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bernices bernices
 
M$2 February 28, 2009 03:43 AM

Why do people mark unhelpful on stupid questions?

I mean, if the question is obviously stupid, wouldn't we expect silly and out there answers? Why mark them unhelpful? Guess I'm just tired and cranky, but I sure hope the unhelpful marks go way down when/if everyone can see who marked what helpful/unhelpful.
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becky becky
 
 February 28, 2009 04:18 AM
In my opinion, stupid questions deserve stupid/silly answers. At that point, it's all in good fun until the claws come out and we're punished for attempting to be humorous and play along.

I also hate when there are opinion questions such as 'what's your favorite coffee drink' or 'what's the best NFL catch' where people rate your answer as unhelpful. By definition, opinions can't be wrong. If the answer is well enough written and there is some value in the information (answer is related to the question and has content rather than just "yes"), even if it's not YOUR opinion that doesn't make it an UNHELPFUL answer!
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pazaq pazaq
 
February 28, 2009 03:47 AM
I agree. I always give silly answers to silly questions. Occasionally they were serious questions. Oh well.

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drmatt drmatt
 
February 28, 2009 03:53 AM
You're not going to be able to control everyone. I continue to hope that it will all wash out in the laundry.... meaning... if you write good answers, ask good questions, and participate in a respectful fashion, more often you will get M$ and points. You can stop everyone from being foolish.

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morriss003 morriss003
 
February 28, 2009 04:00 AM
I would take out unhelpful altogether. Then we would only see the helpful responses. What are people going to do? Mark helpful so they can dis someone?

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philipy philipy
 
February 28, 2009 05:31 PM
There's a lot to be said for that. People get upset at having answers marked unhelpful, which is why we end up with discussion like this.

Helpful votes are quite a useful sort order, and at least let the community express and opinion. Also when there are a lot of answers, it helps the asker find the ones they really should look at carefully.

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dumblonde dumblonde
 
February 28, 2009 04:32 AM
Instead of helpful/unhelpful it can be changed to like/dislike.
It seems to be the way people are voting anyway and it makes more sense intuitively. I think the only person that can judge how helpful an answer is is the actual asker.
But I do agree with you that people use the system like if it were digg.
Another possibility could be to force an are you sure? box before people mark unhelpful. Maybe that can make people reconsider.
I'm not sure if helpful/unhelpful should show names (except to admins for log purposes and to determine misconduct) because it can cause conflict among members.

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coach-b coach-b
 
February 28, 2009 04:51 AM
OK.. my answer in 2 parts: (1) I agree; and (2) I'm going to mark this question as interesting.

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hobinrood hobinrood
 
February 28, 2009 05:53 AM
like this question? :D

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demanda demanda
 
February 28, 2009 08:39 AM
I'd be in favor of only allowing the person who asked the question to be able to vote on whether the answers they receive are helpful or not. After all, it's their opinion that really matters.

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philipy philipy
 
February 28, 2009 05:27 PM
How about if anyone can mark helpful, but only the asker can mark unhelpful?

Or maybe limiting who can vote by belt. e.g. Green and up can mark helpful, but only purple and up can mark unhelpful?

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albanian albanian
 
February 28, 2009 05:46 PM
The asker doesn't know the answer, and they frequently don't know how Mahalo works or what the answer conventions (such as they are) are. So someone could put in a wrong or misleading answer that only another researcher would spot. Also, the answer may be source only, or without sources, etc.

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demanda demanda
 
February 28, 2009 06:38 PM
@philipy Unfortunately, I think there are purple belts and higher who will vote vindictively as well so I don't think that would help much.

@albanian Whether or not the asker knows the answer is irrelevant. They can still look through the answers and judge which are helpful to them. A lot of answers are never voted as helpful/unhelpful as it is, so I think limiting the votes to only the question-asker makes sense. I think it would also make the helpful/unhelpful percentages more accurate.

Everyone else could still comment on answers, add sources, and refute facts as needed. This would help the asker decide what is helpful or not.

It would also help keep the focus on pleasing the question asker and giving them what they want. That should be the goal.

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philipy philipy
 
February 28, 2009 07:01 PM
@albanian... it's true the asker doesn't know the answer. But they are best qualfiied to know if they found something helpful. Following your logic, they would not be qualified to choose the best answer or award tips either!

@demanda... I doubt there can be any perfect system where human beings are involved. It's more a matter of weighing up the advantages and disadvantages. As I said in another comment, helpful votes are quite... umm.. helpful. Esp when there are a lot of answers, they make sure the probably good ones get seen. Unhelpful votes are not as useful, but I think there's a case for having a way to indicate disapproval of bad behaviour like a sarcastic "answer". But the benefits of any mechanism for that have to be balanced with fact that inevitably it will sometimes be misused.

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rosshann rosshann
 
February 28, 2009 11:13 AM
what gets me is if someone asks for an opinion and they get opinions, then start marking them all "unhelpful".

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gwenhwyfar gwenhwyfar
 
February 28, 2009 02:14 PM
Agree! we should reply that stupid question to make it more sense!

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psynopsis psynopsis
 
March 01, 2009 02:26 AM
Yeah we should be able to post any question we want! Why mark them? just don't answer them if your such a Buzzkilligton!

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