Why does it seem the only questions that get a lot of answers are about politics, or cell phones?

Oh and my friend is still trying to give me his old I4, and still can’t understand why I don’t want it.

Because the others are about personal relationships specific to people with no record here, are whimsical queries born out of late night boredom and/or booze & other substances, medical queries unanswerable with any accuracy, questions loaded with assumptions and usually posted to confirm some unpopular attitude and usually answered by the OP themselves anyway, or stupid consumer questions with no importance to the community.

Think of something non-political that interests this community and I’m sure it will get some attention. For example, we are all interested in the health and welfare of the people here that we have all known for years and that is why the latest disaster questions get many responses.

I don’t know, but it seems important that this question receives a LOT of replies.,

I don’t know. I’ll see if I can ask some religious questions to get some controversy going :)

^^LOL

Because you are all ignorant of basic Star Trek lore.

I don’t believe that’s true, @SQUEEKY2: I’m looking back at the last few days in General and Social, and I see a lot on other types of threads.

For example:

https://www.fluther.com/203561/what-is-your-ultimate-weakness/

https://www.fluther.com/203551/how-do-i-avoid-squishing-my-ears-and-legs-when-sleeping/

https://www.fluther.com/203536/anyone-fancy-being-a-writing-buddy/

https://www.fluther.com/203501/can-i-use-comet-with-bleach-on-my-kitchen-sink/

https://www.fluther.com/203480/how-do-you-distinguish-between-an-unclear-statement-and-something-not/

https://www.fluther.com/203476/how-can-i-get-rid-of-garlic-bo-faster/

https://www.fluther.com/203467/eye-twitching-and-now-lip-twitching-can-this-just-be/

https://www.fluther.com/203533/if-you-could-have-as-much-land-as-you-wanted-and/

https://www.fluther.com/203503/wtf-regarding-cvs-and-the-05-bag-charge/

https://www.fluther.com/203477/when-is-it-ok-to-return-take-out-food-that-you/

These are just a quick bunch that I chose that have more than 16 answers.

Other than cell phones and politics, I see we like etiquette questions, relationship questions, medical questions, and lots of other topics. Hurricane, holidays and other current events are always big, too. We like to talk about ourselves, our habits, where we were during 9/11 and stuff like that.

Search me. As my old Pappy used to say, never talk politics or cell phones. He was ahead of his time, they never even had cell phones in his day. And every time I post a question pertaining to UFOs or Sasquatch, I have a padded wagon driving down my street. Go figure.

Thank you @jca for your constant need to always try and correct me.
I will dive right into that squishing ears, and leg question, how could I have missed such an interesting question?
Or the comet and bleach in the sink question, the stimulation just doesn’t end.

It’s all in the eye of the observer, if it of interest or totla di-interest to the person.

If you abhor cellphones (technology) or politics, you might see those subjects s occurring more often.

Now here’s an interesting question… And by “interesting,” I mean intentionally, self-consciously, (and some might say annoyingly) “meta” on my part… If this question gets a lot of answers, does it challenge its premise or conform to it? Since, from a certain perspective, it too is a question about cell phones and politics! :)

@Soubresaut Yes!

So let me get this straight, @Soubresaut if we get 2300 responses to this Q it will prove the theory of the OP to be false.

@TW ah, but is this not a question about cell phones and politics? Because if it is, and it seems like it might be, receiving 2300 responses would be further supporting its premise! :)

@Soubresaut
Oh so my trying to get to 2299 answer was seen through.

Food, what about food questions? Are they now chopped liver? ~

^^^ we’ve had our fill….

“Chopped Chicken Livers” from a vegetarian. I like mine with caramelized onions and extra mayo on Saltines

Typing on my phone here. I think perhaps th… ring, ring,..

“Hello? This is. Who? No shit? Wow! Right! Ok I’ll let everybody know”.

Ron Paul called. He wants his country back.

@SQUEEKY2: With all due respect, I think half of the cell phone questions on this site come from you. Why are people always texting and driving? Why are people glued to their phones? My friend won’t take no for an answer and wants to give me his phone. (sound familiar?)

@jca Just type in cell phone, or smart phone in the topic box and you prove yourself wrong.
My cell phone questions just irritate you because I do not love smart phones like 99.9% of the population.
I don’t actually hate the damn device I hate that it seems to make people extra stupid when they use them in cases such as driving, making the rest of the population watch out for them because they are being stupid and can’t watch out for themselves.
But unless I post a link to those questions you won’t believe me right?
With all due respect.

@SQUEEKY2: My point above (listing all the various questions) were that there are many responses on all kinds of questions.

@SQUEEKY2, I think those are the ones that catch your eye because they are topics you are most attuned to.
I immediately pay more attention to questions about dogs and hurricanes and parenting.

And really, your cell phone Qs don’t irritate us because you don’t like cell phones, they irritate us because you don’t like that we do like cell phones.

Yeah, there are a boatload of politics questions because the political situation in so many countries is volatile and has a direct affect on most of us.

Yeah I am going to agree with you on that answer, @canidmajor .

“And really, your cell phone Qs don’t irritate us because you don’t like cell phones, they irritate us because you don’t like that we do like cell phones.”

Amen

If that’s true—and I rather doubt it—perhaps it’s because in today’s raw, political climate, everybody seems to have an opinion on one side or the other—and of course these days everybody (and their kids) owns a cell phone.

I notice that questions with a lot of answers tend to be just quarrel back and forth. All what needs to say are said and done, now the only extra responses are just people fighting against others’ viewpoint and people defending their opinion, and sometimes a couple of jokes that derail the threads.

And it happens on every kind of question, not politics or cell phone alone. The only requirement is that someone get pissed off enough to start arguing. It can be done everywhere, and it’s easy to do too. The quickest way is you starting an argument and stick to it. Just try it here.

But would you be proud that your question has a lot of answers because it’s a concentration of angry quarrel?

^That’s also true. If I see a question with an exceptionally large amount of responses, I tend to assume “shit went down” and I’m usually right (especially when I click on the question and see that half the responses have been removed because they were personal attacks. Classy).

Actually, what I notice always seems to get a lot of responses are questions about relationship issues – not just amorous issues, but in-laws, work issues, friends, enemies, neighbors, landlords. Maybe it’s because these questions are of interest to me but I notice they often seem to get a lot of responses.

@ragingloli I’m actually full of Star Trek lore, except it’s almost all about the original series and Star Fleet Battles, and the questions I noticed you ask are about later stuff.

As for cell phone and politics questions getting a lot of answers… probably because they don’t have clear-cut agreed-upon answers as often as some other questions do, and/or they lead to arguments.

Seems to me some other topics can and have gone on for a while, when there’s something to go back-and-forth about, or something everyone has one or more things to say about.

Politics and cell phone just have lots of opinions on different stuff that can be er, vomited forth shared, ...