinke, morriss003, hushnow
answers (6)
As per Jason's thread
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/mahalo-answers-community/big-news-mahalo-answers-moves-to-m2-automatic-tip-trial-for-10-days
--quote--
1. We reserve the right to remove tips from any question we think doesn't warrant two bucks at any time (including after an answer has been given). I think you understand that if a question is too easy it's not fair to put the M$2 on it.
--/quote--
There is no black/white rule on why a tip is removed. It's up to the discretion of the Moderators at the time, I can only speak for myself but I generally remove a tip from a question that doesn't need any intense research to be answered, with that said I only remove maybe 5-10 tips a day (out of over 200 questions) I didn't remove the tips from the ones you are referring to so I can't explain why they in particular were removed.
But with that said, remember, the $2 tips are funded by Mahalo and can be removed at any time, as we are within an experimental phase. The only tips that we don't remove are those funded by users, the only way to ensure you tip doesn't get removed is to fund it from your pocket.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/mahalo-answers-community/big-news-mahalo-answers-moves-to-m2-automatic-tip-trial-for-10-days
--quote--
1. We reserve the right to remove tips from any question we think doesn't warrant two bucks at any time (including after an answer has been given). I think you understand that if a question is too easy it's not fair to put the M$2 on it.
--/quote--
There is no black/white rule on why a tip is removed. It's up to the discretion of the Moderators at the time, I can only speak for myself but I generally remove a tip from a question that doesn't need any intense research to be answered, with that said I only remove maybe 5-10 tips a day (out of over 200 questions) I didn't remove the tips from the ones you are referring to so I can't explain why they in particular were removed.
But with that said, remember, the $2 tips are funded by Mahalo and can be removed at any time, as we are within an experimental phase. The only tips that we don't remove are those funded by users, the only way to ensure you tip doesn't get removed is to fund it from your pocket.
| Asker's rating: |
This answer comes closest to addressing the question, but I'm left with the impression that it is all pretty arbitrary, different mods do different things, and that's they way it's going to stay.
voted helpful: jasoncalacanis, thekid, hushnow
It's up to the question maker to decide the tip... and there quite a bit of psychology that goes into it.
Most people who are asking questions probably don't want to spend ANY of their M$ and are happy to let Mahalo foot the bill.
Some people value things differently. Let me give you an example: When I raised my rates I was really worried. Noone would want to pay THAT much. What happened? MORE people called because they probably thought "Man! If he charges that much he MUST be really good." When, in fact, I was the same person... There a perceived value... and I always advise new therapists to value themselves more...
Personally... I put higher tips on the questions that I want a valued answer. If the question isn't very important to me, I don't put much of a tip on it.
Most people who are asking questions probably don't want to spend ANY of their M$ and are happy to let Mahalo foot the bill.
Some people value things differently. Let me give you an example: When I raised my rates I was really worried. Noone would want to pay THAT much. What happened? MORE people called because they probably thought "Man! If he charges that much he MUST be really good." When, in fact, I was the same person... There a perceived value... and I always advise new therapists to value themselves more...
Personally... I put higher tips on the questions that I want a valued answer. If the question isn't very important to me, I don't put much of a tip on it.
voted helpful: maxzhichao
voted unhelpful: hushnow
I've found that to be true many times myself. A friend of my husband's family owns two of the top salons in my area. When she was 20, she was barely scraping by as a stylist. She raised her rates and gained some clients, then moved to a trendy salon and raised them again. She started out charging $12 at the first place. Before she bought her first salon, she'd raised her rates, incrementally, to $100. This was almost 10 years ago. I have no idea what her rates are now! I'm guessing at least half that much again. And every time she raised them, her client list grew to the point she was going to have to turn them away, or open her own salon. So she did.
This is very similar to what I just commented on: http://www.mahalo.com/answers/mahalo-answers-community/big-news-mahalo-answers-moves-to-m2-automatic-tip-trial-for-10-days
For me personally, I choose to fund personally any question I want an answer to. I don't like wasting time, and I especially don't like MY time wasted either. By funding the question with my own M$ it shows that I do put value into the answers I'm looking for.
I hadn't given much thought to using the minimum tip to ask me a question, but after reading quite a few comments about how questions are funded and valued, I just may do so.
For me personally, I choose to fund personally any question I want an answer to. I don't like wasting time, and I especially don't like MY time wasted either. By funding the question with my own M$ it shows that I do put value into the answers I'm looking for.
I hadn't given much thought to using the minimum tip to ask me a question, but after reading quite a few comments about how questions are funded and valued, I just may do so.
I wasn't asking about whether an asker decides to tip or not.
I was just wondering about what the logic is when Mahalo decides a question is not worthy of the Mahalo-funded tip, currently M$2.
I was just wondering about what the logic is when Mahalo decides a question is not worthy of the Mahalo-funded tip, currently M$2.
Perhaps the best way to settle the oddness within the system would be to set a max number of Mahalo funded questions one can ask in a day. It could be something along the lines of 2-3 M$2 questions per day, then the tip is moved down to M$1 for the next 2-3 questions, and then no tip for the rest. That would address the problem of too many questions, and the Mahalo staff could still remove tips.
The part about unjustly removing tips could be automated, if the interesting/uninteresting tab was used. If a question is marked as uninteresting, then it would warrant examination by the staff, and then they could take away the tip from it.
This doesn't really answer your question, because I don't really know why, but these are some suggestions to improve the problem.
The part about unjustly removing tips could be automated, if the interesting/uninteresting tab was used. If a question is marked as uninteresting, then it would warrant examination by the staff, and then they could take away the tip from it.
This doesn't really answer your question, because I don't really know why, but these are some suggestions to improve the problem.
I really don't understand why it was removed on the first question, myself. That's one with some interesting answers. The second is a unique twist on the usual question. IS it too late to get started reading them, when all the books are out but all the movies aren't?
I guess I wouldn't be a very good moderator, LOL.
I guess I wouldn't be a very good moderator, LOL.
So it's the dastardly Moderators that are doing this, eh? Well, maybe the next time that I ask an opinion question, I'll tip TWO dollars instead of one. That'll learn ya.
Just to add more to the confusion:
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/books-and-authors/stephanie-meyer
That question got funded and it was/is an opinion question. Maybe mahalo will take away the tip though.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/books-and-authors/stephanie-meyer
That question got funded and it was/is an opinion question. Maybe mahalo will take away the tip though.
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Is Wikipedia loadling slowly these days - no tip
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/popular-websites/is-wikipedia-loading-very-slowly-these-days
What are the details of the Gmail outage happening right now - tip
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/from-twitter/what-are-the-details-of-the-gmail-outage-happening-right-now
Btw, my Wikipedia question is also asking for help solving any problem I might have at my end, which could call for someone to share their expertise or put some research work in.