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Lex Friedman	March 9th, 2010 at 6:56 am Featured Questions Yesterday, we launched a new feature that showcases some great questions from the nearly two million that have been asked and answered on Answerbag. Sometimes, we might feature an older question from the archives, and other times it might be more recent. But when you spot the "Featured Question" modle on the question page, feel free to check it out—and even provide an all-new answer of your own! 13 comments \| Post one Comments Lex I have a suggestion for the new Featured Member. It seems a little anti-climatic to see a member featured, read about them, check out their favorite question and that's the end of it. I think it would be nice if you would add an email link so people could send congratulations or acknowledge them in some way. You have a Featured Member on now that I have never come across before. They seem very interesting and I was intrigued to read their write up. I would love to send a note saying nice to know you but there is no way to do that other than to go into their profile and send a message from there. I would never do that because it could be intrusive. A link to their Featured Member item would invite that kind of interaction I think. Report by CatLover-The Original is Proudly Canadia on March 9th, 2010 @Catlover - For those who have an email address in their profile, it would be easy. But why would it be any more "intrusive" to send them a PM through AB than directly with an email? If you feel compelled to, just send it PM. If they want to give you their direct email, then they can. If not, you can converse via AB PM. ;-) Report by BigDaddyBS on March 9th, 2010 Lex, I can't find any Featured Question on the questions page. Report by Gingerminx on March 9th, 2010 Look to the left of the Featured Member on the homepage - Answerbag.com I assume that's them. Report by Brian I on March 9th, 2010 BD my suggestion was directed to Lex. I know all the other alternatives. That wasn't my point nor did I want to debate my feelings about intrusive emails. I happen to think a link directly from the Feature Members site is a good idea. That's all. Report by CatLover-The Original is Proudly Canadia on March 9th, 2010 @Cat Lover - I have read your comments to Big Daddy so this isn't meant to spark of a debate, but I feel compelled to comment that I would be extremely annoyed if I received an email from somebody to whom I hadn't given my address. Report by Brian I 13 hours ago Thanks Brian, I saw them but they say popular questions and I thought they meant somethign different, maybe I am wrong. @Catlover, I agree with Brian, I don't post my email for a reason. Report by Gingerminx 13 hours ago I think there is confusion here. I believe what Catlover means here by email is the PM. Correct me if I'm wrong Catlover but I believe you've said email before and what you meant was PM? Report by skeeter 8 hours ago If that's the case I think a link to send a PM to that member would be a good idea. Report by Brian I 7 hours ago Brian I agree with you totally. I feel sending and receiving an email is rather personal, whether it is done through private mail or the AB mail system. I don't appreciate receiving emails from people who are total strangers and I suspect others feel the same. I got one through PM AB mail from a kid I never heard of before last week that said "hey, how are you, what are you doing right now, wanna talk?" To me that is an intrusion. That is a personal preference on my part. I am aware email messages can be sent through private email and AB mail but I would not do that for this purpose if I don't know the person being featured. Someone on my Friends list is a different story. However as for the Featured Member there may be someone, like this week, whom I have had no dealings with the person, do not know them yet found their information interesting. I would have like to send a quick note saying congratulations, nice to have you on board. Something along those lines. A link which could only be used to send a message to the Featured Member. Do you all remember how we used to have celebration parties when someone reached a certain level. That was fun and you didn't have to know the person to join in. It is that type of interaction I am referring to.For one it would make the Featured Member feel good and it could even lead to friendships. Hope this clears it up. Report by CatLover-The Original is Proudly Canadia 5 hours ago edit. sorry. my computer was in off line mode. Report by skeeter 4 hours ago I see. I always thought - well before we did, too - that when we got forums that the Congrats-type questions could be done there, for those who didn't want to appear to be "points hogs" or whatever people called them. Maybe something like a Topic of "Congratulating Users", with subtopics (can we do those?) of Birthdays, Level Changes, Featured Member, etc. would be a way to do what CatLover is talking about, with the link to their congrats, which would be generalized for Featured Member or anything else the staff wants to congratulate someone for BY staff, so people aren't accused of "sucking up" or trying to "get attention". And, other users could create the congrats for birthdays, level raises, etc., for their friends. This is just an idea. I'm suggesting it as a user, not a CL. What do you all think? Report by BigDaddyBS 3 hours ago I think you are taking a very simplistic suggestion for a link to contratulate a Feature Member and complicating the hell out of it. Report by CatLover-The Original is Proudly Canadia 3 hours ago
Lex Friedman	March 5th, 2010 at 2:38 pm Friday upgrades We've made some improvements sitewide to make things a bit snappier at our peak times of the day. We've also made a tweak to try to notify you even sooner when you have a new "Alert" for answers and the like. A few other changes, requested by AB-Rich, addressed some Mod needs, so now it should easier than ever for them to keep things clean and tidy. Have a great weekend! We expect a full points fix for the dancing numbers by Monday. 15 comments \| Post one Comments Why am I receiving questions under the 'question I could possibly answer", that seem to have been removed? Report by Gingerminx on March 5th, 2010 http://www.answerbag.co.uk/a_view/8751329#postcomment8751329 I was commenting on this question and it appears" frozen" comments wont open, neither will the answer box now. I have put this in contact us but as I never get replies when I use the contact us feature, I am putting it here too. Report by Moley the contrary female dragon on March 5th, 2010 Why is it that when I go to the catagory: Religions / Religions A - Z / Christian religions / The Christian Bible / Christian Bible answers / People - And click on a question listed as in "People" to report is a Wrong Catagory the question is listed where is should be? eg the ? "Do you like Josh Turner? and do you like country music? whats your favorite song? by cloecloe14 on February 22nd, 2010 \| 2 answers \| in People" (1927037) then after clicking it is this: Home / Questions / Entertainment / Music / Music Genres And Artists / Country Music -- There are several question listed in the "People" catagory that are not actually in the People catagory Report by my2cents on March 6th, 2010 I hate to sound like a broken record...but I finally found the mute button to click on....BUT it doesn't stop the comments coming into my alerts????? Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi COAT on March 6th, 2010 The Dancing Numbers have provided amusement, if confusion. One day I'm a genius with 77K plus points and the next I'm an Illuminati with 83K plus points. Fortunately I don't live and die by the points or I would have either had a hissy fit or nervous breakdown by now. Keep up the good work Lex regarding the fixes. It is a thankless job but someone has to do it. We're lucky we have you and AB staff to keep slogging through despite the slings and arrows and brickbats you have to duck along the way. Happy Saturday! :) Report by RosieGHM Jetpacker on March 6th, 2010 How do you decide what questions to post in the 'question I could possibly answer"? I am receiving a lot of sexual question which I find offensive. Report by Gingerminx on March 6th, 2010 Hmmmm well Gingerminx I don't know how to break this to you but you must have answered some questions of a sexual persuasion at one time or another. They send you questions based on your past behaviour. See that - Big Brother is watching you, even on AB :) Report by CatLover-The Original is Proudly Canadia on March 6th, 2010 Thanks and you have a good one too Lex. Also I did notice the faster alert, thanks. What did you mean about the mods though? Report by Google a Foo Fighting COAT on March 6th, 2010 I suspect that the questions that are suggested to us are simply unanswered questions in categories where we have given answers that have earnerd a few points or likes - nothing more than that. So it all hinges on the category the asker puts the question in. Report by Brian I on March 7th, 2010 Ginger: We'll work on making sure explicit/profane questions don't show up in that feed no matter what. Report by Lex Friedman on March 7th, 2010 Thank you Lex. Report by Gingerminx on March 7th, 2010 @Lex - That seems extreme. I'm sure there are people, besides me, who don't mind explicit/profane questions. There seem to be a large number who actually enjoy them. BTW, does this mean that all tea bagger related questions will disappear? Or is anything involving bagging considered sacred on AB? Report by Halliburton Shill on March 7th, 2010 I sure do hope that switching to Unicode is one of the updates. If Twitter can have it, then it should be just as easy for Answerbag to. Besides, turning 1 character into 3-5 of them "behind the scenes" costs more data, so imagine how many gigabytes you'd save if you made the switch. Little savings go a long way, you know. :) Report by 에가오노겐키 on March 8th, 2010 @Hal, I don't have a problem with tea bagging questions, I have a problem with the questions from guys asking how they can trick their mothers and sisters into fucking them. And yes, I have had several of that type of question show up. Report by Gingerminx on March 8th, 2010 @Ginger - To me, the problem with questions like your examples are not that they are profane/explicit, it's that they're asking how to commit a crime. I could easily ask those questions without profanity or even being explicit. I'm resisting the temptation at this moment to post examples because I don't want to give malicious idiots any ideas. Any way, I'd consider a simple question like "How do I trick my mother to fuck me?" as an attempt at satire/comedy and simply move it to a joke category that caters to motherfucker type humor. Report by Halliburton Shill 19 hours ago
Lex Friedman	March 3rd, 2010 at 3:07 pm A quick improvement for Polls We made a tweak to the Polls page today. Now, as you browse through all the polls on the site, you can see how many votes each poll has at a glance. Cast the tiebreaker! Cast the first vote! Or, just join the chorus of voters on all the issues up for a vote on Answerbag... 17 comments \| Post one Comments Lex Friedman: could we get notified (in the feedback) by rejections? I lately chanced upon some questions - not mine, some that I wanted to answer - where I did not understand why they had been rejected. (I made an individual feedback about each of them) Report by iwnit on March 3rd, 2010 Hey Lex & Rich! I just want to say you're doing something right :-) I logged in today and had 11 new comments in comment threads I'm following! That's still a long way from what I usually got before the upgrade, but things are picking up again! w00t! Report by HungryGuy on March 3rd, 2010 Good idea. I don't go on the Polls page much, so I don't know what this new feature looks a lot like. I normally use the Happening Now bar to watch for the statuses of new questions and other people's answers for questions. Sorry Lex., but I don't think this will do ME any good. But, thanks anyways. Keep up the good work in all the other product-areas. Report by byankno1 on March 3rd, 2010 I have an old old answer which has a link that doesn't work anymore. I found a new one... how do I correct a now useless answer? Report by Max Power on March 3rd, 2010 We (most of us) dream that you put an end to his cruelty, will you now? http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/8747488 Report by Shania on March 4th, 2010 can somebody tell me how to stop getting comment alerts on; http://www.answerbag.com/debates/marriage-sex-couples-legal_1855438 I can't find anyway to stop it...(I got 47 more today)? thanks Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi COAT on March 4th, 2010 Click where it says 'Profile' in the black horizontal band near the top of the page and look for where it says 'Mute' after one of the comments. Click on 'Mute'. Report by Brian I on March 4th, 2010 thanks Brian but I don't get anything like that on my screen...I gett the black band..and profile....but there is no 'mute' to click on....Is this because it is a debate? Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi COAT on March 4th, 2010 It's tagged on after the notification and isn't particularly noticeable. Having looked at my profile there doesn't seem to be any uniformity about how it's implemented - a lot of the comments I've received don't give the option to mute. Oh, I've just noticed that a lot of comments are reported twice - once to say that so-and-so joined the comments and one to say that the same person had commented (both referring to the same comment) Only the one that says, 'so-and-so joined the comments on an answer' has the mute button tagged on the end. It can't have anything to do with it being a debate because I have a mute thingy on a comment to my answer in a debate. Report by Brian I on March 4th, 2010 Chronic spammer - started July 2009: http://www.answerbag.com/profile/1019411 Report by 에가오노겐키 on March 4th, 2010 just found the "mute" option myself. You are right it is tiny and only there when it says So and So joined the comments. I had to really look hard to find it on a lap top. good luck with that if you are using a cell to keep in touch. Report by Moley the contrary female dragon on March 4th, 2010 By the way I see I am still a neuter on my profile. Report by Moley the contrary female dragon on March 4th, 2010 Lex: Perhaps you should change "Mute" to "Stop Following" or something similar... Report by HungryGuy on March 4th, 2010 I love the mute feature. Report by Shania on March 5th, 2010 Lex: on other sites such as Fluther, upon answering, you automatically follow the question - pretty please to not add that feature here - its annoying. Furthermore, I like "mute". Report by Shania on March 5th, 2010 So how does one check what one has muted and unmute it if so desired? I also agree with iwnit. Notification of rejected questions/answers/comments, even if it's only a link with the content that was rejected, would be very useful. Report by Halliburton Shill on March 5th, 2010 OK I finally found the 'mute' button...thanks everyone:) Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi COAT on March 5th, 2010
Lex Friedman	March 2nd, 2010 at 2:07 pm Answer images, easier asking, smarter reporting, and more Some fun stuff today: 1. Answer images. Now, when you're submitting answers to questions, if you want to upload an image, you can! For the time being, this is limited to the answer form at the top of the question page; when you click at the top there to answer a question, you'll see an optional link to upload an image. Yay! 2. Easier asking. In our unceasing quest to simplify the process of asking questions, we've tweaked things and streamlined them a bit more. Let us know what you think! 3. "Report This" context-aware. A common complaint! Now, when you click "Report this" on questions, you'll continue to see the 'Bad tags' and 'Wrong category' report options, but those won't be shown if you're reporting answers or comments, since they don't apply there. We've also made more behind-the-scenes optimizations, and some extra tools to help out our Mods. We're continuing to investigate the points issue I posted about earlier today, and hope to have a fix soon. 23 comments \| Post one Comments Another annoyance you can probably fix relatively easily is to automatically convert ALL CAPS QUESTIONS and answers to sentence case. Don't make us go all caps in your comments. ;) Report by Halliburton Shill on March 2nd, 2010 How about spell check? Report by HungryGuy on March 2nd, 2010 Since when are naked avatars allowed? http://www.answerbag.com/profile/1178442 Report by Shania on March 2nd, 2010 You are so right, but I have no clue. That girl sure is awful-naked! Report by byankno1 on March 2nd, 2010 Shania: They're not. We rely on our members to report them so that they can be handled. Report by Lex Friedman on March 2nd, 2010 Naked avatars would be awesome, unless George W. Bush joined. If only we could all be as fit as Dick Cheney. @HungryGuy - All current browsers already have spell check, so that would just be a waste of AB processing resources making the site slower. Report by Halliburton Shill on March 2nd, 2010 A category finding problem: When you type in climate, climate change, or climate crisis, no categories are suggested. Of course, if you type in global warming, global warming comes up. Report by Halliburton Shill on March 2nd, 2010 Lex: I know all to well; however, the quickest response is on the blog. Report by Shania on March 2nd, 2010 I tried the new "upload an image" feature twice. It failed both times and there is no way to re-post the image in the edit process. Lately, when using the embedded code, images and video don't load the first time around either. At least those can be uploaded by using the edit feature. Report by Ice man on March 2nd, 2010 I cannot see the link to the Forums when using IE 8. It has somehow dropped down from the navigation bar, so has become invisible against the white background. Firefox displays it properly, but I can't use FF because it hangs after opening a few pages. It's not a big problem to me because I found it. However, I'm sure a lot of other people won't find it. Report by Brian I on March 2nd, 2010 In connection to the naked avatar issue mentioned above, at least avatars are so tiny that you have to seriously look at them to see what they are, unlike the Flickr images on the right of the screen. One of those images that I saw yesterday, although not explicit, was clearly a photograph of two men engaged in homosexual sex. Given a choice I know which of the two I find more disturbing - and it isn't a tiny picture that includes a bosom. Report by Brian I on March 2nd, 2010 @Brian - Strange... That's the problem most people have when they've increased the text-size in FF by either ... Zoom Text Size or simply zooming. (In the forums, some have called it the "phantom" options. The color disappearing on the right (so member menu options on the top, and some of the options on the bottom) is what most IE8 people have problems with when Zooming. I can force both of the above to occur, but can't make IE8 expand the navbar text like that. ... Hmmm... And I've been using FF all along, and seldom, if ever, hangs... And when it does, it's usually because I have a number of tabs open, and one of them is actually doing the freezing. (Not saying you aren't having these problems, understand... Just that AB may not be able to reproduce the problem. I sent images, a few days ago, documenting the problems we've had reported, and things I'd noticed. Hopefully those go to the right people! Did they, Lex? ;-) ) Report by BigDaddyBS on March 3rd, 2010 The Forums link is back where it belongs - either a very quick fix or a very short-lived glitch. @Big Daddy - the navigation panel was black all the way across and the links to the right of 'Forums' were all displayed normally. My Firefox problem must be unique to this PC because exactly the same thing happens with Safari, Opera and Google Chrome. I'll probably format the drive and re-install everything at some point. Report by Brian I on March 3rd, 2010 Sounds like fun, Brian... ... ... NOT! ;-) Report by BigDaddyBS on March 3rd, 2010 @Brian, I have the same problem with Firefox, I just recently updated it and it has started doing that so it maybe related to that, not sure. Report by Gingerminx on March 3rd, 2010 @Gingerminx - Yes, my Firefox problems started when I upgraded to the latest version, but I don't understand how that would cause the same problems in the other browsers that I mentioned, unless it's something like a shared DLL. Report by Brian I on March 3rd, 2010 Nothing like that, I don't think, Brian. Rather, some of us get that navigation issue when we have a lot of alerts, and unread messages, and friend requests. Basically, when we run out of horizontal space for the longer versions of the messages we put in the header. We're working on a permanent fix for that issue. Report by Lex Friedman on March 3rd, 2010 Right Lex, that explains why I temporarily couldn't see the Forums link using IE8, but my and Gingerminx's Firefox problems are not related to any particular site - it's just a general functionality problem. Report by Brian I on March 3rd, 2010 I'm still not able to see my forum link, and haven't since the change accrued. I've tried every tip to make it appear but it's still a phantom link. It's there, I just can't see it. This problem is not effected by the amounts of Alerts I have or lack of. Report by Reptar on March 3rd, 2010 Thanks Lex. Report by XT. on March 3rd, 2010 Why do I have to save the image to my computer? Why is the format to different for comments and answers? Report by Shania on March 4th, 2010 Brian, rules are for everyone - if you feel lonely,the net is full of boobies =P Report by Shania on March 4th, 2010 Pictures are not uploading to answers. Report by Shania on March 4th, 2010
Lex Friedman	March 2nd, 2010 at 5:28 am The Points Dance As many of you have noticed, the point totals on the Leaderboards and on your profile have been hopping around a bit day by day, including dropping down. We're investigating what's causing that issue, and hope to fix it quickly. The good news is, we recalculate the overall points from scratch each day, so no raw numbers have been lost. 8 comments \| Post one Comments Moving levels will take forever; therefore, I am not interested. Report by Shania on March 2nd, 2010 I feel less negative about it, I'm sure you'll get it sorted. Get super nerdy on that bug's ass Lex. Report by Johnthehero on March 2nd, 2010 Not caring about levels makes me negative - somethings never change. Report by Shania on March 2nd, 2010 @ Shania: Welcome to Answerbag! I did some calculating when the new points system came out on the subject of how long it would take to move from one level to the next. I'm a Guru. Under the old system, there were ten levels between Guru and Swami, and the level I was on at the time the new format shift occured required me to make over 6,000 points just to go up to the next level. And if I remember correctly, I still had 3, maybe 4 levels to go before I reached Swami. And since each successive level required MORE points to get, the higher I went, the more points it took to move up. So I had to get 20,000 or more points just to reach Swami from where I was at. That's a LOT of work and a LOT of time, even under the old point system. Looking at where I was in the new system, I needed something between 4,000 and 5,000 points to get to Swami. I did the math, playing with numbers and such. Even under this new system, it's going to take me LESS time to reach Swami than before. Any way you look at it, progressing from one level ot the next is supposed to be a challenge. And the higher you go, the more challenging it gets. It doesn't matter whether it is under this system, or the last. Or whatever came before that one. Again, welcome to Answerbag! I hope you're up to the challenge and have fun meeting it! :):) Report by The Chief on March 2nd, 2010 Thanks Lex. So I guess the points I got 6,696, is now what I actually have, just the other day I had 7,100 points, I'm 400 point short than. Report by Slick on March 3rd, 2010 @ Chief, I am here to help, not level-up. Report by Shania on March 4th, 2010 Slick this must be a default of some kind because I was reduced to exactly 6696 as well and I had around 7400. Strange they are the same number. Report by CatLover-The Original is Proudly Canadia on March 4th, 2010 Duplicate - sorry Report by CatLover-The Original is Proudly Canadia on March 4th, 2010
Lex Friedman	March 1st, 2010 at 12:56 pm Lots to like, and strengthened spam prevention By popular request, you'll now get alerted on your profile when someone "likes" your questions or answers on the site. That way, you can know more easily about all the likes your content is receiving, and who's doing the liking. Additionally, we rolled out some fancier spam catching tools to make things even more difficult for the evil-doers who attack Answerbag more with bogus questions as the site gets increasingly popular. I can't go into too much detail, but trust that we've stepped things up a notch on our end, although we're resigned to acknowledging that the war against spammers is a long one. More to come! And of course, we hope you like it! ;) 19 comments \| Post one Comments Good to hear Lex. I went to the questions page a little earlier and there were six girl call ads in a row. Report by Gingerminx on March 1st, 2010 Can't wait to see what you've got up your sleeve. I'm getting a few alerts but when I check them, there are no comments again. Report by Galeanda on March 1st, 2010 Oh wait, now I see what happened. Those 'Likes' you've added as showing up in my profile are showing up as alerts. That's confusing. Is there any way that they can be alerted to differently than as an "Alert". I appreciate seeing that something is liked, but if it shows up in my alerts in the same manner as comments and answers, it makes for quite a mess in my feedback. In the old AB it was very easy to differentiate between points (likes) and actual posts by people. I don't really need to see who likes things, just that it was appreciated by someone, either. Report by Galeanda on March 1st, 2010 1- when I have already answered a question why does it still keep appearing under "Questions I could possibly answer" for example "can a catholic person change his religios?" on February 23rd, 2010 \| no answers \| in Theology and man Follow the link and you discover that the question has "4 helpful answers below" three of them, including mine, were submitted on the same day the question was posed "on February 23rd, 2010" and one on the following day. 2- May I suggest that each question under "Questions I could possibly answer" be followed by a"Do not show this question again" option selector. This should stop the annoying repeated display of question the user has no interest in answering and make room for those he is more likely to consider answering. 3- why not let the user him/herself select (and update) categories for "Questions I could possibly answer" Report by borasalama on March 1st, 2010 Interesting little glitch or? I went to a users profile page. Apparently a new member. Date joined. Dec. 31 1969 Last seen. Dec. 31 1969. Before AB was a twinkle in Rich's eye. Probably before Rich was even born. I just saw the member on the Forum. Report by skeeter on March 1st, 2010 Lex: why am I receiving messages from someone on my ignore list? Report by Shania on March 1st, 2010 @Sikeeter... AB-JOEL created Answerbag, and hired Rich a bit later. Technically, you're right - Rich wouldn't have known about AB back then, either, but others may not know that Joel Downs is who created AB. ;-) Report by BigDaddyBS on March 1st, 2010 BD. What do you think about my last comment. I can send you the profile link. Report by skeeter on March 1st, 2010 Oh, and Thanks Lex. (Took me a second, too, Galeanda, to realize that they were LIKES and not comments.) Report by BigDaddyBS on March 1st, 2010 @Skeeter - I believe that the date shown is a default date used by many systems. All that means to me is they are not recording the dates correctly, OR it's being recorded, but not being passed to the profile... at least for those users (and whatever else) with that type of date. Report by BigDaddyBS on March 1st, 2010 tx Lex.... Wow ... that like alert came quick -- I should ask for new features more often :))) Report by Persky Bunkermeister on March 1st, 2010 @Persky - It's been asked for for some time! LOL Report by BigDaddyBS on March 2nd, 2010 Graphics are still taking two attempts to get them posted. And the leaderboards are different again, this time showing the lower numbers on the boards and higher number on profile. They seem to have a rejiggering mind of their own lol!! Report by Galeanda on March 2nd, 2010 Also, I was clicking around Health and Fitness and when I tried to find Alternative Health I got lost http://www.answerbag.com/category/alternative-medicine_81 What came up were some subcategories on Buying a Home and Financing :( But some questions were listed under the subcategories, but there is no way to get to the real ones to sort through all those questions. Report by Galeanda on March 2nd, 2010 Gal: The category page in question has been fixed. The images issue is a tougher one. We know the problem, and even how to fix it, but we're working on the best long-term solution. Report by Lex Friedman on March 2nd, 2010 Thank you very much, Lex :) I appreciate it greatly Report by Galeanda on March 2nd, 2010 Can I make the suggestion that "Pets" be added as a primary category that shows up in the first box, as people just don't know where to look for those categories in "Home and Garden"? Report by Galeanda on March 2nd, 2010 Galeanda. Pets are a main category. Report by skeeter on March 2nd, 2010 Not when you are looking for a place to put them, like asking a question in the drop down boxes. Only in the "Categories" listed across the top of the page is it a main one. But you don't use that one when asking. Report by Galeanda on March 2nd, 2010
Lex Friedman	February 26th, 2010 at 12:26 pm Fixes for likes A few members had encountered an issue where we didn't always properly display their likes on answers. The issue mostly arose when you clicked to "like" an answer on the individual answer "permalink" page, and then checked on the regular full question page. The good news: It's fixed! 37 comments \| Post one Comments So I was using the "Questions I could possibly answer..." this morning, and your right, I love it. It definately could use a little more tweaking but all in all, great idea. One problem though, I just tried to click on it again, and I recieved the message: "Uh-oh! You'll need to answer a few more questions before we can find additional ones that you could potentially answer." If you check my profile I have answered hundreds of questions including a few that AB suggested to me earlier today. I hope you can fix this bug soon as I really enjoy this new feature :-) One suggestion: If there was a way that it could learn what you like, based upon which suggestions you take, and weigh future suggestions in that direction, that would be awesome. Report by buster on February 26th, 2010 I just tried it again and it worked. Although I imagine that there is still a bug in there somewhere. Report by buster on February 26th, 2010 Thanks Lex. Report by XT. on February 26th, 2010 Comments disappearing AGAIN. I'd sent the link to you via contact us but what would be the point? Report by skeeter on February 26th, 2010 On the subject of "likes"... a while back this came up in a blog post you made... a few people, including me (!), missed the feature that told us when people rated our answers -- in fact, I occasionally looked at my "most rated" answers and sometimes updated them, and sometimes saw comment threads that I had unintentionally dropped. Is there any chance of getting these kind of features from the previous version, restored in the new version of AB? Report by Persky Bunkermeister on February 26th, 2010 Lex when I click on "comment" on someone's answer, I never get the box to type the comment in the first or even the second time around. It always defaults to the original question. If I do it 2 or 3 times, eventually the box will open in the correct place for me to type comments. Would it do any good to send the url for the page this when it happens to contact us or is this a problem others are having as well? Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 26th, 2010 Skeeter: We're continuing to investigate. It's a problem that's plagued each version of the 'bag. We're closer than ever, I think. Persky: Yes. Stay tuned! CatLover: Sounds like a Javascript error. Are you waiting until the page finishes loading before you click? What version of the browser are you using? Report by Lex Friedman on February 26th, 2010 Lex, when I check my answers to see how many liked it, I can not tell because the thumbs up icon covers it. Also today when I try to go to the Debate page or the Poll page all I am getting is blank pages. Report by Gingerminx on February 26th, 2010 Lex you were correct. I was running an old version of Internet Explorer but after reading your comment, uploaded IE8. I tried it and it seems to be fine now. Thanks very much. Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 26th, 2010 @Ginger - I reported this last night with images... Hope they can get it fixed, now they can SEE the problem. ;-) Report by BigDaddyBS on February 27th, 2010 Polls and Debates pages are fixed. We'll be launching more aggressive anti-spammer tools on Monday. Report by Lex Friedman on February 27th, 2010 Hi Lex...I am still receiving multi alerts to question comments that I no longer am interested in,...27 of them off 1 site today alone.....are we going to be able to unsubscribe to ones we no longer want? thanx Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi COAT on February 27th, 2010 Thank you BigDaddy, thank you Lex. Report by Gingerminx on February 27th, 2010 DBD - At the end of comments in your profile, especially those of two or more comments, there is a "[mute]". Click it, and it's supposed to turn off your reception of comments, there. However, be aware that at this time, I'm not sure how to resubscribed to those comment threads... Hopefully, it's as easy as it was before - simply comment in the thread again, yourself. But, if not, I'm sure they will be working on this at some time. ;-) Report by BigDaddyBS on February 27th, 2010 And Ginger - You're welcome. ;-) Report by BigDaddyBS on February 27th, 2010 In box notice is not working. Report by Shania on February 27th, 2010 Several times today when I've tried posting a video or image in an answer it doesn't work the first time. I have to edit and try again. It works the second time. This happened every time I tried. At least 5 times. Report by skeeter on February 27th, 2010 I found that happening last night, too, and reported it. Trick: get the stuff in the answer, select it all, and copy it all to the clipboard. Submit the answer. If it doesn't "take", edit the answer right away, and paste what you saved in the clipboard and submit the change. At least it appears the first edit is "taking". Report by BigDaddyBS on February 27th, 2010 The same thing happens if you apply any *formatting* to your text. Although it worked here without having to edit it. Report by Brian I on February 28th, 2010 thanks BigDaddyBS... Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi COAT on February 28th, 2010 but BigDaddyBS I can't find the 'mute' link...all I can find is this:To subscribe to a feed Go to the webpage that has the feed to which you want to subscribe. Click the Feeds button to discover feeds on the webpage. Click a feed (if more than one is available). If only one feed is available, you will go directly to that page. Click the Subscribe to this Feed button , and then click Subscribe to this Feed. Type a name for the feed and select the folder to create the feed in. Click Subscribe. To view your subscribed feeds, click the Favorites Center button , and then click Feeds. Sorry It is probably sitting right in front of me and too much tequila and mexican sun is impairing my vision:) Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi COAT on February 28th, 2010 Great, Now we're getting spam crap in our messages. From: daoyen_2006 [Ignore this member] Date: Feb 28th, 2010 at 9:11 AM Hello Skeeter My name's Dao, a student of College of Foreign Languages of Vietnam National University. I know you have had a lot of interesting ideas, so I would loke you to fill out my survey questionnaire. It is very easy and takes little time to do. It is very important for me because I need it for my graduation paper. Please help me. Send me your email and if you agree I will send my survey questionnaire for you. my email is daoyen_2006@yahoo.com Contact me through my email. Thank a lot ! Report by skeeter on February 28th, 2010 Skeeter -- I've nuked that account. Report by Lex Friedman on February 28th, 2010 DBD - What you described, I believe is the RSS Feeds. I don't use those, so can't tell you much about them. Someone who does, or staff, will have to explain that. Sorry. To unsubscribe from Comment Threads, there is a MUTE (which is what I was describing) at the end of comments in which others have commented: And example from my own feedback is: CatLover- The Original is Proudly Canadia joined the comments on an answer to What country are you from. Tell me something very unique about your country. on 02/27/10 at 2:51 am. [mute] (And no, CatLover... Not muting you! LOL) That mute will "unsubscribe" you from the comment thread, meaning you will not receive alerts or notification when people comment on it. (NOTE: Again, I don't use them very often, so it MAY just "mute" notifications of comments from that one person. Will someone clarify, please?) Sorry if I misunderstood to what you were referring, DBD. ;-) Report by BigDaddyBS on February 28th, 2010 Still no fix for random question links going to the home page instead. 1 ongoing and 3 new I've noticed: http://www.answerbag.com/polls/oil-spills-man-made-anthropogenic_1914554 There were 4 answers, none of which I can read now. http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1922114 9 answers 2 likes: http://www.answerbag.com/polls/preferable-option-adopt-torture-murder-7-age-abortion_1920574 6 answers http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1913454 http://www.answerbag.com/polls/oil-spills-man-made-anthropogenic_1914554 Report by Halliburton Shill on February 28th, 2010 If you click on "Mute" to a response that shows up in your Activity page you get a message which says something like "if you mute this response you will not receive any further notifications about this question" I couldn't copy it to paste it here but the bottom line is if you click Mute it doesn't only block responses from a particular person but all further responses posted to the question or comment at hand. You can try it yourself because when the box comes up it has two options - O.K. or Cancel. Report by CatLover- The Original is Proudly Canadi on February 28th, 2010 Halliburton: I wouldn't say anything here, but you seem to insist... Asking here and in the forums NUMEROUS times about these SAME questions: The poll (listed twice) is a rejected question, and I'm sure you know why. (The use of an image that has NOTHING to do with the question, and one with profanity clearly in it, is forbidden, and YOU know that.) The others you listed appear to be rejected, too. I'm unsure if they should be or not. BUT, it might behoove you to actually ask, NICELY - I know... goes against your nature, but you catch more flies with honey than vinegar - the staff via Contact Us to review and unreject them IF they think they should be allowed. (And no, HS, I haven't flagged ANY of your questions... YET.) From what I've read either in the blog or forums, they are working on a more ... "graceful" way of letting people know when questions are rejected, and that that is why they are being sent to the home page. (Personally, I liked the prior version of AB's handling of that!) -- @CatLover - Thank you for your clarification. ;-) Report by BigDaddyBS on February 28th, 2010 @bigdaddyBS some questions already restored, whether it's because I had already used Contact Us prior to posting this I can't say. I prefer an official response as opposed to hypothetical rants that are the custom of biased users: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1922114 Of those still with a problem, in numbered order for you, so it's simple to follow along: 1. How would you know if the image has anything to do with the question? At best, that's subjective and at worst purely censorship. There's nothing offensive in the image itself. How would you know there's even an image in it (is this your way of saying you're trolling my questions and flagging them)? You didn't mention there's also a news link in it that would help, for certain people with poor image to word capabilities, to explain the point. 2. There's no profanity in any of the questions listed. If that's all it was, I'd repost them minus the word. The still missing questions, as asked, so everyone can review: 1. Are oil spills man-made (anthropogenic)? http://www.answerbag.com/polls/oil-spills-man-made-anthropogenic_1914554 2. Which is the preferable option: adopt and then torture and murder at 7 years of age or have an abortion? http://www.answerbag.com/polls/preferable-option-adopt-torture-murder-7-age-abortion_1920574 3. At what age is it legal to get an 11-year-old girl pregnant and force her to give birth? http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1913454 Report by Halliburton Shill on March 1st, 2010 Spammer - http://www.answerbag.com/profile/1216933 And not a very bright one at that !! Report by Ice man on March 1st, 2010 Shill: I agree with BigDaddy's answers to your question. The questions redirecting to our homepage have been flagged by mods and CLs for various reasons. We're working to make the flagging process more transparent in due time. BigDaddy can see the pictures in your question and the like because Mods and CLs and Staff can still successfully click into your rejected questions. Report by Lex Friedman on March 1st, 2010 Ok,again, The filters used on the questions section are still not working correctly,once checked will there ever be a permanent setting to them or will I forever need to review daily the settings for my filters,,,the religious bs is constant and very annoying. I guess I can leave this one rhetorical also. Report by mtndewman40 on March 1st, 2010 I don't know whether it's only me, but unsubscribing from a comment thread doesn't exist (there's no such button) and I've read somewhere before that it was implemented. Or was I just dreaming? And by the way, comment threads keep disappearing. Report by Anonymous T on March 1st, 2010 I just bought up the question page and there were six call girl questions again. Why are there so many when I never saw any on the old AB? Report by Gingerminx on March 1st, 2010 Thank you, Lex, for explaining... NOTE: That is IF we have a direct link. If it's to an answer in the question (i believe) we are sent to the home page, just like everyone else. And, Hal... Why would I waste my time trolling ANYONE? I have no need, nor desire, to do this. Yes, I might check on someone's prior posts when the questions strike me a certain way, but I don't recall EVER having flagged someone's questions because I didn't like them... ONLY because they SHOULD have been... AND, I don't flag a lot since I've been a CL. I don't get points for that, and others do. I leave it to them, unless it's an adult question (move it to Adult), profanity-laced (and, yes... that picture DID contain profanity, and I'd have flagged it if I saw it first), attacking others, or may be dangerous. But then, that's my JOB as a CL, isn't it? I will admit that we don't see eye to eye on damn-near anything, but then, I don't worry too much about stuff like that. People are allowed to have differing opinions, and some are just not "people persons". So, live and let live, for the most part, is the way I AB. That poll, in and of itself, probably would have remained if not for that image. And again, like them or not, I'd have probably left those other two questions, and am not sure WHY they were flagged. Quit trying to find enemies where there aren't any! Report by BigDaddyBS on March 1st, 2010 @Anonymous T - You unsubscribe the any notifications to a given question (not just the comment threads, apparently) by clicking the MUTE at the end of the notification in your feedback. That's what we have now. I'm unsure if there's any way to reverse it, if you wished, so be "gentle" with it. @Ginger - Got 'im, this time. But, since I flagged them as spam, I'm unsure if anyone else who flagged them will get points. I try not to (see my note to HS, above). I also PBed the member. NOTE: Why are we getting these, now? Because that's one of the things those spammers are pushing at the moment. And why do so many appear? Because CLs need to get reports, many times, to act on something. We are not all on the home page... We are not in every place on AB. We are only FOUR CLs, and can only be where we are, unless we are TOLD about problems and spammers. And, if you read the blog following (the older one "About those spammers..." by Lex, you'll see they are trying to stop them in their tracks. So report spammers via Contact Us (send at least a link to a question, if not to the profile of the spammer), and/or to a CL. We'll get them ASAP. Report by BigDaddyBS on March 1st, 2010 I have a suggestion about the SPAM mail. I think it would be prudent to have one link for SPAM only which would go directly to a CL or Moderator and could be dealt with immediately. As it is now if we happen to catch the attention of one who can zap a SPAM all well and good but we don't always know where you are or how to reach you. People are reporting them in the Bog, in the Forums all over the site. If it is sent through Contact Us, it goes through various people who may have a whole lot of other things they need to tend to. Are we supposed to send the post, the profile page of the sender? Room for much confusion here. I vote for a link for SPAM only so they will get the attention they so justly deserve as quickly as possible. Perhaps you could select a couple of people as monitors for SPAM. SPAM SPOTTERS :) I don't think you would have a problem getting volunteers if that is the only thing they were responsible for. I wouldn't mind offering my time to zap them when reported if needed. Since it isn't a discretionary decision and pretty straight forward, there shouldn't be any problems as a result of adding a few more people to look after this. Report by CatLover- The Original is Proudly Canadi on March 1st, 2010 More spam =P http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/8747970 Report by Shania on March 4th, 2010
Lex Friedman	February 25th, 2010 at 2:36 pm About those spammers... You've seen their annoying, obnoxious posts cluttering up the site, advertising ridiculous things and providing no benefit to our community. I don't want to go into too much detail, but we've taken some steps to make their abuse of our site less bothersome, and we'll continue to monitor that situation closely. We hate those spammers just as much as you do. Grrrr. 14 comments \| Post one Comments Good to know. This is (was?) getting out of hand. http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1932191 I'm sure many people have also been vocal about this and would love to see the spam pest erradicated. Report by Barcaluv on February 25th, 2010 Oh really ?? 22 posts for call girls - http://www.answerbag.com/profile/1213837/questions/ Report by Ice man on February 25th, 2010 That particular account has been dealt with, Ice Man. However, I feel your link is a good example and a warning of how pervasive the spamming has become. Let's hope they deal with this like Lex says. Report by Barcaluv on February 25th, 2010 Thanks for your response Barca, I hope these steps will include the forum pages. Report by Ice man on February 25th, 2010 You've made me very happy, Lex!!! I even found some spam on the Question page, flagged them and they disappeared :) Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! Report by Galeanda on February 26th, 2010 Drat...there go my spam moderations... ;)~ Report by The Chief on February 26th, 2010 Once again I find the comments on my questions diapering. On my question: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1847405 I had several answers with VERY long comment threads of fascinating and powerful debate Specifically the answers of "Blessed has a COAT of many colors" and "ladyshakespeare" which had close to 90 very long comments on it! I checked today and they are all gone. This is unacceptable. this was almost 2 months of intense debating lost! I truly hope you can recover this information. Report by buster on February 26th, 2010 Buster: They're back. I guess the 'fleetingly invisible comments' bug remains. We have more tricks up our sleeves though :) Report by Lex Friedman on February 26th, 2010 Lex, I'd like to thank you for another fix to a problem I reported on "Likes" made in permalinks not showing up when viewing all answers...and vice versa. I noticed that when I "Like" an answer as of this morning, it shows no matter how the answers are viewed! THANK YOU very much! :):) Report by The Chief on February 26th, 2010 Thank you very much for your prompt response Lex... Much obliged ;-) Report by buster on February 26th, 2010 Thanks Lex. I know you and the AB staff are doing your best to get rid of this filth. Looks like there at it again. http://www.answerbag.com/profile/1215497/answers/ Report by Slick on February 27th, 2010 Another spammer http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/8734421 http://www.answerbag.com/profile/1194543 Report by Shania on February 28th, 2010 Ha ha - disappearing comments - nothing changes around here. Report by Shania on March 1st, 2010 Lex: More spam =P http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/8747970 Report by Shania on March 4th, 2010
Lex Friedman	February 24th, 2010 at 12:16 pm Fixes, features, and refinements 1. *One of my favorite new features, the Questions I Could Possibly* Answer page, now works a bit better in a couple ways. First, it's now more focused on your favorite categories of questions to answer, rather than your most-highly-rated answers, since that was a bit too easily swayed by question popularity. Second, we now don't show you your own questions to answer! 2. Filters on category pages work better. When you click on "polls" and "debates" filters in a category, it should show you both content types. Previously, it was showing the dreaded "No questions match" message. 3. Categories now show up on the categories page. That sounds a bit redundant. But, for example, the Legal page shows questions that are from deeper categories too, like ("Legal > Divorce > Contesting a Divorce"). Now you can more quickly see precisely which sub-category a question is classified in. 4. Optimizations.** Finally, we made some new behind-the-scenes tweaks that should help prevent the site from lagging at peak times. More soon! 9 comments \| Post one Comments Isn't this counter productive. I don't mean to sound negative but this does not make sense to me. Why would I receive requests to answer questions in my favorite category when that is the category I go to in the first place? The chances are I have already seen those questions and for whatever reason decided not to respond. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to the cause if I were sent questions from categories I don't normally visit? For instance I have been involved in interior decorating but it isn't something I think about much when I come on here because I feel I know more about Pets. However periodically I will respond to something having to do with decorating. Maybe if I saw more question about decorating it would nudge me to answer them. If I receive requests about Pets, I have probably already seen them and did not have a response for the question. Enquiring minds need to know about this :) Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 24th, 2010 We're aiming to higlight questions you may have missed. If you browse the category pages all the time, then it'll be tougher for us to highlight ones you haven't seen and passed on, it's true. But I think the current, still-new functionality makes more sense than showing you questions in categories you've expressed no prior interest in... Report by Lex Friedman on February 24th, 2010 Thanks Lex. Report by XT. on February 24th, 2010 O.K. thanks for the explanation Lex. Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 24th, 2010 I really like the possible questions you could answer thingy. Really really. Because I'm not big on categories, and there's less activity from my 'friends'. So the questions I actually want to answer have been not too many. But this is good. Thanks :) Report by Lovehearts on February 25th, 2010 I'm still seeing questions that that don't belong in a category (maybe they have been moved or tagged as Wrong Category already) but they are still listed on that category's page. Examples: On this category page http://www.answerbag.com/category/rabbits_104 There are 2 questions http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1916695 http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1917755 that show they are supposedly in TV troubleshooting http://www.answerbag.com/category/television-troubleshooting_1041 but they are still in Rabbits. I just went back and looked and there are lots of questions all about TVs in that category. Maybe it's some weird glitch that is placing them there. They are by different people Report by Galeanda on February 25th, 2010 Remember the days of Rabbit Ears? (JK) Report by skeeter on February 25th, 2010 Galeanda: I'm working right now on a fix for all those category pages. Within another hour or two, all those pages should reflect the right questions. Stay tuned! Update: We think t hese are working properly now. Let us know! Report by Lex Friedman on February 25th, 2010 Thanks for the category fix, Lex. I haven't looked there yet to see them, but I will soon! Report by The Chief on February 25th, 2010
Lex Friedman	February 23rd, 2010 at 1:29 pm Making little things easier, fixing bugs A host of fixes and improvements to small but frustrating elements of the site went live today: 1. Flagged questions, going forward, should be removed from the Questions page immediately, as soon as the flags are approved by a Mod. Previously, they could stick around that page for far too long even after the questions themselves were removed. We'll expand this fix to other pages (i.e., category pages) soon. 2. Possible fix for disappearing comments. It'll take a couple days to be sure, but we hope to have addressed an issue where comments occasionally disappear from an answer. We inherited this bug from the old version of the site, and we're trying our darndest to eliminate it. 3. Better "dupe check" when you add questions. When you ask a question on Answerbag, we try to show you possible ways that question has already been asked on the site. (We all hate duplicate questions, right?!) Until today, the dupe-checker was resource intensive on your computer and on our servers—and it wasn't especially accurate, either. Now, it's far less intensive, and far more relevant. Win-win! 4. It's now easier to report questions as being in the wrong category. The category search box was too small to use well. Now it's bigger and easier to read. *5. It's now way* easier to flag duplicate questions. We used to require that you paste in the URL of the duplicated question. Now, we'll offer up some guesses about which question the original one duplicates, and you can just click on one to select it as the dupe. 6. If you start asking a question from the homepage,** the character countdown and potential duplicate questions appear instantly on the main ask page, providing a more consistent and accurate asking experience. Plenty more to come! 12 comments \| Post one Comments You guys are doing great! Thanks for the updated updates. Report by Reptar on February 23rd, 2010 Those are really very useful improvements! :-) Report by iwnit on February 23rd, 2010 Another Q&A site has a feature called "Merge Questions" where, if you find a quplicate question, you click on MERGE and click on the duplicate question, and the site automagically moves all the answers onto one of the questions and deletes the duplicate. Leaves it to the members to moderate the site without the admins having to micro-manage things. Just an idea... Report by HungryGuy on February 23rd, 2010 HungryGuy - That may work there, but I've seen TOO MANY questions merged (and that's WITH mod acceptance) that shouldn't have been to NOT have them check it out. One keyword does NOT a duplicate make. ;-) Report by BigDaddyBS on February 23rd, 2010 Thank you, Lex! On the Wrong Category issue... I used to be able to clean house on Wrong Categories. But I simply CAN'T any more. And here's why: I went to the Category page today to see what I could do. I went to "Outside the Bag" and it obligingly provided a list of all the questions in the "Outside the Bag" category, including the various sub categories. However, the questions on that list do not show what category they are posted in. Now, this may sound silly...but this is important because of the SUB CATEGORIES within that category. I couldn't tell without actually opening every single question listed whether or not these questions were in their proper sub category. A "This or That" question, for example, cannot be determined if it's actually in the "This or That" sub category unless I open the question and check it. Now, obviously if a question belongs to another entirely different category (like "Hobbies" for example) then it's easy. Would it be possible to put in a fix for this which would show the category along with the questions listed on the Category Page like they do in the Questions Page? It would be greatly appreciated! Report by The Chief on February 24th, 2010 Chief: Yes. I've put it on the to-do list. Report by Lex Friedman on February 24th, 2010 Many thanks, Lex. Report by The Chief on February 24th, 2010 I seem to have lost my friends Q & A from my profile page....I hope this is just a temporary glitch:) Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi COAT on February 24th, 2010 I see all 171 of your friends and lots of feedback. Report by Brian I on February 24th, 2010 DA BEN DAN: Make sure you're looking at your first-person profile (/proflie/) and not your third-person profile (/profile/183454). Report by Lex Friedman on February 24th, 2010 I don't know if it just me, or if anybody else is having the same problem, but the point levels keeps going up and down, my points yesterday were 6,997, and now today they are at 6,606. I'm assuming this is another glitch. Report by Slick on February 24th, 2010 Thanks a lot for the improvements. I am excited to have those spam posts gone. And I like the better duplicate search, though I still prefer just to search for them using the question/search box, which is what I've always done. It's slower but really finds those original questions. My friends also disappear at times, sometimes all of them and sometimes just some of them. I'll try to pay attention to when it happens and which profile I'm looking at. Report by Galeanda on February 24th, 2010
Lex Friedman	February 22nd, 2010 at 2:11 pm Questions you might be able to answer... We're working on some bugs and new features behind-the-scenes right now. (We're especially focused on an issue where answers/comments sometimes temporarily seem to disappear for some of you.) But we still wanted to launch one new feature today: Questions I Could Possibly Answer... Basically, we look at answers you've written that have been well-liked, and then try to find new, unanswered questions in similar categories, and show them to you. Many of them you may well not be inclined to answer, and that's okay. If we expose just a small one or two questions each day that you're perfectly suited to answer, that's still a success in my book! As always, let us know what you think :) 18 comments \| Post one Comments Cool new feature. I like it a lot. I have already answered some questions in the list that appears in my profile. I think this a good thing as it will hopefully be of help in reducing the number of unanswered questions at least a little, and encourage more participation. Nicely done guys. Report by Barcaluv on February 22nd, 2010 Sounds like the premise is a good one but I think you will have to be very clear on what qualifies someone to be "suited" to answer a question. Otherwise everyone with an opinion may think they are qualified. I like the idea very much. Additionally it will expose me to categories I may not normally look at. I focus in on categories I enjoy but there are others I have a little knowledge of but I never think to check out those questions. Sounds like a good idea to me. Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 22nd, 2010 Thanks Lex. Report by XT. on February 22nd, 2010 I dont like it too well, although I appreciate the thought.!! I dont see many questions there that I want to, or feel qualified to answer, so, there they are, unanswered still. I think I would rather still just choose questions on my own. Thanks for trying to improve AB and get some questions answered, but, now what do I do with all these questions just sitting there? Now I feel like Ive been given an assignment I can't accomplish !! Kattra Report by Kattra on February 22nd, 2010 some seem appropriate but some are specifically asking for information about US, I am from UK. Report by Moley the contrary female dragon on February 22nd, 2010 Right now the system's pretty basic. We look at questions you've answered — specifically, their categories. We look at those answers, and more distinctly the ratings those answers received, and figure out the categories you excel at the most. From there, we show you up to 100 of the most recent unanswered questions in those categories. The system could become a lot smarter, but this is still just phase one. Thanks for the feedback thus far! Report by Lex Friedman on February 22nd, 2010 HahahhahaHAh...Thankx for the laugh Lex, Most of the suggestions were pretty funny. GREAT feature!!! Report by Reptar on February 22nd, 2010 O.K. I see what you are doing now. I thought the questions would be posted on the home page or something for anyone who would be preapred to answer. Is there any way we can request which questions we do or don't want sent to us? I guess it is a successful idea because I have just spent time answering around 10 questions which I would not have bothered with ordinarily. So who ever had this idea is brilliant in my humble opinion. Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 22nd, 2010 Looking at my list I've obviously spent far too much time discussing other people's love lives. :-) Categories that attract a lot of attention inevitably attract far more uprates than more technical categories, which are of interest to, and are seen by, only a few people. Consequently the list isn't really of questions in categories I excel at. Like much to do with Answerbag it's a reflection of popularity - in this case which categories are the most popular. Some sort of weighting system, giving more weight to more technical issues (motor mechanics, various types of building works and computer programs spring to mind) would presumably be too difficult to implement, which is a shame because those are the very types of question that quickly fall off the homepage, never to be seen again except by a couple of aficionados, whereas 'How do i let him know I want him to kiss me?' is the sort of question that normally gets loads of answers without needing to be pushed. Report by Brian I on February 23rd, 2010 Sounds like an interesting feature. I"ll be on the watch to see if there are questions I can answer. But what is really getting to me is all the call girl spam. It doesn't seem to matter if I report them, reject them anymore. As a CL when I flagged things in the past, they would disappear after a few seconds. Now they just sit there and I can see that they have been rejected but they still clog up the whole Questions page. Why are things so slow to respond on the new AB? The words new and improved don't seem to go together here as far as responding to problem question and answers. I think it reflects badly on the site to have so much trash lying around visible to people that visit, especially if it's their first time here. One look at the Questions page and I'd be gone in a second...unless I was looking for a call girl ;-) Report by Galeanda on February 23rd, 2010 All fair comments :) As I mentioned earlier, this feature is still quite nascent. We have plenty of fine-tuning up our sleeves :) Report by Lex Friedman on February 23rd, 2010 Galeanda: Very valid point. We'll see what we can do about that. Report by Lex Friedman on February 23rd, 2010 I've already used it m'dear. Noticed it yesterday, Monday the 22nd, and tried it out. The first couple of suggested questions were right on target...then they devolved into stuff I wouldn't answer if you paid me a zillion bucks. Nevertheless, it is certainly a nice option and worth taking a look at from time to time. Happy Tuesday Lex and carry on! Full steam ahead! :) Report by RosieGHM Jetpacker on February 23rd, 2010 I have been complaining about all the call girl ads for days now. I am glad at least Galeanda gets acknowledged for it, now perhaps I will not have to spend all my time here flagging these posts. Report by Gingerminx on February 23rd, 2010 You better have the "whiz kids" look at the question page ... No questions were found that match your filters. Try turning some filters off. Report by Ice man on February 23rd, 2010 I thnk that's a GREAT idea! No offense, but you really need to build the level of activity on the bag back up again. Sending questions to people that they're likely to be interested in answering sounds like a great way to do that... These days, I log in each day, and browse the two or three new comments I have on my activity page, then look in on the answerblog here, and then leave. That's it. I really miss putting AB up on a browser window on the corner of my screen all day long and responding to the handful of new comments and answers I'd get every few minutes :-( Report by HungryGuy on February 23rd, 2010 I find I am not getting comments, My answers seem to go into a black hole and I do not even know if the asker has even read them or if anyone else has .It did not happen to this extent before. It makes it seem as if you waste your time answering. I agree the activity level seems dire. Questions go unanswered too, Much more than they did before.This used to be a rare occurence. Report by Moley the contrary female dragon on February 23rd, 2010 I really like this new feature :) Report by BloedEnMelk on February 24th, 2010
Lex Friedman	February 19th, 2010 at 1:20 pm Polls fix, bigger Happening Now page, and more Happy Friday! First and most importantly, we've rolled out a fix for polls. We recently introduced a bug that prevented poll options with apostrophes or quotation marks from saving properly; I think my brand new poll proves that that's been fixed! Also today, we've made the Happening Now page a bit bigger when you first load it. Like the module on the homepage, it should grow as new questions and answers are added to the site. But now it starts out with 30 recent updates to display, instead of the same ten showing on the homepage. We also made some refinements to the blog archive. Finally, based on some suggestions from wise folks like our CL BigDaddyBS, we've created a new Staff/Mod/CL tool that allows us to more easily find and identify "Great Answers" — with your help. The tool makes it easier for us to review Asker's Picks to see if they should be upgraded to the "Great" label (which of course also awards 5 points). How can you help? By making sure you use Asker's Pick judiciously. Applying that label to every answer to your question, or as a thank-you for answering weakens the importance of the badge, and makes it tougher for our Mod/CL team to find the truly great answers. (Don't forget, you can always thank your answerers by clicking "Like" on their responses.) Reserver your Pick for answers that truly speak to you or help you out... And we'll keep looking for the insanely great ones to reward and feature even more prominently. Have a great weekend! 49 comments \| Post one Comments I am mixed up Lex. The Asker's Pick can be chosen by the person posting the question. That makes it elegible to become a "Great Answer" by AB staff. I understand that but all of the Great Answers I have noticed are all Professionally Researched Answers. Are Great Answers and PRA one and the same or are Great Answers which have been posted by a member different from the other Great Answers. I am confused. Can't the PRA (which are a thorn in our sides) have a different designation to differentiate them from ordinary Great Answers which have been submitted by members. Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 19th, 2010 CatLover: You're confused by "Great Answers" that are also "Professionally Researched" — a reasonable confusion to be sure! All Professionally Researched answers get the "Great" label, but many answers are marked as Great that are written by members themselves, and they're marked as such. I'll try to clarify more soon. Report by Lex Friedman on February 19th, 2010 I know you have heard this before but I can't not say it again. All PRA are not great answers by any stretch of the imagination. That designation is very misleading. Please consider having professionally researched answers in a category of their own or in the very least with a different color or badge or something to set them apart. In my opinion "Great Answer" should not be included with any Professionally Researched Answers. Professionally Researched Answers should stand on their own if they are going to remain. Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 19th, 2010 Couldn't resist - In a nutshell :) All Great Answers are not Professionally Researched and all Professionally Researched Answers are not Great Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 19th, 2010 You're so right, CatLover. Many of the PRAs are not great by any stretch of the imagination and I don't think they should be automatically given Great Answer. One I found earlier today was wrong, VERY wrong when it said that honeysuckle wasn't poisonous for horses. Answers like that need to be demoted or at best, since they aren't even members, removed. Report by Galeanda on February 19th, 2010 Nice. When you hit that "See more Happening Now" all the crap leaves the page. Good one. Report by skeeter on February 19th, 2010 Nice. When you hit "See more Happening Now" all the crap goes away. Good one. Report by skeeter on February 19th, 2010 thanks Lex, for adding that jig about the Askers Pick option for the CL's.mods/etc. Report by byankno1 on February 19th, 2010 1) thankyou for extending the Happening Now... it is much appreciated. 2) I am certain that you know that I am firmly against this whole "asker's pick," "great answer" thing. It can be found all over the forums. Since you cannot link directly to a forum post, I copied and pasted one to one of my new blogs. Here is the link to my post. I am asking you to please read that and think about what I said. So far my specific issue is being ignored. Asker's picks/great answers work in q & a websites where questions are not open ended. They work when someone selects an asker's pick/great answer when it closes a question. Lex, you said "How can you help? By making sure you use Asker's Pick judiciously. " That is all well and good, however, are people really going to care? Once an "asker's pick" is selected, assuming that the asker did care and did try, what about answers that come after the selection? As it stands now, those are going to flounder under already selected "asker's pick" and the ads. I know that I will not answer questions with a professionally researched answer and I am very unlikely to answer one that has an "asker's pick." I am also unlikely to answer one from an asker who I either know or suspect is biased because I want my answers seen. I really do not care terribly much about points but I do care about having my answers seen. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 19th, 2010 Lex, what happened to letting the user base decide what was the best answer? To letting the 'likes' by the users of this site decide what answer was on top? To me, that is a much better way. I have an adblock on my browser, so do not see the ads, but when I see an asker's pick or professionally researched answer chosen and pinned, I flat out close the question without going any further. If you truly want this site to be about great questions and answers, then please stop making it a popularity contest. You can plead until you are blue in the face, but face it, you can't even keep those below the age of 14 off the site. How are you going to enforce the request to stop using 'asker's pick' the way they want? Their friend answers, they get the pick. And it is up there for everyone to see. A question from a hater? Let a hater answer and it is the number 1 answer. If you trust your user base, then let the base as a whole decide what THEY feel is the best answers. And let it be fluid, changing as new answers come in. If you are going to pin answers, then close the questions. They do not allow for any leeway. And if you tell me you will make it so the asker can change their mind, well, how many come in, ask a question, then vanish. Let the site users as a whole have their input. And stop pinning answers. Report by Keysha on February 19th, 2010 Just a point: As with Great Answers, there can be more than one Asker's Picks. Some of those I've seen on the new GA Tool just aren't that ... Great. You're right, Lex, in that people need to use that more judiciously. (Your friends don't get any points for it unless a CL/Mod/Staff member DO believe it's "Great", so ... Give them LIKEs instead). Report by BigDaddyBS on February 19th, 2010 Arisztid, you and I don't entirely disagree. I think that, as has been said a few times, we're seeing the "Asker's Pick" used erroneously. It's meant to be the same as a Great Answer, only selected by the member him- or herself. Right now, it's used by some that way, and by some in other ways. But I think your key issue, of answers being "pinned," is easily fixable: We just need a preference to allow members to choose how to sort their answers by default -- chronologically, likes only, or greatness/likes (the current default). I think that would go a long way towards resolving this issue for you, and it's definitely something I'm willing to consider. Report by Lex Friedman on February 19th, 2010 Hey Lex! I think you should consider the advice of Arisztid and Keysha. The Asker's Picks can be easily used to game the ratings system. Most people are just going to use it to give it to their buddies...bla-bla-blay-blay-bla-bla... You probably should heed the advice of other baggers, and consider going back to a more egalitarian point-awarding system. Though I am pleased that you did away with downrates! That was a big improvement :-) That said, I've sometimes designated really good answers to my questions as "Asker's Picks." But sometimes, a better answer comes along, and so I give the new answer an "Asker's Pick." So then I have two Asker's Picks. Perhaps you should modify it so that you can have only one Asker's Pick, and if you give that award to a different answer, it removes it from the original one. Perhaps it should also pop up a message telling you that giving a new answer an Asker's Pick will remove the reward from the previous answer. Report by HungryGuy on February 19th, 2010 I haven't complained about this for a long time. I have just basically been putting up with it and working around it but this site is not working very well at all. Alerts don't work, feedback doesn't show new activity all the time. I find I have to go to my profile page and click on whatever I have been awaiting a comment on to check my activity. And comments disappear, answers too. Same old stuff. Report by skeeter on February 19th, 2010 The kicker with that, Lex, is that most are going to have the default which shall have the pinned answers, the ads, then the rest. Most people are just going to go by the default. That means that, still, the answers not pinned are going to not be seen as much as the pinned answers. If you look at the page, not only is there the pinned answers but there are the ads after the pinned answer. The ads draw the eye even more to the pinned answer. I really believe that the old system of answers being sorted by points in the old days, likes now, is the best. If answers, when they got picked and pinned, locked the question to new answers, that would be better. I still would not bother with answering certain questions because I know the askers and know that they are going to pin only answers that agree with them. I just think that it is a bad system. It works on boards like Yahoo Answers (pox on their name) that locks questions when the askers pick is chosen. My whole problem with this is visibility. I am glad that asker's pick do not give more points because that would lead to gaming but, still, I like my answer to be seen. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 19th, 2010 I made the mistake of thinking the Askers pick gives people more points, I see now it's a way to sift for great answers by the CLs and others that form the hub of AB. , Thanks for clearing that up! Report by Reptar on February 19th, 2010 Oh no! Please don't ever lock questions to new answers! That's one of the beauties of Answerbag! People stumble upon old answers all the time and give really good answers, sometimes better answers than all the ones already there. Report by HungryGuy on February 19th, 2010 We have no plans to lock questions; fret not :) I certainly appreciate all the input here. One important thing to remember is the goal of Great Answers/Asker's Picks, and that's to help newcomers to a given question page find the information they're searching for faster. Bubbling up truly great answers does everyone a service, since it helps us find the answer we're seeking. But I don't at all think that the presence of a great answer means that interested parties shouldn't or wouldn't read on; indeed, our metrics indicate that people do keep reading well beyond the first answer, regardless of its label, on questions with many answers. Report by Lex Friedman on February 19th, 2010 The problem I have, HungryGuy, is that the answers with a green box and ribbon around them followed by ads means that answers after it are less likely to be seen. Please read the blog page I linked to. If this system has to stay in place, I would prefer the questions to be locked. Again, that is my preference. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 19th, 2010 The answer pinned in that box is not necessarily the best answer in the question. I have already seen it many times with much better answers languishing under the pinned one and the ads. Your request for the use of that asker's pick to be responsible is just a request. As far as "professionally researched" answers, many times they are nowhere near as good as what our members can do and I have seen, despite avoiding those questions like the plague, many answers from the members that are far superior buried under the "great answer" and the ads. Truly great answers cannot bubble up past pinned ones. That is the whole point of pinning answers. What you say here: "But I don't at all think that the presence of a great answer means that interested parties shouldn't or wouldn't read on" is nice but, like what you say here: "How can you help? By making sure you use Asker's Pick judiciously"... is just a suggestion. The presence of a pinned answer does not mean the reader should not read on but think of your average web surfer. What metrics indicate that people look past the pinned answer? Am I missing out on something technological? Is there a way to see what a person looks at? I can tell that I am banging my head against the wall and I am getting the hint that what I am saying is wasted so I am going to move on. It is one of those things that I have to accept or leave. A lot of us have various issues they have reached this point with. I am not going to leave over it so I have to accept. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 19th, 2010 Arisztid, No, you're not banging your head. We don't agree, but that doesn't mean either of us is wasting our time. The technological metric I'm using is time spent on site. We love getting answers, especially good ones — the more the merrier! If you see other good answers to questions, consider sending a message to a Mod or CL; they can promote other answers to Great as well. Report by Lex Friedman on February 19th, 2010 If I see a professionally researched (or otherwise pinned) answer that I consider to be dangerous medically or otherwise, I shall use the contact us button. If they are just wrong but not dangerous, I am not going to bother. I do not like and do not approve of the system, no matter how it is packaged. I shall answer questions where there are not already pinned answers. I sometimes spend a long time researching and writing my answers and I am not putting that kind of effort into questions with pinned answers. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 19th, 2010 @HungryGuy - HOW can Asker's Picks be used to game the system? There are no points awarded for them (see my comment to Reptar), and staff/mods/CLs are supposed to be objective (see my comments about GAs) about these things, and also have a set of criteria they must follow to chose a GA. If an AP does NOT meet the criteria, if a staff member/mod/CL doesn't think it IS a GA, they won't flag it as such. Makes it MUCH harder to "game" the system this way. @Reptar - It was NOT until just today. It was simply a way for the asker to choose what they believed to be the "best answer" of all they get. No points have ever been awarded for them, since they CAN be used to "game" the system. -- Great Answers are flagged by people AB has deemed "objective" - Staff, Mods, and CLs - the latter of which were asked to be CLs partially because of their perceived objectivity in their AB career. There is a criteria that must be met, for the most part for "Great Answers", which, obviously, Professionally Researched Answers meet. Again, I would like to see a flag with a REASON why a Great Answer is NOT one, and PRAs should NOT be immune to them. If they are dangerous, deadly, or can make someone/something (a pet, usually) ill, they should NOT be GAs, even if PRAs. And, as Aris pointed out, before, not everyone will read through the comments I want to thank Lex and team for figuring out one way to help us Staff/Mods/CLs FIND those answer that may be Great. However, this only allows the QUESTIONER to say an answer is great. There are MANY times I've read through questions, seen something that MIGHT be a GA (before I was CL), and believe we should be able to nominate via flag (a POSITIVE flag... How original!) These could also be listed where the Asker's Picks are listed, preferably in a different section, so we know HOW they were chosen for review. I totally understand Arisztid's point about the first answer then ads... This is true in ALL cases, not just Great Answers, not just PRas. The supposed BEST answer shows first. I've never been sure about the GAs and PRAs, but because AB seems to want them, try to defend them. Maybe, as suggested, the default should be NOT to show ANY answer as GAs or APs, allowing the user to select whether to show them or not. PRAs will still be there, but not with the GA designation, UNLESS the user wishes to see them. (Hey... I'm TRYING guys! LOL). -- Report by BigDaddyBS on February 19th, 2010 # * Report HungryGuy by HungryGuy One hour ago # I haven't complained about this for a long time. I have just basically been putting up with it and working around it but this site is not working very well at all. Alerts don't work, feedback doesn't show new activity all the time. I find I have to go to my profile page and click on whatever I have been awaiting a comment on to check my activity. And comments disappear, answers too. Same old stuff. Report by skeeter on February 19th, 2010 Arisztid with reference to this statement: "The problem I have, HungryGuy, is that the answers with a green box and ribbon around them followed by ads means that answers after it are less likely to be seen" that could be true but it could also be the placement of the ads is a condition of getting paid by the advertisers. I have a website and considered having ads. The reason I didn't is because they can dictate where the ads on your site are placed. If you don't abide by their demands, you don't get paid for displaying their links. AB is afterall a commercial site and here to make money. We don't have to pay because the advertisers pay and I don't expect AB is going to provide the site without them. That is just one of the sad elements of a capitalistic world. Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 19th, 2010 I am not debating or concerned with why the ads are there. The ads are there... period. I would like it if they were positioned differently but they are not. They are also not my main complaint. I am stating simply that the answers being pinned and put in a colored box when combined with the ads makes the answers after the ads less likely to be read. If the answers were not set off with a different colored box, this problem would be less. If all of the answers were either in the same colored box or not in a box there still would be a problem by the ads breaking them apart, making the ones after the ads less likely to be seen but the problem would not be as great. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 19th, 2010 Lex... Ever thought about moving the ads between the question and the first answer? That way, you're NOT "breaking up the answers" leaving rated and "pinned" answers at the top and others to follow... AND the ads would still get seen by those without ad-blockers... Just a thought... Report by BigDaddyBS on February 19th, 2010 @Big Daddy - that is a great idea. Report by Brian I on February 20th, 2010 @Lex - In relation to Askers' Picks you say, "How can you help? By making sure you use Asker's Pick judiciously. Applying that label to every answer to your question, or as a thank-you for answering weakens the importance of the badge" I think the same criterion should apply to Professionally Researched Answers. Automatically giving every PRA a Great Answer award similarly weakens the importance of the badge. I think this is very much a case of what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and you shouldn't expect ordinary users to be judicious when the staff isn't. Report by Brian I on February 20th, 2010 I just asked a question giving some suggestions for the rating of answers. Please have a look: Why not give ribbons of different colors for "Asker's pick", "Staff choice" and "Popular answer"? Report by iwnit on February 20th, 2010 Is there a way of doing somethign about all the call girl posts? I am tired of flagging them all the time. Also the many very tacky posts that are placed in the wrong categories. I feel like I am spending more time flagging than actually answering questions. Report by Gingerminx on February 20th, 2010 To Lex and Arisztid... Perhaps a compromise can be reached. The main problem that I think Ari is saying is that the Asker's Pick always comes first, then a bunch of %#@ ads, then the rest of the answers. First, perhaps you can get rid of the ads. Well, maybe Demand Media won't let you do that, so at least move them elsewhere on the page. Second, calculate a score for each answer every time a page is loaded (independent of the leaderboard score). If an answer has a high enough score, it automatically gets promoted BEFORE the Asker's Pick. I think there's value in letting the asker pick his favorite answer to his question, as long as it doesn't step on the, otherwise, egalitarian, method of rating answers and bubbling the best answers to the top. Report by HungryGuy on February 20th, 2010 There is no compromise. He owns the site. I accept it or leave. Period. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 20th, 2010 Lex does not own the site. Demand Media does, and dictates to Lex the way things will appear. He can pass your arguments on to them, but can do little-to-nothing about them himself, or he loses his job. That's the way of the corporate world. It would be nice if NO answers were "pinned" to the top. The designation, itself, should be enough. It should also be true that LIKEs (now) determine the order of answers, as it ALWAYS has. However, DM apparently wants it this way, and while Lex himself may not like it (whether he does or not is moot), that's what's going to happen. It's LEX's job, being the point-man, to try to find compromise... to try to explain... and to defend the company's decision, which is what he's been doing. (At least, that's the way I see it, having come from a corporate environment.) Report by BigDaddyBS on February 20th, 2010 You seem to think that I am arguing with you. Ok, to end this argument, it does not matter who makes the decisions, the decisions are made.* Now. Is that sufficient for you? We are arguing a point that is not up to debate. There are no two sides to it. There is one side and I believe I was clear that I understand this. I hope that was clear. If it was not, well, so be it. I am done and I wish I had never brought it up in the first place. Lesson learned. Over and out. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 20th, 2010 Nope... I'm not arguing with you. But you and I both know that when people read statements like "He owns the site." - IF they don't KNOW - they will believe it. I was simply clarifying for those others. YOU will do whatever you feel you have to do. I can't stop you. But please know I'm not arguing with you. Report by BigDaddyBS on February 20th, 2010 Arisztid please don't think that way. You had a valid opinion and suggestion. You fought your battle admirably without going off subject or making it personal. The fact that you did not win the battle does not mean it should never have been fought. Changes can only be made through fighting obstacles in their way. You don't know if all, some, little or very little will be taken into consideration by those who make the final decisions. One thing I am certain of is whoever makes the decisions have a better understanding of what bugs some of the members and for that I want to thank you for taking the time to do so. Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 20th, 2010 This is my second copy and paste job. WHY AM I BEING IGNORED!!!!!!!! I haven't complained about this for a long time. I have just basically been putting up with it and working around it but this site is not working very well at all. Alerts don't work, feedback doesn't show new activity all the time. I find I have to go to my profile page and click on whatever I have been awaiting a comment on to check my activity. And comments disappear, answers too. Same old stuff. Report by skeeter on February 21st, 2010 I am having similar issues Skeeter. I have 17 alerts but am unable to see them as no comments are showing at all. Report by Gingerminx on February 21st, 2010 Thanks Gingerminx. I really see no point in using this site when the MAIN feature doesn't work. Report by skeeter on February 21st, 2010 Alerts seem to be working for me. Oh, sure, I liked it better the old way with activity lights for New Answers, New Comments, etc. and activity pages that showed ALL recent activity with actual new activity labeled as NEW. But if there's new activity that it's not alerting me to, how would I even know? That is kind'a scary... With the old way, I was able to look through all my recent activity, and maybe reply to a comment from a week ago that I wasn't inclined to reply to at the time. Now, if I ignore a new comment for whatever reason (maybe I couldn't think of a snappy retort at the moment), if I want to reply a few days later, I can't unless someone else replies to that thread again..., Report by HungryGuy on February 21st, 2010 "But if there's new activity that it's not alerting me to, how would I even know? That is kind'a scary..." I go to my activity page in my profile and sure enough there have been comments and answers I was not alerted to. Report by skeeter on February 21st, 2010 @Skeeter - Do you do this (got to your activity page) from your alerts page? Did you REFRESH your alerts page before you left it? I've done this every time I'm on that page, and only when it doesn't show new alerts do I go back to my activity page. I mean, logically, if you are ON your alerts page, why should it alert you to new ones? Just REFRESH the page (F5 or click the refresh) and it should show you new ones you haven't visited. (If I'm understanding your problem, correctly.) Report by BigDaddyBS on February 21st, 2010 BigDaddy, I have had an alert to answer to my question only to go to it and see there ha actually been three or four answers over a period of a week or more that I was not alerted to. I have to add that this was an issue for me even on the old AB. Report by Gingerminx on February 21st, 2010 Yeah. And also comments/answers disappear. I am not on LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide)! Report by skeeter on February 21st, 2010 LOL... I believe you both. We had the same problem with answers and comments on the previous version, remember? As for them "Disappearing", it may be that for some reason, the code is thinking you've "muted" them. THAT would be bug, if you haven't. Hopefully, they'll figure it out, soon. As for the alerts... Not sure what to say. Sounds like a bug that existed in the prior version has slipped into the new one. Report by BigDaddyBS on February 21st, 2010 We'll investigate those issues. Skeeter, not ignoring you, but don't have an answer yet. Report by Lex Friedman on February 22nd, 2010 I have noticed that when I have alerts, If I click on them, It often wont load, it just sits there.Happens quite frequently. Also why does it" Forget" me if I go to a members profile after searching for them. Same thing happens if I go to a friends question from their page. If I hit the back button I can get back in but sometimes I am following a friends activity for a few questions. It is tedious to have to go back through all that or log in again. Is it me? Does it happen to anyone else? Report by Moley the contrary female dragon on February 22nd, 2010 @Moley - there is normally a drop-down arrow next to the Back button that allows you to jump to any previous page. Report by Brian I on February 23rd, 2010
Lex Friedman	February 18th, 2010 at 12:54 pm New 'Polls' leaderboard, editing, and blog archives Another day, another new leaderboard. Today, we unveiled The Most Voted-Upon Polls Over the Past 30 Days leaderboard, which is a mouthful, but a cool way to see (and recognize!) who's posting the most popular polls. Also today, by request, we exposed the archives for our old blog posts. Relive the history of Answerbag as told through oodles of old blog posts spanning back many years. Finally, yesterday we launched the ability to edit your answer comments and blog comments for up to 20 minutes after you post them. It works much the way editing answers already does. As always, let us know what you think! 11 comments \| Post one Comments 1) Thankyou for the comment editing returned to us. I very much appreciate this. 2) A problem that I reported of previously uploaded pictures being too large (the original AB resized if they were too big) has also been addressed. I checked the page I reported and it is fixed. Thankyou for this fix as well. I am mentioning the above because I am certain that others have noticed it. 3) would it be possible to have some sort of link off of the main page to the newest answer? I think of everything left that is not included in the new answerbag, that is one of the things I miss the most. 4) I prefer the unlimited edit times on answers because, for instance, I used to edit my troll guide as I learned more and/or things in AB changed. Now my troll guide needs some major edits but I cannot. I know that there are other people with AB projects like Kyogre-Stataen's "Project Answerbag." I know that you do not want to have unlimited editing anymore but could we have, say, an hour to edit rather than 10 minutes? Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 18th, 2010 Oh I forgot one other request: 5) would it be possible to have, say, another page of "happening now?" Many times I go to click on something at the bottom of "happening now" only to have new activity push it off of th page. Of course, then I cannot access it. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 18th, 2010 Interesting board. Nice job. Also interesting is to have access to previous editions of the AB blog. I second Aris's question/comment he made in point number 4. Report by Barcaluv on February 18th, 2010 Another suggestion. On the old New Arrivals page, when a question was answered, you used to be able to see some or all of an answer to the question. Could you do that on the Happening Now page? Report by skeeter on February 18th, 2010 Lex, Thank you for access to the prior blog entries. And for coming up with new Leaderboards for the new AB. I made a suggestion about "Great Answers" at http://www.answerbag.com/forums/topic.php?t=574 . I hope you have a chance to read it. ;-) Report by BigDaddyBS on February 18th, 2010 POLL GLITCH. Lex I posted a few polled questions today and twice I had a problem with the choices. I typed in a 4 different choices but only 2 of them showed up. The 2nd and 4th choice shows blank. You can only edit your question and not the choices. I believe both times it happened it was the same two choices which were blank. Perhaps this is a glitch you might want to look in to. I did post it in Contact Us as well. Here is the url for the last one showing the problem: http://www.answerbag.com/polls/hate-ab-ab-participate-pay-membership-fee_1924089 Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 18th, 2010 CL - TOO: I see the bug, and we'll get it fixed. If you PM me with the other two poll options for that poll, I'll correct it for you as well. Report by Lex Friedman on February 19th, 2010 My latest poll question has the same glitch. The 2nd and 3rd options are blank. http://www.answerbag.com/polls/happycontent-height-_1924547 Report by Booknight on February 19th, 2010 The poll issue is fixed as of... NOW. Sorry about that! Report by Lex Friedman on February 19th, 2010 I didn't report it for my benefit and my poll question isn't that important. No one is responding to it anyway so I won't bother you with adding the other choices but thank you for taking care of it. Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 19th, 2010 Another suggestion. On the old New Arrivals page, when a question was answered, you used to be able to see some or all of an answer to the question. Could you do that a+ certification practice test on the Happening Now page? Report by der.de on March 2nd, 2010
Lex Friedman	February 17th, 2010 at 2:05 pm Another new leaderboard, other key fixes By request, we've added a new leaderboard list, and this one's a bit different from the others. It ranks new questions from the past week based on the number of answers they've received. It's limited to 100 questions, and it's a great way for any member, new or old, to get noticed. Check it out! We fixed some modules on the homepage. The "recent topics" module was often blank or presenting imperfect data. It shouldn't do that anymore! We also fixed a bug with new polls that would get unnecessary slashes added to them. More soon! 34 comments \| Post one Comments Things are looking pretty good, Lex, but, surprise surprise, I have a couple of suggestions: 1) We used to be able to click from the question page and be taken directly to the newest answer. I think that was linked to the word "answered" as in "answered by [username]." That made things so easy. 2) we used to be able to check "conversational" or "educational" which I used to let me know that I had already answered the question. Could we have some sort of way to check off if we have already answered a question? 3) could we have a way to go back a few pages in "Happening Now?" Often I am on my way to click the bottom thing on the page, something is added, and the bottom item vanishes. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 17th, 2010 Glitch above this post: I tried to use the new edit feature. Instead of editing the post, it added a blank post and did not edit the original post. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 17th, 2010 It wasn't just Polls that got the unnecessary slashes-it was QUESTIONS TOO! Report by byankno1 on February 17th, 2010 Arisztid: I'll investigate that comment editing. I forgot to blog about it -- but now I'm glad I did! ;) Byankno1: I knew it was happening on questions, but I don't think it still is for new ones. Report by Lex Friedman on February 17th, 2010 Is there a way to go directly to my place on the leaderboard to see what my rank is? My profile page shows my points, but not my rank. Report by HungryGuy on February 17th, 2010 Woah, woah, woah. You didn't mention the comment editing! (Well, you did in the comments to this, but seriously, it's amazing!) Thank you! Report by euneirophrenia on February 17th, 2010 You didn't mention the Points Hiccup yesterday. I went from 77,334 Genius to 82,958 Illuminati overnight. This morning I'm back to "normal" with 77,429/Genius. What happened? Does the rejiggering have a life of its own? Happy Thursday Lex! :) Report by RosieGHM Jetpacker on February 18th, 2010 You don't have a clue what you're doing, Lex. Why don't you hand over the reins to someone who does? Apparently you don't even know what the definition of "key" is. You must be looking at your "key" metrics upside down or something. And, your "key" fixes aren't "key" fixes especially when new ones always pop up all over the place. Seriously. You are clueless. You must have went to the Mickey Mouse School Of Business or something. It's ridiculous. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 And I'm seriously considering a very public and massive petition to get you to step down. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 @KillDrPhil: If I agreed with you, then we'd both be wrong. Are there specific site issues you'd like to see us address? Remember that personal attacks violate our terms of service, so please try to keep a civil tone here. Report by Lex Friedman on February 18th, 2010 Long time "lurker" but just signed up for 1st time. Just want to say Im really liking the new stuff, kudos. 8) Report by RegularJoe on February 18th, 2010 Specific site issues? Ha! Okay I'll come up with 500. You fix those and by that time another 500 will be ready for you to fix. This is unheard of for what is supposed to be a professional website. Literally, for YEARS problem after problem after problem. How come the other Q&A sites can keep things relatively glitch free but you guys obviously cannot? This is just besides the fact. That's just the problems. The dumb move of going from the old AB to this new joke of an AB is another issue entirely. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 And you can PB me or even ban me if you want to. It won't stop me from getting together one big walloper of a petition though and sending it to "key" people. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 I just don't understand why people get so worked up over a web site. It's just a web site. Nothing better to do? Report by skeeter on February 18th, 2010 By the way, it's very unfair to keep stringing along your loyal members like this. At least if you were to shut down until you really did get things straightened out it would be honest. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 I got some time to kill and if you want to be a sheep then go ahead but that's not my style. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 You wouldn't have commented in this entry if you didn't care. Well, I don't feel the same as you do about things. I guess you'll have to deal with that. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 And you can't pretend you are apathetic and accuse me of caring too much when I am hardly ever on here anymore but when I am I ALWAYS see you here. That's just silly, Skeeter. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 http://www.answerbag.com/polls/answer-poll-dislike-ab_1858602 Here is a "key" question for you to look at, Lex. Check out those numbers. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 Get off the sheep shit. Why is it everyone is a sheep because they prefer this site to the other crap. What and Whyners etc. Report by skeeter on February 18th, 2010 Okay. I take it back. If that really is true, then, I don't think you are a sheep. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 Your "key" metrics are saying one thing but most of the people are saying something else entirely, Lex. I would love to see these "key" metrics you talked about that say you are going in the right direction. Is saying you are a total phony against the terms of service? Oh well. So be it. You are a total phony. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 KDP: Yes, that question is telling, allright. To me it (mostly) reflects the discontent shown by many ABers a day or two after the launch of the new site. -check out the date stamp in most of the answers given. I'm fully aware that many people still don't like the site or haven't bothered (their right) to give it a chance. I wonder what results an up to date question or poll would show. Not working as an apologist here, as I have been vocal about many things that I dislike, I also have to give credit to the efforts made and have seen many issues that have been adressed and fixed, it hasn't happened overnight. but it has happened. By the way who are you going to send this petition to? Already disgruntled and former ABers?. Interesting you use the word sheep as it seems you're trying to form a flock of your own. Report by Barcaluv on February 18th, 2010 I'm sure that question pops up on a regular basis regardless of when it was submitted. In fact, I just saw it on the front page a few minutes ago. That's fine to give credit. However, things have been terrible since even before this new AB. It's been a looong time since this site has been relatively glitch free. So, why should the members accept that? The members AB counted on to click the websites of their advertisers? If they are disgruntled, then, they wouldn't be sheep because I obviously wouldn't have to convince them to do anyting. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 A sheep is someone who goes along with something even though they don't want to. Correct? Well, it says that question was submitted Dec. 10th. That's not exactly a long time ago. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 3 months, Lex. I'll give you that long. If things haven't changed drastically, this member (or soon to be former member) is going to make it his hobby to make this site good again. Ciao. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 Ohmigod get a life! You get what you pay for. So how much do you have invested here. Did you want a refund for the money you spent to participate in this site? Why don't you spend your time doing something more productive. I am so sick of hearing from whiners like you. If you don't like the site, leave. It's really that simple. Those who have chosen to stay don't want to hear from you anyway. I guess we shouldn't be surprised that someone using the name killdrphil would be so negative. That's a great indicator of your character. Get your petition and go on your way like a good little boy. Maybe it will give you something to do instead of filling up AB with posts that go on and on and don't say anything relative. As for threatening Lex or anyone else for that matter, do you really think you are important enough to worry anyone? Something tells me AB staff are not shaking in their boots right now worrying about you. Puulleeessssss. How arrogant can one person be. Talk about visions of grandeur. You are a joke! Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 18th, 2010 If nothing else it might help Rich in his experiments! (jk) Report by skeeter on February 18th, 2010 LOL good thinking Skeeter. killdrphil would be a good case study for how the internet effects the petrification of gray matter as it relates to unacceptable social interaction through anonymous virtual means. Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 18th, 2010 Hee hee. Report by skeeter on February 18th, 2010 When I try to post a question, I am getting the message that I have exceeded the 140 characters limit, and then when I get set to reduce the number of characters, I get '140 characters remaining'. BTW my question was about 3 lines. Report by answerbagy on February 18th, 2010 KDP: In that case I think we're both using the term sheep inadequately here. Most of us that are still on the site aren't being forced to stay either. Yes the question isn't that old, but my point is that I observe most of the answers given were spurt of the moment "What the hell happened to my AB"? ones. That most people dislike sudden changes is no surprise, it's human nature to reject something that you aren't familiar with. Much has been said and written about the changes being too many and too abrupt for all of us users to handle. I agree in that regard, perhaps a step by step progression would have been the way to go. However, that the changes didn't happen so long ago is part of my point as well. Many fixes and improvements have taken place in that period. I figured I felt the need to stop talking in abstract terms and tried to make an admittedly general comparison list of things people have complained over time of former AB having that the new version doesn't and vice versa, to have a clearer picture. (I'm sure I'm missing many things, so feel free to add to this list) As of 02/18/10: * Editing functions Old AB: Yes. New AB: Yes * Friends list: Old AB: Yes. New AB Yes. * Points and point scale: Old AB: Yes. New AB No, those have been converted to likes. * Leaderboards Old AB Yes. New AB: Yes, recently. * Downrates: Old AB: Yes. New AB No. There-s a rare occurence of people being outspoken of missing that feature. * Ability to upload pictures and videos: Old AB: Yes New AB: Partially, (videos are easier, - a copy paste job on the embed code, for pictures you need to use HTML and a picture hosting provider) * Ability to see recent activity: Old AB: Yes New AB: Yes * Private messaging amongst members Old AB: No . New AB: Yes * Polls, Topics, Debates sections: Old AB: No . New AB: Yes * Easy steps in categorization of your questions: Old AB Yes. New AB: Yes, it has been improved. * Alerts on notifications: Old AB Yes. New AB: Yes * Professionally researched answers: Old AB: No. New AB Yes - I admit here that I still don't like this concept. * Forum boards: Old AB: No. New AB: Yes * Warm feel to the pages in general Old AB Yes. New AB: Not really, I've seen people using the terms "clinical" and "too business-like" to describe it. I personally don't dislike it that much. * Pariticipation on the site: Old AB Yes. New AB: Here is the gist no? This is what we're going after. In my opinion: No, AB is not like it was before, many "familiar" faces have left, I miss some of them a lot. However I have seen slow but steady improvement of movement on the site more participation, more new questions and answers, that's what keeps me here still. I wish some people that were and are discontented could take the time to give the site a try. Most of the features are still there, not to mention the new ones. Do you miss many old friends and they were the reason that kept you coming back? I can't really say what you should do in that case but maybe ask some of those to take a look around. As i said, I'm sure I'm missing things here, these are the ones that came to mind. Report by Barcaluv on February 18th, 2010 @Barclauv - I miss a lot of my old friends. They've all scattered to about a half-dozen other Q&A sites. Some have vanished completely. I concur that the changeover was too drastic and too sudden. Yes, it's "just a website," but like a house is "just a house," many of us considered AB our "hangout" on the web, almost like a second home to hang out with friends on our own time. But it's not just the new "look and feel" that pissed everyone off. The real issue was the fact that they compeltely did away with the notification lights and the activity pages, which put a sudden and instant halt to all comment discussion. But the comment discussions are what drove the comraderie of answerbag. Before the upgrade, I used to get a page or two of new comments every day. For now, it's slowly returning to the level of activity that it was when answerbag was fairly new: about 5 or 6 comments each day, and that number is slowly improving with each passing week. As for the layout, it's attractive and professional. Though I get what you're saying that it's too "clinical" and "corporate." I agree it would have been better to implement the changes gradually. I remember years and years ago when Joel put forth a drastic redesign. He put the new design up on beta.answerbag.com and let us all use it for a month or so to get our feedback before going live with it. That worked out very well, and everyone was happy with the outcome. It was a team effort betwwn the admins and the members. Report by HungryGuy on February 18th, 2010 Thanks for your comments, Hungry Guy. You are absolutely correct when saying: "The real issue was the fact that they completely did away with the notification lights and the activity pages, which put a sudden and instant halt to all comment discussion." - I share your opinion, the social aspect of the site took a nosedive back then and many people were understandably upset and discouraged. It is good to hear an informed opinion from someone who has been present through several different changes on AB and has witnessed that some transitions have been smoother than others. In my opinion this last encarnation was very drastic and different to what people were used to. The point I was trying to make was that those and other missing features have been re-implemented over the course of these 2+ months, and my comparison list wanted to demonstrate that most features that the majority of us liked and were used to, are back there in some shape or form. It's plain to see that activity on the site has been picking up as of late. Will it be too late though, for long time members that left to see that and come back? We'll see. In the meantime I'm happy to see many new faces on the site, many of those are contributing positively. Report by Barcaluv on February 18th, 2010
Lex Friedman	February 16th, 2010 at 12:33 pm Bigger Leaderboards, big fixes, and more It's Tuesday, and you know what that means: Another batch of Answerbag improvements! 1. Bigger Leaderboards! Now, instead of just showing you the top 50 members in each category, we'll show you the top 10,000! Go find yourself! Additionally, Community Leaders have been restored to their place on the Leaderboards. 2. A fix for cut-off answers. Some question pages were cutting off before the first answer appeared. That's now fixed. 3. Prevent malicious on-site messages. A few hundred of you got on-site spam from some jerk. We've implemented stricter safeguards to block that sort of thing. 4. Flagged questions go bye-bye. Members noted that questions which had been removed by staff or moderators would continue to live on the category pages. That's now been addressed. Generally, flagged questions should trickle off those pages within 30 minutes going forward. We'll be rolling out more fixes, more leaderboards, and more new features over the next few weeks, so keep that seatbelt fastened! 26 comments \| Post one Comments Lex Friedman: wow! Report by iwnit on February 16th, 2010 Yay, I found myself !:) My points jumped from 1190 to 1462. Is this a new rejiggering or did I get 272 new points/likes overnight ? Report by Booknight on February 16th, 2010 No new rejiggering. I'll investigate, but I think the numbers simply got stuck for a few days and caught up today. Report by Lex Friedman on February 16th, 2010 Great job expanding the leaderboards! Thanks for listening to suggestions. Just one thing: Just taking a quick glance at page 1, I see there are still some cases of signigicant differences between the leaderboard total and the point total shown in profile. Myself, I have more points (+2,700) on the leaderboard than on my profile, I think the latter is the correct one, can you check on that? Report by Barcaluv on February 16th, 2010 I do not see the leaderboard on the homepage, where did it go? Report by Cog wears a grateful COAT on February 16th, 2010 Barcaluv: Those numbers are now in-sync. Sometimes your profile "lasts" longer than the Leaderboard proper. We'll look into keeping those more current with each other. Cog: You can find the link near the bottom of the homepage, near the featured member module. It's also linked on every profile, near that member's level. Report by Lex Friedman on February 16th, 2010 My feedback page has totally disappeared. Report by skeeter on February 16th, 2010 1) checks racism category for stuck question Thankyou Lex. :) 2) Another glitch, this one just a pain but still... a pain. In older questions where we uploaded pictures, the old software resized them automatically. Now these images are full size, often stretching way over on the screen. Can anything be done about this? It really stretches the entire question page. 3) sometimes the upper part of my feedback disappears. I have "activity" in my profile but "feedback" is blank. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 16th, 2010 I have no feedback at all. Only MY activity. Sucks. Report by skeeter on February 16th, 2010 Oh. Never mind. It reappeared. Report by skeeter on February 16th, 2010 One feature I would like to see again is "search your own questions". (and answers) if possible. Report by skeeter on February 16th, 2010 Skeeter, google works best for that, better than the old search. Type in: answerbag skeeter [what you are looking for] That is how I have been searching for a long time now. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 16th, 2010 Am I missing something here with Skeeter and Arisztid? If you go to your profile page you can check your answers now. Actually you can check either Questions or Answers or both as well as those of your Friends. Why would you have to go to Google to do a search? Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 16th, 2010 The leaderboards look so much better now. People are now in their appropriate places, including the Community Leaders. Have fun folks :-) Report by Doggie S on February 16th, 2010 @CatLover. There used to be a feature where you could type in a topic. For instance, I had asked a question about Malamutes almost 2 years ago and rather than try to search through all my questions I could just type in Malamute and my old question would come up. @Arisztid. Thanks. That never occurred to me. Report by skeeter on February 16th, 2010 Skeeter, et al: If it's within the time-frame of those questions and answers that appear on your page, you can always use the browser FIND or SEARCH feature ON that page to find it. Now, if only they would expand our questions and answers to ALL of them (not necessarily on the same page) as they were before. And show the category of the questions, the status on both (so we know when AND why a question or answer of ours was rejected) and the date-stamp on the answers. We also used to be able to sort both ascending and descending. (Is this in the works, still, Lex?) Report by BigDaddyBS on February 17th, 2010 Thanks Skeeter Report by CatLover- The Original Original on February 17th, 2010 Can anyone tell me why the site seems to be invaded by call girls? I am getting tired of flagging these or reporting them when they turn up in the forums. Report by Gingerminx on February 17th, 2010 Thanks for all the improvements so far. Personally I would like to see the gender info fixed. Sometimes it is not possible to figure that out but it is important for my answers, to tailor those to a female or a male. Thanks, Lex. Report by Whitehair on February 17th, 2010 Points go up and down. Last night my points went up, today they are down again. Why? Report by Astrid on February 17th, 2010 It is just one of the many troll invasions, Gingerminx. They come and go. I report their profiles via contact us. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 17th, 2010 Why not just flag them? Report by skeeter on February 17th, 2010 Astrid: Yesterday I accidentally interrupted the points totaler, and then when I reran it it hadn't reset properly. It was a human error — mine — and I believe we've completely resolved the issue. Report by Lex Friedman on February 17th, 2010 @Skeeter... I will flag them if there are just a couple but I am too lazy to go through and flag a major spammer. So, if they are really at it, I take the easy way out and "contact us" report it. Report by Arisztid in a COAT of Rromani awareness on February 17th, 2010 You don't have a clue what you're doing, Lex. Why don't you hand over the reins to someone who does? Apparently you don't even know what the definition of "key" is. You must be looking at your "key" metrics upside down or something. And, your "key" fixes aren't "key" fixes especially when new problems always pop up all over the place. And have been since what years. Seriously. You are clueless. You must have went to the Mickey Mouse School Of Business or something. It's ridiculous. Report by killdrphil on February 18th, 2010 Just one thing: Just taking a quick glance at page 1, I see there are still some cases of signigicant differences between the leaderboard total base sas certification questions and the point total shown in profile. Report by der.de on March 2nd, 2010

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