Stumpers in the blue.

May 22, 2008 7:26 PM

Unanswered Q's on AskMe: I can haz ponies?

For some reason I seem to ask questions on AskMe which stump people (eg my latest about Abraham 'Pretty' Levine which, perhaps unsurprisingly, no-one seems to have an answer to).

Such is the volume of Qs on AskMe these days that Qs that don't have an answer which is immediately obvious to someone tend to scroll into oblivion so quickly that they never get answered at all.

On a forum you'd bump the Q but obviously not here.

So, ponies.

An 'unanswered questions' button/link? "View unanswered questions only"?

Or a way to get your question back if you've asked a stumper?

posted by unSane to Feature Requests at 7:26 PM (35 comments total)

You can have one of these right now, there's an Unanswered tab on the front page of Ask MetaFilter (2nd to last tab at the top of the page).
posted by pb (staff) at 7:31 PM on May 22, 2008

Presto, this exists!
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 7:31 PM on May 22, 2008

Clicking on that "Unanswered" link with the deleted thread script running will slow firefox down considerably, like similar pages in askme will do.

Btw, I'm still trying to find the name of this fucking song, if anyone knows.
posted by puke & cry at 7:43 PM on May 22, 2008

^ puke & cry: "Clicking on that "Unanswered" link with the deleted thread script running will slow firefox down considerably, like similar pages in askme will do."

Not in my experience..

Anyway, sometimes a question is too specific or too vague to garner a proper answer, or even a solitary answer at all. It doesn't mean you were ignored, or that anyone thought your question was unworthy. It just meant no one had the answer.

And like those fuckers tryin' ta keep ya down all yer life tell ya- no one has all the answers! Sometimes, that even applies to a hive mind.
posted by self at 7:55 PM on May 22, 2008

I also see you waited approximately half a day to come to MeTa with your unanswered question. Give it time- did you know that AskMe Q's are open for an entire year? There are reasons.
posted by self at 7:57 PM on May 22, 2008

It's not the questions; it's you.

Sorry you had to find out this way.
posted by yhbc at 8:05 PM on May 22, 2008

I would just also like to use the word "presto" in an administrative context.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:06 PM on May 22, 2008

We clearly need a "presto" flag.
posted by puke & cry at 8:15 PM on May 22, 2008

puke & cry, your song is "Madcap Tears" by Rogue's March. There's a sample in the iTunes store, or on emusic. Presto!
posted by donnagirl at 8:20 PM on May 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

* librarian high five *
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 8:28 PM on May 22, 2008

Yeah, I can't really take much credit, though. There was a much much much later response posted in the adtunes forum thread that looks like it was started by p&c. Of course, that's really librarianly of me, isn't it, to defer and say he really did all the work himself, I just helped pull a few things together that were right there all along...OK, fine. I'll own it. Hi, my name is donnagirl, I'm a librarian, and we RULE.
posted by donnagirl at 8:38 PM on May 22, 2008 [5 favorites]

Useless noise should never be posted in an AskMe thread, of course, but because of the Unaswered tab, one needs to be ESPECIALLY careful not to do so as the first answer. Your "Great question! Now I'm really curious, too!" will keep an otherwise-silent thread off the Unanswered list, where more people potentially would have seen and possibly answered it.
posted by Ian A.T. at 8:46 PM on May 22, 2008 [3 favorites]

Presto. Oh wait, he has fooled the chicken.
posted by netbros at 8:53 PM on May 22, 2008

I note that the [more inside] links are broken on the Unanswered tab.
posted by mumkin at 8:59 PM on May 22, 2008

Ah, yes. It appears my starting of that adtunes thread did eventually lead to the answer, albeit a half a year later. I just wish they had responded to my emails instead of blowing me off. Anyway, thanks donnagirl. Too bad there's no way for me to add an answer to that question. Seems a bit weird to add a "resolved" tag to a question that doesn't have a resolution in it.
posted by puke & cry at 9:17 PM on May 22, 2008

he has fooled the chicken.

NO MAN FOOLS THE CHICKEN.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:29 PM on May 22, 2008

thanks mumkin, [more inside]s on the Unanswered tab are now linked.
posted by pb (staff) at 9:31 PM on May 22, 2008

Here's the entire song RE: to my previously unanswered question.
posted by puke & cry at 10:31 PM on May 22, 2008

Please wire funds to my account for express answer service.
posted by lukemeister at 10:37 PM on May 22, 2008

Your "Great question! Now I'm really curious, too!" will keep an otherwise-silent thread off the Unanswered list, where more people potentially would have seen and possibly answered it.

This is a problem, yes, as are threads that garner suggestions and guesses but no real answer to the query. One possibility that extends hope just a sliver further is to add a 'stumped' tag. In fact, if there were a pony we could stable from this thread, it would be a tab (or some obvious display, or a checkbox that included 'stumped' questions in the Unanswered tab, or something!) that made browsing the 'stumped' tag posts easier/more obvious.
posted by carsonb at 11:44 PM on May 22, 2008

I'm getting misty-eyed remembering the Stumpers list. Why yes, librarians were sekritly messaging each other reference questions that had stumped them! Sneaky librarians.
The new sekrit hangout? Not telling.
posted by needled at 4:38 AM on May 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

puke & cry: "Clicking on that "Unanswered" link with the deleted thread script running will slow firefox down considerably, like similar pages in askme will do."

That, sir, is libel. I demand satisfaction. *slap*

Translation: WFM. Are you sure it's the script? Are you using an ancient version that has stupider logic?
posted by Plutor at 5:54 AM on May 23, 2008

Hey needled, the new(er) unofficial Stumpers list is Project Wombat.
posted by unknowncommand at 5:55 AM on May 23, 2008

Someone please, please find the answer to this Ostrich picture question. I just know I'm going to be 80, wondering about this, if the answer isn't found. I contacted National Geographic and they said they couldn't find it in their collection. Pleeease help me sleep at night (when I'm 80).
posted by cashman at 6:03 AM on May 23, 2008

dammit i cannot keep a sekrit
posted by unknowncommand at 6:05 AM on May 23, 2008

I would love to see a 12 hour delay before something pops up on the 'unanswered' list. Assumably, if it's on the main ask.me page, it still gets seen. Or perhaps a question would only show on the unanswered list, after it scrolls off the front page of ask.mefi?
posted by filmgeek at 6:15 AM on May 23, 2008

Someone please, please find the answer to this Ostrich picture question.

This is as good a place as any to say this -- people might want to try not to use the word "porn" (or penis, or vagina, or sex...) in askme question titles (or wherever you enter the text that turns into the link). A lot of people (at least me) find clicking those links from work either impossible (blocked) or just uncomfortable. I know everything I do is monitored, but the less red flags the better. Just my 2 cents.
posted by inigo2 at 6:53 AM on May 23, 2008

You can take your two cents and shove it down your neck. Just kidding - I agree and I think pr0n is a much better choice. That said, there's a picture of someone's hand down an ostrich's neck that must be found.
posted by cashman at 7:28 AM on May 23, 2008

Are you using an ancient version that has stupider logic?

I was, apparently. I just updated it and it doesn't do that anymore. So...yeah.
posted by puke & cry at 10:25 AM on May 23, 2008

So, for telling you to go to Adtunes, where you got the answer, I get... nothing? Geesh. All Donnagirl had to do was look at your own thread there.
posted by loiseau at 10:27 AM on May 23, 2008

Clearly we need to make a visit to an ostrich farm.
posted by yeti at 11:31 AM on May 23, 2008

You're just hungry, aren't you. Nice try.
posted by cashman at 1:00 PM on May 23, 2008

Everybody needs a sandwich.
posted by Meatbomb at 2:26 PM on May 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

I didn't want to start a new MeTa thread for this, so I'm going to post it in here:

Inside the AskMe's that have a 'best answer' marked (on the outside), the 'best answers' are highlighted, but no longer contain the check- I mean, they did used to have a check next to them, right? I'm not crazy.

I'm not crazy.

I'm not crazy.

I'm not crazy.

I'm not crazy.
posted by self at 7:48 PM on May 23, 2008

Recent Activity shows a check mark next to the Best Answers. I don't remember the actual thread ever containing any check marks.
posted by philomathoholic at 10:39 AM on May 24, 2008