2 years, 2 months ago
Should Mahalo focus more on ideas, current inventions and discoveries, not on stylish answers (with countless unnecessary words or images)?
I agree that elaborate explanations and multimedia visual aids are often helpful, but most of what I've seen on Mahalo are useless. Harmful, I might add, as they often blind the askers from seeing concise clever answers. I love Mahalo for its watercolors, but the watercolors are inundating "ahead of their time" answers. Time is rarely on the side of the most clever people, so it may not be a good idea to overpromote long long colorful answers.
I feel at home in Mahalo's watercolors, but I would like to see Mahalo become the most artful, the most multimedia rich, and simultaneously, the most objective human search engine. No amount of art can replace reason. I would like to encourage people to choose plain correct answers over the best looking incorrect answers. Nonetheless, the perfect answer is the most reasonable and the most artful one. Only when all other things are equal should a colorful answer stump a concise answer. I recommend that people don't ignore concise answers. They are at times the best.
Heh, I'm being hypocritical here, wordy. But yeah, it's really frustrating to have the answers you're most confident in ignored in favor of long shotgun answers with little meat.
I feel at home in Mahalo's watercolors, but I would like to see Mahalo become the most artful, the most multimedia rich, and simultaneously, the most objective human search engine. No amount of art can replace reason. I would like to encourage people to choose plain correct answers over the best looking incorrect answers. Nonetheless, the perfect answer is the most reasonable and the most artful one. Only when all other things are equal should a colorful answer stump a concise answer. I recommend that people don't ignore concise answers. They are at times the best.
Heh, I'm being hypocritical here, wordy. But yeah, it's really frustrating to have the answers you're most confident in ignored in favor of long shotgun answers with little meat.
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M$1 Answer
That's a good point you make here and it will reinforce my ideas (no, I'm not sugarcoating)
One issue is that people who vote for BA are not a jury of academics deciding what is good or bad, and maybe it's better that it is not.
So voting is subjective and a BA may not be the best according to experts.
I urge people who vote to pay attention, scroll down and look for helpful answers. Often good answers are way down, pearls waiting to be discovered.
Now, you are right-placing images or videos do not guarantee a proper answer.
A short concise research, obtained with great effort from professional sources is better than verbose answers with poor arguments. After reading essays, you may wonder what the heck the writer wants to say. Several lines would have been sufficient instead.
It may happen that an answer to appeal to flaming emotions rather than reason. The photos and videos come handy for those who want to impress.
I noticed that media and newspapers use this strategy-they post inflammatory images or videos with little or absent justifications of where and when they were taken, what did they represent and what is the relevance to the topic.
It's not big deal to search on Youtube for a video. I don't deny the great usefulness of the videos, but quality means more than colour. Overall, what matters is if the question has a pertinent and a well-thought answer.
Another aspect is the peril of graphs' misinterpretation. A recent book was written about this subject-see the source. You can manipulate using statistical graphs. For example, suppose somebody gives a stats of the vitamins and minerals present in some fruit. They will tell you: look how many vitamins and minerals are there, isn't it a great food? But if you compare with other fruits, it lacks many other nutrients and the quantities of the present nutrients are small.
One issue is that people who vote for BA are not a jury of academics deciding what is good or bad, and maybe it's better that it is not.
So voting is subjective and a BA may not be the best according to experts.
I urge people who vote to pay attention, scroll down and look for helpful answers. Often good answers are way down, pearls waiting to be discovered.
Now, you are right-placing images or videos do not guarantee a proper answer.
A short concise research, obtained with great effort from professional sources is better than verbose answers with poor arguments. After reading essays, you may wonder what the heck the writer wants to say. Several lines would have been sufficient instead.
It may happen that an answer to appeal to flaming emotions rather than reason. The photos and videos come handy for those who want to impress.
I noticed that media and newspapers use this strategy-they post inflammatory images or videos with little or absent justifications of where and when they were taken, what did they represent and what is the relevance to the topic.
It's not big deal to search on Youtube for a video. I don't deny the great usefulness of the videos, but quality means more than colour. Overall, what matters is if the question has a pertinent and a well-thought answer.
Another aspect is the peril of graphs' misinterpretation. A recent book was written about this subject-see the source. You can manipulate using statistical graphs. For example, suppose somebody gives a stats of the vitamins and minerals present in some fruit. They will tell you: look how many vitamins and minerals are there, isn't it a great food? But if you compare with other fruits, it lacks many other nutrients and the quantities of the present nutrients are small.
source(s):
Howard Wainer, "Picturing the uncertain world"
http://www.amazon.com/Picturing-Uncertain-World-Communicate-Uncertainty/dp/...
Howard Wainer, "Picturing the uncertain world"
http://www.amazon.com/Picturing-Uncertain-World-Communicate-Uncertainty/dp/...
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
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