Undecided questions - what is the proper etiquette?
I noticed that several of the questions were asked anonymously with an offered tip of M.25. Some questions were answered concisely with one person responding. I feel that person deserves the tip.
Obviously, some questions never receive an answer or there is truly "no best answer". Should we take it upon ourselves to include voting on "undecided" questions as a part of our daily Mahalo rounds?
I personally don't think it is fair to the answerer for the asker to read the answer and never pick a "best answer" and receive a refund, when in fact the question was answered.
Thoughts?
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.
M$6 Answers
You might have seen my comments to others about answers and me leaving links to helpful Mahalo pages such as those below - I have the list saved and copy/paste it to answers if required.
Helpful Mahalo pages to avoid NBA votes
Mahalo Answers Etiquette
How Mahalo Answers Works
How To Get a Best Answer on Mahalo
Mahalo ProTips
Mahalo Copying and Pasting Guidelines
Mahalo Terms of Service
I include the terms of service for those that think retaliation for voting is OK, because it isn't.
I have also had answers that get NBA votes - it means I work harder and have worked harder to be thorough. I know perfectly well that old questions get one answer before voting so any answer I give has to be better than a simple search, and its good practice for working out if other old questions have a best answer if only one answer is given.
Voting is important but so is selecting a best answer. In fact, I leave questions I can't vote on because my knowledge in the area isn't sufficient for me to know if the Q has been answered.
I use the spy feature to see how voting is going - for example if someone has already voted NBA I see why, and if I agree I add my vote so the question is going to disappear from the list faster and gives us better answers to vote on.
I do try to be flexible but there are way too many flippant answers, one liners without sources, copied and pasted answers from examville or Wiki which add nothing to Mahalo - they weaken the site and its quality - and they will get a NBA no matter how much the tip is worth.
So, although I might have gone off track I hope it helps you decide on voting and how its done. I'm no expert. But if we all try to think quality not quantity we should improve the Mahalo experience for everyone.
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.
M$
Many questioners especially on the .25 cent questions never even return to the site. The .25 is funded by Mahalo. If someone put in the time and effort to answer the question and did so adequately they deserve best answer and the tip. Also now when someone googles that same question they will be led to Mahalo which increases traffic on the site.
Also be careful to be sure they are answering well though as I've noticed some people will just go through old questions spamming answers expecting people to vote them best just because they put something there. That shouldn't be rewarded because of the above stated google linking. It hurts the reputability of the site.
On top of contributing to the site in this way you as a user also gain 1 point per vote which acts towards your belt level. Voting also keeps there from being an unimaginable back log of undecided questions. I've even let some of my questions go into voting when I was undecided on which was "best" a tie breaker of sorts.
Though I'm a little unclear exactly what you asked, I hope this answered your question. :)
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.
M$If we do our part to vote then everything becomes fair. The questions asker gets their information, the person who answered gets the tip and if there has been no best answer given everyone gets their money back. We can help this to happen by voting on undecided questions.
I like to think of voting as my little part to help keep the quality of answers as high as possible. I think I qualify as someone who knows what a less than best answer is because I have given approximately 1150 answers that were neither selected or voted as best answer.
Basically I learned how to answer by doing it all wrong and learning by trial and error. We the voters now have a bit of an obligation to help newer users do the same.
I know it takes some time to vote and the direct reward is minimal (1point) but the indirect reward of learning what is and is not a "best answer" is what the true benefit is. I learned everything I know about how to deliver a best answer here on Mahalo Answers by reading other peoples answers and voting on them.
So yes voting is not mandatory by any means but voting on undecided questions has a far reaching and very helpful effect on the entire community and we will determine the future of Mahalo Answers by the quality of answers we select as best by voting on undecided questions.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
There is a great discussion of this on a question from Jeff Hoard Why you should sometimes choose no best answer when voting on undecided questions.
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.
M$
I mean, I only got one answer and wasn't happy with it, because it wasn't anything beyond what I knew, when I asked the question to learn something I couldn't find on my own. I try to do outside research unless it's an opinion question, or cite my bookreading when it's that which I draw from.
*But* there is a sort of obligation to not clog up the boards with undecideds, so I gave in to best answer. I can see where voting as a group is a more of a fair option, I mean there's always some risk of sway, but multiple people might end up with a better view of 'has the question been answered' properly.
just IMHO on this one.
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.
M$
Hi there @savvy about your obligations. We are above all else obligated to keep the answers here top quality as the ones either voted or selected as "Best Answer" are indexed by Google forever so inferior answers left out on the best answer line are a bit of a black mark on us as a whole.
By all means you can use your own discretion as to what is best but just know you never have to sacrifice these standards just to keep from "clogging up the boards with undecideds" if there is no best answer ..select no best answer for the good of the community and if you personally can't decide which answer is best let it go to voting.
We set the standards of what is a best answer here on Mahalo answers so don't let a bad answer off the hook for any reason.
Thanks
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.
M$
Hi kty2777, as a strict voter, would you agree that this was a NBA?
@topaz5433 your answer is clearly the best answer and if it had gone to voting I would have voted it as best. I think the user who selected NBA there was either mistaking or unclear as what to do when it came time to make a selection. I say it was a good and complete answer deserving of the BA nod.
Its a good answer, I probably would have left a comment about finding the source, moved on to the next question to give the answerer time to add a source. If it came back to me as one to vote on even without the source, I would vote BA ( just ) because the information is correct.
PS - I've had a comment posted as BA accidentally and I think there could be a bit of a bug. A question yesterday was marked BA when the user didn't want to, was adding a comment so it could have been a mistake
Thanks Buggawiggi, I was a little confused as to whether I'd looked at her photo correctly. I hadn't thought that the asker may have clicked the wrong button or something.