Here is my comparision, so far:
Ask – you have only 5 answer slots, they are separate from the discussion board and you cannot see what others have posted before you either answer the question or the question closes, unless you opt out of it.
Flu – There are no ‘answer slots’ per say, you can receive an unlimited number of ‘answers’ and members can work together to answer a question by adding to a person’s previous post
Ask – There is a competitive voting system on answers, you can actually be ‘penalized’ by a poor answer rating by losing ‘coins’. The only people that can vote on an answer are the asker and the other four people who answered the question (these are the same people who benefit if the other answers get a lower final rating than them, so, even though it would not be fair, it would benefit them to give the other people answering a lower rating.
Flu – There is no competition amongst those that answer the question, anyone can ‘vote’ by clicking ‘great answer’ and everyone can earn as much ‘lurve’ as the next person.
Ask – There is a ‘best answer’ awarded out of the answers of each question (unless none of the answers qualify) with that person earning extra ‘coins’
Flu – There is no ‘best answer’ award.
Ask – People don’t need to stay on topic on the discussion board, they can use it like a chatroom, since they don’t have one.
Flu – People are expected to stay on topic, there is a chatroom for ‘chatting’.
Ask – You must have the other persons permission to add them to your friends list, however, you can add them to your ‘fave’ list and not only do they not need to give you permission, they don’t even know that you did unless you tell them (which can be abused to ‘stalk’ folks in a negative way)
Flu – You can add anyone to your Fluther (the person you added even get ‘lurve’ for being added to your Fluther) you don’t need their permission. They can see that you added them to your Fluther.
Ask – Has a ‘recent activity’ feature where you can see all recent comments on all questions (even really old ones), including the ones that you are not a part of or haven’t been following.
Flu – You only see recent posts on old questions, if you are following that questions by either clicking the ‘follow’ option on a question or by answering the question (unless you are the one that asked the question)
Ask – You can not search for a particular user through the Askville search engine
Flu – You can search for a particular user through the Fluther search engine
Ask – You can change your username and avatar at any time, every day if you like (which has led to some problems with confusion)
Flu – You can change your avatar, but not your username (at least to the best of my knowledge, correct me if I’m wrong)
Ask – You must refresh the page to see new text (questions, comments, activity, etc)
Flu – Automatically updates the information on the page ( I love this!)
Ask – There are no explainations of how to alter text, you must either ask, already know or experiment to figure it out.
Flu – There is a guide to altering text, right where you need a guide, under the comment box.
Ask – There is no ‘Live Preview’ when posting to the discussion board. You do have the opportunity to preview your questions and answers before you ‘submit’ them.
Flu – There is a ‘Live Preview’ (so I can see how terribly long my answer to this question is becoming)
Ask – If you are following a discussion and you want to know where you left off, you must read back through the posts to see what you have already read.
Flu – They very kindly tell you how many posts have occurred since you last viewed the question you are following, so you know if you need to go back 10 comments or 100 comments.
Ask – They have their discussion board divided into pages, so you tab through pages of a discussion.
Flu – There is one continuous page, you just keep scrolling down.
Ask – They have a ‘time stamp’ so to speak on all the posts, including discussion board posts, so you know if someone posted 5 minutes ago or 2 days ago.
Flu – There isn’t a ‘time stamp’ on answers
Ask – There are no moderators, reports of abuse can take ages for the staff to address, communication from the staff to the community is limited and sporadic.
Flu – There are wonderful moderators, the owners are very involved with the site, action is taken quickly when a problem arises, there is great communication.
Ask – Your friends list is presented as pages of friends that you must tab through to find someone (I think about 10 friends per page)
Flu – You can see all of your friends at a glance on one page.
Ask – You have the option to forward a question to people on your friends list right from the question. It will send a link right to them.
Flu – You need to send a person a pm containing the link to the question that you want them to see.
Ask – You must go to your profile to see any recent activity (pms, new posts to discussions, answers, etc).
Flu – There is a nice little ‘box’ on the top right handside of the webpage that keeps you updated, if there is any activity you might want to know (pms, activity on questions, etc)
Overall, I think that Fluther is more user friendly, especially to newusers. Askville has ‘features’ galore to the point that even many of those familiar with Askville don’t really understand them all, let alone users new to the site. Fluther’s system of asking and answering questions is not competitive, it is all about answering questions because you want to be helpful. Askville’s system promotes competition amongst its users, which can have negative consequences, even if it’s intention is to encourage quality answers.
