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I think you are being unreasonable (hey, you asked! :)
I could understand the concern in the past when ConundrumLand questions would take up a large percentage of Mahalo homepage, but today for example at the most I have seen 6 out of 30 questions as ConundrumLand, that is a pretty small percentage to create a fuss about.
--quote--
There is NO benefit (AND it's annoying) to answering Conundrumland questions. It doesn't benefit the MA community. It doesn't get me any points and it doesn't get me any money.
--/quote--
If you get a best answer on a ConundrumLand question you do get a M$1 tip and 16 points, true if you don't get best answer you get nothing, except for maybe the personal satisfaction that you potentially helped somebody out with their Conundrum.
The MA Community most certainly does benefit - because like Twitter questions, email questions, facebook questions and anonymous questions its an alternative source of questions for Answerers and creates more opportunities for participating in the Community. ConundrumLand, being a partner, is part of our community.
It's been addressed by Mahalo staff on several occasions that if the ConundrumLand partnership is successful for Conunudrum Wines it could open up more opportunities for the Mahalo Answers community in the future. Imagine the opportunities for the the food and cooking experts here on Mahalo if the Food Network integrated Mahalo Answers on their website like ConundrumLand does. Of course, if you don't like food, you would probably hate this, which is why Mahalo 3.0 will have more filtering options so your Mahalo Answers experience can be tailored to your interests.
Thanks for your patience Matt.
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We be for a little patience while we catch up.
Giri,
JMC
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The sign up problem was fixed.
Some of the questions are interesting, but the concept doesn't do it for me. MA is growing a bit on the stale side and I'm hoping M3.0 bleeds some new life around here so I can enjoy myself and make friends and cash around here.
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It took me a little practice, but eventually I noticed at the bottom of each question on the front page of Answers, it tells you where the question came from, (conundrumland, mahalo answers) and what heading it falls under (food and drink, technology) and how many people have answered it already. If i'm in the mood to avoid conundrumland questions, I just look a little closer before I click.
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i.e. "what's you favorite color?" Is that supposed to be conundrum, as if there's a dilemma inherent in having a preference?
Or... sometimes they'll just be straightforward problems, like, "what's 1 plus 2?", in which case they should go to Mahalo.
What's curious is that it's not because ConundrumLand is unedited.
It *is* edited, which means they could be somewhat more selective about ensuring that post are real conundrums...
... especially given that what has annoyed me is that one day I *did* post what I thought was a real conundrum (got the idea from one of my cousins from Oregon who's a hard-core evangelical dealing with a spiritual conundrum of his own) and it got scrubbed (but I forgave them when one of my smart-alecky friends was visiting and saw me signed on so he posted a conundrum with my id while I was in the kitchen... in that case I appreciated that they would edit it out, and yes, I gave him hell, but we were all in a rather silly state of mind).
What I think would be interesting is if a similar site were set up with legal conundrums, where some method be determined to organize people into groups of nine (or some other odd-number, excluding 1) to function as some sort of start-chamber judges, and then to be presented with cases that are loaded with a dilemma, and to see what kinds of decisions would be reached... but I haven't figured out yet how best to determine the star-chamber groupings... i.e., should they be random assemblages, or should they be groups of people who know each other and want to judge cases together, of if it should be based upon a hierarchical ranking system based upon a ratio of opinions delivered per opinions considered to be valid... or something like that.
Among other things, one aspect of it would be to go back and re-examine old decisions, like the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, or decisions that never got to be made, like... what would you have considered to be a fair sentence if Hitler had been captured.
Hmm... there would have to be a method for determining who would be the advocate and who would be arguing for the prosecution...
... And yes I know that some people will be thinking it's a great little venture to take off on, but actually, if you do the math, it's way better to be able to dovetail it onto a compatible system that's already got inertia (like Mahalo) because you get an exponential feedback effect (K^e(kn)), and so, yes, as soon as I get the fine details of the logistics worked out for determining case proposals, and star-chamber membership, and how to choose the advocate and the prosecution I will be talking to Jason et al (and it's going to include a scheme I'm been using for years where the links to the database engine never break... :P).
Anyway... in a nutshell... CondrumLand is supposed to be about conundrums, but it's turned mostly into something like an opinion survey... which *itself* could be interesting if it was understood to be that, an opinion survey, and given that Conundrum *does* have editors, I recommend they actually start doing their job as editors, and make sure that the stuff getting posted are real conundrums.
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Whether people agree with your opnion on this or not, it is still a valid and interesting question.
I assume you, like me, are willing to compromise on this. There are clearly Mahalo users who like the Conundrum questions and want to answer them. There are also A LOT of Mahalo users who really don't. For that reason, it seems so simple to me that the ConundrumLand questions should be displayed under a tab all of their own - just like the undecided questions are.
They aren't even putting the little Conundrum flag thing on them any more, I wonder why that stopped? Possibly to try to convince those who aren't interested in ConundrumLand to give it a chance?
Well, I've given it plenty of chances and even got a couple of best answers there, earning me M$3 at a time. However, dipping my toe in those waters has made me realise I truly don't have any interest in those questions and I agree that they're making it difficult and irritating to wade through the list to find questions on MAHALO that I want to answer.
This has been going on for too long with little or no input or response from the Mahalo staff - hopefully once I post my answer and look thorugh the others I will be proven wrong on that one.
This is the one thing that has truly frustrated me in all my time on Mahalo, simply because the staff are so helpful and considerate in EVERY OTHER ASPECT OF MAHALO but they don't seem to want to listen to us on this one.
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I am completely cool with the ConundrumLand questions because now their default tip value is one Mahalo dollar instead of three.
When they were three bucks they would cloud the top of the page and require us to pay a bit more for our own questions to get some time at the top of the page and that was a bit disconcerting and expensive.
I now look at them as regular questions and the top of the page is not all jammed up with the Conundrum questions. I think the current scenario is just fine and would even like to see the team tipping feature added to the Conundrum questions so if the community wants to add value to them and keep them up on the top of the page they can.
Tags: conundrum, mahaloanswers
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I find many of their questions interesting, though I have never answered them.
I don't think it's much to ask for them to put a special symbol next to those questions so we can identify they are via Conundrum Land. Although they are usually labeled "Via CondundrumLand."
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Let me put it this way:
What if all the people who came to the Mahalo pages that you manage got annoyed with the ads and left you furious comments about the ads on your pages? You provide free content that they can read whenever they want. You don't force them to click on the ads or even to read the ads. There is no way you are going to remove the ads. The ads are what pay you for managing the page.
It's the same with Mahalo and their partners like Conundrum. Partners help Mahalo pay the bills. There is no way Mahalo is going to remove the partners. Mahalo doesn't force you to answer Conundrum questions or even to read them.
Yes, I do think you are being unreasonable to complain about Mahalo's partners. Don't bite the hand that feeds Mahalo.
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1. Your disinterest in answering questions seems to have appeared way before the Conundrumland integration.
2. You CAN receive tips for getting a best answer on a Conundrumland question.
3. You can browse questions via the homepage and easily ignore those in the Conundrumland category without even clicking on the question itself.
4. What are you trying to accomplish with this question? Do you think that Mahalo is going to rethink their relationship, which I am sure is contractual, with Conundrum, because YOU are annoyed with it? It seems somewhat narcissistic to me.
5. 10 days ago, you said, "I really enjoy the questions from Conundrumland..." You also said that you are aware that the separation of questions is on its way.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/new-features/who-thinks-joining-mahalo-with-conumdrum-land-with-mahalo-was-a-bad-idea
6. As has already been noted, above all Mahalo is a business, whose goal is to make money.
So once again, what is the purpose of this question? The Mahalo team is cognizant of the need to separate the questions and are working on it. You already knew this, and your activity had slowed before this. So, I just don't see your motive.
On a (somewhat) related note, there is one thing about the Conundrumland connection that does bother me:
When you are not signed in, the homepage screen shows a large Conundrumland banner at the top with "conundrums." This doesn't bother me, but the Conundrums, regardless of the question, have "yes!" and "no!" boxes under them. None of these questions are YES or NO questions!!!!
http://i38.tinypic.com/99jc08.jpg
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M$5.29
November 07, 2009 03:59 PM
Am I being unreasonable in getting annoyed with Conundrumland questions?
Since I have a Black Belt here, it is obvious that I have participated quite a bit on Mahalo Answers. Once Conundrumland questions started appearing and intertwining with normal MA questions, I found myself totally disinterested in answering questions anymore and have somewhat removed myself from participating in MA.
I am torn between something I really enjoy and being totally consternated by the software. As of today, I've started a "three strikes" rule.
If I select a question I'm interested in answering, and a Conundrumland question is presented to me, I will allow that to happen three times before I stop looking for any more questions to answer for a while.
Am I being unreasonable?
There is NO benefit (AND it's annoying) to answering Conundrumland questions. It doesn't benefit the MA community. It doesn't get me any points and it doesn't get me any money.
If YOU are frustrated and done with Conundrumland questions, add some money to this question (click on Interesting Question and throw in a cent or two) and I'll give the proceeds to Jason so he can hire someone to program SOMETHING to identify the offending questions somehow.
I am torn between something I really enjoy and being totally consternated by the software. As of today, I've started a "three strikes" rule.
If I select a question I'm interested in answering, and a Conundrumland question is presented to me, I will allow that to happen three times before I stop looking for any more questions to answer for a while.
Am I being unreasonable?
There is NO benefit (AND it's annoying) to answering Conundrumland questions. It doesn't benefit the MA community. It doesn't get me any points and it doesn't get me any money.
If YOU are frustrated and done with Conundrumland questions, add some money to this question (click on Interesting Question and throw in a cent or two) and I'll give the proceeds to Jason so he can hire someone to program SOMETHING to identify the offending questions somehow.
Interesting Question?
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No (3)
Interesting: chriswingate M$0.10, maxzhichao M$0.14, lilyloretta M$1.00, eatthatpopcorn M$0.05
Uninteresting: jasoncalacanis, psionandy, demanda
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- Tags: fail, conundrumland |
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| November 07, 2009 10:44 PM |
I could understand the concern in the past when ConundrumLand questions would take up a large percentage of Mahalo homepage, but today for example at the most I have seen 6 out of 30 questions as ConundrumLand, that is a pretty small percentage to create a fuss about.
--quote--
There is NO benefit (AND it's annoying) to answering Conundrumland questions. It doesn't benefit the MA community. It doesn't get me any points and it doesn't get me any money.
--/quote--
If you get a best answer on a ConundrumLand question you do get a M$1 tip and 16 points, true if you don't get best answer you get nothing, except for maybe the personal satisfaction that you potentially helped somebody out with their Conundrum.
The MA Community most certainly does benefit - because like Twitter questions, email questions, facebook questions and anonymous questions its an alternative source of questions for Answerers and creates more opportunities for participating in the Community. ConundrumLand, being a partner, is part of our community.
It's been addressed by Mahalo staff on several occasions that if the ConundrumLand partnership is successful for Conunudrum Wines it could open up more opportunities for the Mahalo Answers community in the future. Imagine the opportunities for the the food and cooking experts here on Mahalo if the Food Network integrated Mahalo Answers on their website like ConundrumLand does. Of course, if you don't like food, you would probably hate this, which is why Mahalo 3.0 will have more filtering options so your Mahalo Answers experience can be tailored to your interests.
Thanks for your patience Matt.
| Asker's Rating: |
• @jeffhoard answered my question and then gave additional details. There are still issues and confusions attached to my question, but this was still the most direct and thoughtful answer.
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Helpful: socalsue, lilyloretta, tchachra, easyeboy, buddawiggi, wdawe, eatthatpopcorn, unwirklich, lidyax, bunnyphuphu, bluecash99, jasoncalacanis
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November 07, 2009 08:30 PM
Thanks for the feedback. As I mentioned in the other two or three related threads for this the Mahalo Answers 3.0 homepage which is coming in < two weeks will filter questions you don't like out. We be for a little patience while we catch up.
Giri,
JMC
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November 07, 2009 10:36 PM
I agree with you drmatt Conundrumland questions are quite annoying. Annoying like when a member like jasoncalacanis give you a Interesting Question vote for a very serious question asked. From the beginning i did not like it i probably have answered only three Conundrumland questions. And i am serious. I think Mahalo should give its members a game. Yes a game and i hope jasoncalacanis and other staff members see this answer. I think Mahalo can do better than just let it members asked and answer questions. I think we deserved a Mahalo game. A unique game designed and developed by the members. Conundrumland is no different from the anonymous questions. All are questions. If not for a few dedicated members Mahalo would be a flop. Jasoncalacanis give the members a game something fresh different and engaging. A game call mahalo land where a member can become the mahalo king.
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November 10, 2009 05:56 PM
(I'm going to assume you meant "Uninteresting Vote", @argmatrixman9000)
I found it interesting (and surprising) that three people identified my question as "uninteresting". Clearly I have evoked the ire and passion of a number of people and it makes it clear to me that my question is "interesting".
I'm VERY curious about the use of the "Uninteresting Question" by these people. It's seems to me (repeat: seems to ME) that the button was used for other reasons than identifying this an an uninteresting question. But, that's just me...
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I found it interesting (and surprising) that three people identified my question as "uninteresting". Clearly I have evoked the ire and passion of a number of people and it makes it clear to me that my question is "interesting".
I'm VERY curious about the use of the "Uninteresting Question" by these people. It's seems to me (repeat: seems to ME) that the button was used for other reasons than identifying this an an uninteresting question. But, that's just me...
November 07, 2009 10:52 PM
I've been annoyed about the Conundrum questions since the first week: from them taking up valuable MA room and from not being able to even sign up/in. The sign up problem was fixed.
Some of the questions are interesting, but the concept doesn't do it for me. MA is growing a bit on the stale side and I'm hoping M3.0 bleeds some new life around here so I can enjoy myself and make friends and cash around here.
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November 07, 2009 11:18 PM
I find that the questions on Conundrumland usually take more personal thought and creativity, and the Mahalo questions are usually more geared towards research and fact. Depending on my mood, sometimes I don't feel like doing one or the other. It took me a little practice, but eventually I noticed at the bottom of each question on the front page of Answers, it tells you where the question came from, (conundrumland, mahalo answers) and what heading it falls under (food and drink, technology) and how many people have answered it already. If i'm in the mood to avoid conundrumland questions, I just look a little closer before I click.
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November 07, 2009 11:58 PM
Same here - although it has been annoying some days to see almost a whole page of Conundrumland questions when I don't have the time to get a decent well thought out / put together answer.
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November 08, 2009 12:01 AM
Excellent point Kate, all the questions on Mahalo are labeled, some come from Twitter, some come from ConundrumLand, and most just come from Mahalo. Getting to know where the label appears will help you avoid answering questions from sites you don't like, in Matt's case it's easy to identify and avoid ConundrumLand questions.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33749589@N07/4083271547/
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November 08, 2009 12:43 AM
Thanks Jeff, and thanks for posting that picture as well... I was trying to post one as well but I havn't figured out how to upload a picture to mahalo yet, I just link them from images on the web...
haha... apparently all it took to figure it out was writing that sentence... the link is directly under what I am typing. That is my S-M-R-T move of the day :)
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haha... apparently all it took to figure it out was writing that sentence... the link is directly under what I am typing. That is my S-M-R-T move of the day :)
November 08, 2009 12:04 AM
CondundrumLand questions would be more interesting if they were actual conundrums, but they're tending to trite opinion surveys. i.e. "what's you favorite color?" Is that supposed to be conundrum, as if there's a dilemma inherent in having a preference?
Or... sometimes they'll just be straightforward problems, like, "what's 1 plus 2?", in which case they should go to Mahalo.
What's curious is that it's not because ConundrumLand is unedited.
It *is* edited, which means they could be somewhat more selective about ensuring that post are real conundrums...
... especially given that what has annoyed me is that one day I *did* post what I thought was a real conundrum (got the idea from one of my cousins from Oregon who's a hard-core evangelical dealing with a spiritual conundrum of his own) and it got scrubbed (but I forgave them when one of my smart-alecky friends was visiting and saw me signed on so he posted a conundrum with my id while I was in the kitchen... in that case I appreciated that they would edit it out, and yes, I gave him hell, but we were all in a rather silly state of mind).
What I think would be interesting is if a similar site were set up with legal conundrums, where some method be determined to organize people into groups of nine (or some other odd-number, excluding 1) to function as some sort of start-chamber judges, and then to be presented with cases that are loaded with a dilemma, and to see what kinds of decisions would be reached... but I haven't figured out yet how best to determine the star-chamber groupings... i.e., should they be random assemblages, or should they be groups of people who know each other and want to judge cases together, of if it should be based upon a hierarchical ranking system based upon a ratio of opinions delivered per opinions considered to be valid... or something like that.
Among other things, one aspect of it would be to go back and re-examine old decisions, like the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, or decisions that never got to be made, like... what would you have considered to be a fair sentence if Hitler had been captured.
Hmm... there would have to be a method for determining who would be the advocate and who would be arguing for the prosecution...
... And yes I know that some people will be thinking it's a great little venture to take off on, but actually, if you do the math, it's way better to be able to dovetail it onto a compatible system that's already got inertia (like Mahalo) because you get an exponential feedback effect (K^e(kn)), and so, yes, as soon as I get the fine details of the logistics worked out for determining case proposals, and star-chamber membership, and how to choose the advocate and the prosecution I will be talking to Jason et al (and it's going to include a scheme I'm been using for years where the links to the database engine never break... :P).
Anyway... in a nutshell... CondrumLand is supposed to be about conundrums, but it's turned mostly into something like an opinion survey... which *itself* could be interesting if it was understood to be that, an opinion survey, and given that Conundrum *does* have editors, I recommend they actually start doing their job as editors, and make sure that the stuff getting posted are real conundrums.
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November 08, 2009 12:22 AM
I DO NOT THINK you're being unreasonable in any way and I want to know why this question has been voted uninteresting AT ALL, let alone twice. I know full well that the "uninteresting" button IS NOT to be used as an "I disagree" button and would have thought @jason, of all people would uphold that rule. Whether people agree with your opnion on this or not, it is still a valid and interesting question.
I assume you, like me, are willing to compromise on this. There are clearly Mahalo users who like the Conundrum questions and want to answer them. There are also A LOT of Mahalo users who really don't. For that reason, it seems so simple to me that the ConundrumLand questions should be displayed under a tab all of their own - just like the undecided questions are.
They aren't even putting the little Conundrum flag thing on them any more, I wonder why that stopped? Possibly to try to convince those who aren't interested in ConundrumLand to give it a chance?
Well, I've given it plenty of chances and even got a couple of best answers there, earning me M$3 at a time. However, dipping my toe in those waters has made me realise I truly don't have any interest in those questions and I agree that they're making it difficult and irritating to wade through the list to find questions on MAHALO that I want to answer.
This has been going on for too long with little or no input or response from the Mahalo staff - hopefully once I post my answer and look thorugh the others I will be proven wrong on that one.
This is the one thing that has truly frustrated me in all my time on Mahalo, simply because the staff are so helpful and considerate in EVERY OTHER ASPECT OF MAHALO but they don't seem to want to listen to us on this one.
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November 08, 2009 12:44 AM
--quote--
This has been going on for too long with little or no input or response from the Mahalo staff - hopefully once I post my answer and look thorugh the others I will be proven wrong on that one.
--/quote--
I don't think it's fair to say there has been no input or response from Mahalo. We have answered every question we have received regarding ConundrumLand, including this one.
@Lon has spend entire segments during several Mahalo Tutorials addressing ConundrumLand questions and concerns and as stated above by Jason and myself, Mahalo plans on adding additional filters with the next Mahalo Answers update.
There was no intention on ruining peoples experiences on Mahalo, ConundrumLand is a valued partner and a lot of hard work from our own development team was put into this project and the intentions were to enhance user experience. Beyond the early bugs I believe the whole concept is powerful and it saddens me that the community reaction has been so negative, but all feedback is appreciated.
We apologize for any inconvenience that ConundrumLand questions are causing. Thanks you for your patience as filtering tools are being developed. Please in the mean time just ignore the questions you don't want to answer.
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This has been going on for too long with little or no input or response from the Mahalo staff - hopefully once I post my answer and look thorugh the others I will be proven wrong on that one.
--/quote--
I don't think it's fair to say there has been no input or response from Mahalo. We have answered every question we have received regarding ConundrumLand, including this one.
@Lon has spend entire segments during several Mahalo Tutorials addressing ConundrumLand questions and concerns and as stated above by Jason and myself, Mahalo plans on adding additional filters with the next Mahalo Answers update.
There was no intention on ruining peoples experiences on Mahalo, ConundrumLand is a valued partner and a lot of hard work from our own development team was put into this project and the intentions were to enhance user experience. Beyond the early bugs I believe the whole concept is powerful and it saddens me that the community reaction has been so negative, but all feedback is appreciated.
We apologize for any inconvenience that ConundrumLand questions are causing. Thanks you for your patience as filtering tools are being developed. Please in the mean time just ignore the questions you don't want to answer.
November 08, 2009 12:55 AM
I said "little or no response", not just "no response".
What I meant by that was that although you have acknowledged our concerns, this is the first itime I have heard that we will be having filters put in place for the questions. Our concerns were noted but, seemingly, not answered definitively until tonight.
Thankyou to you and @jason for clearing it up for us tonight.
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What I meant by that was that although you have acknowledged our concerns, this is the first itime I have heard that we will be having filters put in place for the questions. Our concerns were noted but, seemingly, not answered definitively until tonight.
Thankyou to you and @jason for clearing it up for us tonight.
November 08, 2009 01:04 AM
No worries Lily, yes filters are on the way.
If you ever see an important question that has no response from staff perhaps it was overlooked, we won't ever purposely ignore any question directed to us. If you see something that needs a response, I invite anybody to contact me directly at jeff@mahalo.com or DQ my profile.
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If you ever see an important question that has no response from staff perhaps it was overlooked, we won't ever purposely ignore any question directed to us. If you see something that needs a response, I invite anybody to contact me directly at jeff@mahalo.com or DQ my profile.
November 08, 2009 02:33 PM
Jeff,
I am new here at Mahalo and, feeling that the How To's and Pages and Tasks sound too complicated, I have enjoyed taking part in the Answers.
However, going from $3 to $1 on the tips (is that only in the ones from ConumdrumLand??) is very disappointing to me because I feel differently from many who have answered here, and I have found quite a few of their questions that I have enjoyed answering.
At only $1 for a "best answer", it will take "forever" to get up to M$40 pay-outs.
Couldn't there be a compromise and let the tips be at least $2???
Jackie
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I am new here at Mahalo and, feeling that the How To's and Pages and Tasks sound too complicated, I have enjoyed taking part in the Answers.
However, going from $3 to $1 on the tips (is that only in the ones from ConumdrumLand??) is very disappointing to me because I feel differently from many who have answered here, and I have found quite a few of their questions that I have enjoyed answering.
At only $1 for a "best answer", it will take "forever" to get up to M$40 pay-outs.
Couldn't there be a compromise and let the tips be at least $2???
Jackie
November 08, 2009 01:00 AM
It is a bit unreasonable because things are sooo much better than they were and I find things with ConundrumLand completely reasonable. I am completely cool with the ConundrumLand questions because now their default tip value is one Mahalo dollar instead of three.
When they were three bucks they would cloud the top of the page and require us to pay a bit more for our own questions to get some time at the top of the page and that was a bit disconcerting and expensive.
I now look at them as regular questions and the top of the page is not all jammed up with the Conundrum questions. I think the current scenario is just fine and would even like to see the team tipping feature added to the Conundrum questions so if the community wants to add value to them and keep them up on the top of the page they can.
Tags: conundrum, mahaloanswers
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Helpful: jeffhoard, unwirklich
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November 08, 2009 01:14 AM
Thanks for the response Budda, that's another great point, I believe the ConundrumLand questions tip value was lowered after it was suggested by the community, I myself even noticed that the M$3 tip was creating a Conundrum logjam, that was a concern of mine in the past and I believe the current state is a perfect middle ground until the filters are put in place.
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November 08, 2009 05:13 AM
Did Mahalo ever explain their relationship with Conundrum? I assume Mahalo is getting paid by them. I find many of their questions interesting, though I have never answered them.
I don't think it's much to ask for them to put a special symbol next to those questions so we can identify they are via Conundrum Land. Although they are usually labeled "Via CondundrumLand."
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November 08, 2009 03:18 PM
Yes, Jason and Mahalo staff have often explained the relationship with Conundrum.
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November 08, 2009 02:32 PM
Advertising is annoying in almost any form. However, we would not have all the cool stuff that we have on the Internet without advertising. It pays the bills! Let me put it this way:
What if all the people who came to the Mahalo pages that you manage got annoyed with the ads and left you furious comments about the ads on your pages? You provide free content that they can read whenever they want. You don't force them to click on the ads or even to read the ads. There is no way you are going to remove the ads. The ads are what pay you for managing the page.
It's the same with Mahalo and their partners like Conundrum. Partners help Mahalo pay the bills. There is no way Mahalo is going to remove the partners. Mahalo doesn't force you to answer Conundrum questions or even to read them.
Yes, I do think you are being unreasonable to complain about Mahalo's partners. Don't bite the hand that feeds Mahalo.
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November 08, 2009 02:37 PM
P.S. This happened to me at Bright Hub yesterday! A guy left me a furious comment about how the sponsored ads didn't have the kind of insurance he was looking for! Fortunately, the channel editor addressed it, so I didn't have to.
"What if all the people who came to the Mahalo pages that you manage got annoyed with the ads and left you furious comments about the ads on your pages?"
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"What if all the people who came to the Mahalo pages that you manage got annoyed with the ads and left you furious comments about the ads on your pages?"
November 08, 2009 03:17 PM
I disagree with you on a number of points, @cherise.
- "We would not have all the cool stuff on the Internet without advertising."? Do you realize that the internet ITSELF is free? Do you realize how many people do "cool stuff" on the Internet for free or near-free? I seriously disagree with this statement.
- There are MANY other ways to "pay the bills" than getting advertisers.
- I am NOT suggesting that MA get rid of partners. Simply to organize them so *I* can decide whether to click on the questions or not.
- Mahalo DOES force me to read Conundrumland questions. I primarily use the Spy functionality of MA. There is NO differentiation of questions in Spy.
- Mahalo Answers was doing just fine without Conundrumland. There's no "bite the hand the feeds Mahalo".
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- "We would not have all the cool stuff on the Internet without advertising."? Do you realize that the internet ITSELF is free? Do you realize how many people do "cool stuff" on the Internet for free or near-free? I seriously disagree with this statement.
- There are MANY other ways to "pay the bills" than getting advertisers.
- I am NOT suggesting that MA get rid of partners. Simply to organize them so *I* can decide whether to click on the questions or not.
- Mahalo DOES force me to read Conundrumland questions. I primarily use the Spy functionality of MA. There is NO differentiation of questions in Spy.
- Mahalo Answers was doing just fine without Conundrumland. There's no "bite the hand the feeds Mahalo".
November 08, 2009 03:53 PM
I do not think you are unreasonable in being *annoyed* with the Conundrumland questions. However, I do find it unnecessary to broadcast your annoyance in such a way. A few points: 1. Your disinterest in answering questions seems to have appeared way before the Conundrumland integration.
2. You CAN receive tips for getting a best answer on a Conundrumland question.
3. You can browse questions via the homepage and easily ignore those in the Conundrumland category without even clicking on the question itself.
4. What are you trying to accomplish with this question? Do you think that Mahalo is going to rethink their relationship, which I am sure is contractual, with Conundrum, because YOU are annoyed with it? It seems somewhat narcissistic to me.
5. 10 days ago, you said, "I really enjoy the questions from Conundrumland..." You also said that you are aware that the separation of questions is on its way.
http://www.mahalo.com/answers/new-features/who-thinks-joining-mahalo-with-conumdrum-land-with-mahalo-was-a-bad-idea
6. As has already been noted, above all Mahalo is a business, whose goal is to make money.
So once again, what is the purpose of this question? The Mahalo team is cognizant of the need to separate the questions and are working on it. You already knew this, and your activity had slowed before this. So, I just don't see your motive.
On a (somewhat) related note, there is one thing about the Conundrumland connection that does bother me:
When you are not signed in, the homepage screen shows a large Conundrumland banner at the top with "conundrums." This doesn't bother me, but the Conundrums, regardless of the question, have "yes!" and "no!" boxes under them. None of these questions are YES or NO questions!!!!
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November 08, 2009 05:55 PM
Wow, @demanda. Your answer seems to have quite a bit of negative feelings behind it... A few clarifying points:
I don't know how you can say that I became "disinterested" before Conundrumland. That is simply not true...
Since I try to be very clear in my communication, let me be so and talk to what I'm trying to "accomplish". As with any behavior anyone has, I'm trying to "accomplish" taking care of a need. My need is to vent my frustration and disappointment with how things are going with the community. My need is to identify the frustration with the process in which I really enjoyed before the process had changed. My need is also to continue to poke Mahalo Staff so they understand what I view as a problem with the process.
I also wanted to check in with the community and see where everyone else sits with this issue. It seems to be a very polarizing issue.
You mention that Mahalo is a business. The next question: A business to do WHAT? I seem the business of MA to be connecting people who have questions with people who have answers. Both benefit. And, in my view, this business model is being consternated by Conundrumland questions. I don't think the business model of MA was EVER to make money in itself. If it were, we'd have seen ads in questions/answers from the start.
'nuf said...
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I don't know how you can say that I became "disinterested" before Conundrumland. That is simply not true...
Since I try to be very clear in my communication, let me be so and talk to what I'm trying to "accomplish". As with any behavior anyone has, I'm trying to "accomplish" taking care of a need. My need is to vent my frustration and disappointment with how things are going with the community. My need is to identify the frustration with the process in which I really enjoyed before the process had changed. My need is also to continue to poke Mahalo Staff so they understand what I view as a problem with the process.
I also wanted to check in with the community and see where everyone else sits with this issue. It seems to be a very polarizing issue.
You mention that Mahalo is a business. The next question: A business to do WHAT? I seem the business of MA to be connecting people who have questions with people who have answers. Both benefit. And, in my view, this business model is being consternated by Conundrumland questions. I don't think the business model of MA was EVER to make money in itself. If it were, we'd have seen ads in questions/answers from the start.
'nuf said...
November 08, 2009 06:25 PM
Sorry to hear you are feeling frustrated and disappointed with the Mahalo community, naturally a claim I take very seriously. We appreciate your need to "poke staff to understand what you view as a problem" - But we have not heard any complaints from you internally. By all means if you have any concerns about the site feel free to contact any of us or all of us by sending a message to contact@mahalo.com - Although its not mandatory you can understand why we'd appreciate this method of dealing with concerns prior to announcing them to the community on our Front Page for 24hrs :D
I believe the last time you complained was when we started the Mahaloian of the Week last Spring, you thought it was a bad idea... until we featured you, I am sure there is something we can do to make you happy and/or understand how important the ConundrumLand partnership is to Mahalo Answers.
Yes, you are an original member, so you are most likely nostalgic of Mahalo during the early days when there were few members, few questions. You have to realize Mahalo has grown 10 fold since you joined, we have thousands of members and there are lots of questions coming in from a lot of different avenues, the growth will continue and Mahalo will keep changing to accommodate this growth, I just want you to be prepared and to understand we are not making changes to anger people, but instead the changes are meant to help more people.
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I believe the last time you complained was when we started the Mahaloian of the Week last Spring, you thought it was a bad idea... until we featured you, I am sure there is something we can do to make you happy and/or understand how important the ConundrumLand partnership is to Mahalo Answers.
Yes, you are an original member, so you are most likely nostalgic of Mahalo during the early days when there were few members, few questions. You have to realize Mahalo has grown 10 fold since you joined, we have thousands of members and there are lots of questions coming in from a lot of different avenues, the growth will continue and Mahalo will keep changing to accommodate this growth, I just want you to be prepared and to understand we are not making changes to anger people, but instead the changes are meant to help more people.
November 10, 2009 05:48 PM
Wow... it really seems like people are implying quite a bit. First, @demanda and now @jeffhoard.
@jeffhoard: So, you'd like the procedure to be: If someone has a problem, take it directly to staff and, if they still have a problem, take it public? (By the way, I DO believe I've made this issue known privately via private lists...) Is that the way you would handle it with users? Take your issues with them directly to them first?
I REALLY resent your implication about the Mahaloian of the Week. To imply that I wouldn't "complain" about something after I was featured/included/paid-off is, frankly, insulting.
You seem to be very defensive and not listening to what I am saying. Let me be crystal clear: I can understand (and be excited about) new partnerships with others that make money for Jason/Mahalo. That's business. As a USER, I am identifying what might be a problem with the process, how it affects me, how it affects my relationship with MA, and how it might be fixed.
Let me continue to be clear... I have no personal problem with Conundrumland. Again, I like the questions and wish there were a better way of answering them without disturbing the MA experience. I'm happy that Mahalo is getting some extra cash for this partnership. I just wish there were another process that would be beneficial to both...
And, please, don't imply that I don't know what it means to grow and change. Being in both large and small companies in Silicon Valley pre-boom, boom, and bust, I know plenty about change...
It's interesting that I NEVER made this a personal issue and some people have really take me to task personally. I'll assume that this represents the passion people have, but I hope that people really reconsider doing that kind of behavior...
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@jeffhoard: So, you'd like the procedure to be: If someone has a problem, take it directly to staff and, if they still have a problem, take it public? (By the way, I DO believe I've made this issue known privately via private lists...) Is that the way you would handle it with users? Take your issues with them directly to them first?
I REALLY resent your implication about the Mahaloian of the Week. To imply that I wouldn't "complain" about something after I was featured/included/paid-off is, frankly, insulting.
You seem to be very defensive and not listening to what I am saying. Let me be crystal clear: I can understand (and be excited about) new partnerships with others that make money for Jason/Mahalo. That's business. As a USER, I am identifying what might be a problem with the process, how it affects me, how it affects my relationship with MA, and how it might be fixed.
Let me continue to be clear... I have no personal problem with Conundrumland. Again, I like the questions and wish there were a better way of answering them without disturbing the MA experience. I'm happy that Mahalo is getting some extra cash for this partnership. I just wish there were another process that would be beneficial to both...
And, please, don't imply that I don't know what it means to grow and change. Being in both large and small companies in Silicon Valley pre-boom, boom, and bust, I know plenty about change...
It's interesting that I NEVER made this a personal issue and some people have really take me to task personally. I'll assume that this represents the passion people have, but I hope that people really reconsider doing that kind of behavior...
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