Rewarding the best in AskMe

April 20, 2006 11:06 PM

Two ideas: AskMe author-of-the-month -- Best of an AskMe author
posted by maschnitz to Feature Requests at 11:06 PM (19 comments total)

author = answerer?
posted by scarabic at 11:06 PM on April 20, 2006

Yeah, answerer.

1. AskMe author-of-the-month: a few folks have really been kicking ass in AskMe (eg unSane). I think it'd be great to spotlight good AskMe answerers.

2. Best of an AskMe author: if an author could pick out what they considered their best answers, it'd encourage people to read other people's stuff.
posted by maschnitz at 11:08 PM on April 20, 2006

Yep - not a bad idea at all. Though I'd be interested to see if such recognition encouraged people to continue, or made them self-conscious to the point where they scaled back.

People are weird. They have weird reactions.
posted by scarabic at 11:12 PM on April 20, 2006

Maybe you could tie the two together. You're only considered for the spotlight if you've bothered to pick out your favorite answers.
posted by maschnitz at 11:15 PM on April 20, 2006

I think we should have a Metatalk "suggestion of the month", since all of the people desperate for a way to keep score seem to hang out here.
posted by tkolar at 11:50 PM on April 20, 2006

Ha! What lead you to that, tkolar? Was it my 5-post (oh wait, 6!) MeTa history, or my generally shitty, overly-technical AskMe answers?

Really, I just like reading the really good answers. Help me find them. If you can come up with a way to do that without "scoring", I'm all ears.
posted by maschnitz at 12:02 AM on April 21, 2006

How about they have a sidebar on the front page where Matt and Jessamyn can highlight cool posts?
posted by kindall at 12:15 AM on April 21, 2006

Ha! What lead you to that, tkolar?

It wasn't directed at you personally, it's an observation about Metatalk in general.

Really, I just like reading the really good answers. Help me find them. If you can come up with a way to do that without "scoring", I'm all ears.

Umm... score the answers, not the authors? For example.

Admittedly I'd like to see a complete archive of these kept for exactly the reason you're talking about, but poking my nose in there once a week seems to work.

It's not clear to me what your solution addresses that the current page doesnt.
posted by tkolar at 12:15 AM on April 21, 2006

I just like reading the really good answers. Help me find them.

The best answers have little check marks next to them. You can also choose to show only questions that have best answers marked. Seems to do exactly what you're asking.
posted by justgary at 12:17 AM on April 21, 2006

Or what tkolar said.
posted by justgary at 12:17 AM on April 21, 2006

Yeah, kindall, I like that idea.

tkolar, "marked as best" coverage is spotty. So when scanning the answerer's 319 answers (in the case of unSane), it's hard to tell what to read.

I check the recent fantastic questions and answers often, I don't do it slavishly. There are only ten each. And "marked as fantastic" isn't indicated anywhere but the list of recent fantastic questions and answers. And that goes away after like a week or so. So there's no history, really. (Maybe there should be.)

So, yeah, maybe this is a problem with "fantastic questions & answers".

However, I was trying to solve a specific, only partially-related problem: you see 2 or 3 good answers from one person. The name rings a bell. What else they got that's good? And who else is like that?
posted by maschnitz at 12:29 AM on April 21, 2006

I dunno. It seems like everything you wish to accomplish could be done by simply keeping a full archive of the fantastic posts.

Perhaps when Matt and Jessamyn get out of bed they can comment on why that list is only the latest 10.
posted by tkolar at 12:36 AM on April 21, 2006

Are Matt and Jessamyn in bed? :o
posted by keijo at 2:47 AM on April 21, 2006

Unnecessary.
posted by languagehat at 5:08 AM on April 21, 2006

However, I was trying to solve a specific, only partially-related problem: you see 2 or 3 good answers from one person. The name rings a bell. What else they got that's good? And who else is like that?

Isn't this sorta what contacts are for?
posted by desuetude at 6:19 AM on April 21, 2006

Bad idea. We already have a very helpful and polite atmosphere over there. Turning it into a contest and having users try to out do each other would be a good way to subvert that somewhat altruistic vibe.
posted by y6y6y6 at 6:55 AM on April 21, 2006

I vote no. The culture of celebrity is bad enough in the real world and doesn't need to be introduced here (more so than it already is at any rate). I'd rather someone answered a question because they want to help rather than because they want stan chin's spare gold star.
posted by longbaugh at 7:20 AM on April 21, 2006

We already have the sidebar and the flagged as fantastic page.. Not that it is the worst idea ever or anything, but I think longbaugh has a point.
posted by Chuckles at 8:03 AM on April 21, 2006

We also have the occasional positive MeTa thread when someone really feels the need to say "hey this is awesome."

I don't think a new formal system is necessary. It won't make people any more awesome; if you want to see more exposure to really great comments, flag appropriately and link to great stuff on your blog.
posted by cortex at 8:52 AM on April 21, 2006