Have you noticed a steep degradation in the quality of questions on Fluther?

yup, its sad… i know so much about computers, and no one ever asks anything…its all about MAC’s and crap…. its depressing i cant share my knowledge with anyone….

@ice. Where can I buy a laptop that works as well as my iPhone?

it probably going to get worst until a. The hip crowd gets bored and move onto the next hip thing or b. Fluther changes some of its policies. Stick with us and see how it goes.

@cornman There are really good deals here, I’m sure you will find something on here. =]

You can help make things better by thinking of good questions and posting them.

true.

@ice that is a great link! I really dig that one laptop with the BFB on it.

@LuckVIII you mean like they just did

Yes, but I think it was only because of the whole being posted on that iPhone thing that happened, which meant an influx of new users.

The quality and amount of questions has slightly improved since then, but just look at the 5 questions posted immediatly before this one:

• “Does he want a second chance?”
• “Is there a way to get the ipod touch update from apple without paying 19.99?”
• “Do you believe that the Free Masons rule everything around you.”
• “My dog is allergic to cotton. Any suggestions?”
• “Does anyone know how I can recieve free text messages on my iPod touch without jailbreaking it?”

We’ve got 1 asking for relationship advice, 2 Apple questions, 1 conspiracy theory/soapbox (which I suppose is not too bad) and 1 actual, good, question (the dog one).

@jonno Who are you to label these questions? Have you never sought relationship advice?(whether it be with a guy or your dying father) Do you know anything about iPod touch? What do you know about the Freemasons? What do you know about dog allergies?

I mean no harm, but those are your personal opinions. To me, the dog question is the least valid because they could easily go to their vet(which would be their best bet), and get a real answer. The freemason(one word) question is a great question in my book. Anyway, sorry if I got you tiffed, but man what’s up with all the new wanna-be moderators?

@pup-you can help by asking an interesting question (be a part of the solution).

i completely agree with bulbatron9

@lovelyy-which part of his multi-part response?

To answer your question, yes and no; there is a high frequency of inane, chat-inducing quips and threads, but I think there are quality questions being asked-just mixed in with a lot of noise in between. I think the admins are taking some proactive measures to counter this trend though.

@sndfreQ It’s not to late to edit. There is no need for the double-post.

@sndfreQ to tell you the truth, all of it. what he wrote is very close to what I was going to.

I agreed with most of bulbatron9’s commentary, up until the end quip about moderators…

Bottom line, it’s about choices-choosing to read or not read a thread (last I checked everyone here-including non-members has that right), and choosing to take rants and chat into the appropriate venues-PM, and the chat room.

As has been pointed out numerous times lately (and the reason why I feel that the admins are hard at work improving the quality of Fluther), users have a responsibility to know the guidelines for asking and responding to questions (it’s been clarified), and should know when to tell if they’re helping others by their responses or adding to the noise, that adds to the perception of “steep degredation” of questions.

It’s the sweeping generalities that I’m disagreeing with here in the question above-seems to be overly broad and sweeping, and ranting.

Fact-a little over two weeks ago, there was a noticeable increase in traffic and new users, specifically users from the iPhone side, which could be traced back from a link posted from Apple’s top ranked iPhone blogs on their website, and a lot of iPhone users came into the fold in what was (and is to a degree) a very limited version of Fluther. The iPhone version of the app either nested guidelines and instructions deep in the navigation, and omitted to an extent (not so much now) very important features-namely, the search function to search for duplicates, and the flag function.

So what apparently happened with this influx was a lot of inexperienced posters, and a lot of posts-discussion questions and replies, that were/are of poor quality-thus the perception.

The administrators are working hard to counter this problem, and doing a bang up job I must say, by improving the iPhone app, adding a chat room, and clarifying the Guidelines and terms of usage and conduct on the site.

A lot of users, new and old, care about the quality of the site, and want to see improve; everyone should understand that a collective community is one that on many levels should police itself in order to keep the quality high. Some users just disagree with that concept and in spite of the effort, keep misusing the site, which is probably why the moderating has increased.

I hope that we’re all here for the same reasons-it is a great and unique space/place to share ideas, answers, opinions, and information, if we can keep it constructive.

@bulbatron9: I’m not saying that the examples aren’t genuine questions (which you seem to be saying) – but there are too many of them to belong on a place like Fluther. All of those questions would be fine if there wasn’t such a disproportionate amount them. There are still the same quality questions, but there are too many lesser qualities ones in between.

The way I see it, is that Fluther is a place where you can ask specific questions about things that can have an answer but can’t easily be answered by Google or Wikipedia. From the ”What is Fluther?” page:

“Imagine having five Uncle Franks to answer your car questions, eight Aunt Marthas to ask about astronomy and six Grandma Gerties to advise you on your garden dilemmas.”

Anyone can give relationship advice, you don’t need to use Fluther. And questions about Apple products can be answered in any of the many Apple support forums. Now, I don’t mind the occasional question in those categories, but too many degrades the quality of Fluther.

People are always looking for a lazy way out, a way to cut out the middleman. Having a one stop question asking shop is the easier way to get an answer to a question. The honest truth is that not many people know how to search properly on Google or Yahoo, or any of the countless other search engines, so they get frustrated.

Great responses, thanks all.

I skim through the questions to determine if I want to respond or follow. I MAKE the choices depending on what I have an interest in. Everyone has that same choice to do this which makes every question valid or of quality to indvidual users. Stop complaining and remember that not everyone thinks, acts, or feels the way some people on fluther wish us too. This is a general statement and it is not aimed towards anyone in particular.