login about faq

Due to the large amount of spam accounts, we temporarily disabled new user sign ups. To override this, email newuser.lgqa@gmail.com and an admin will determine if you are permitted to join


3
1

I have seen many unanswerable questions on LG. These questions are typically very general, and don't ask one specific thing. Sometimes they aren't even questions at all. Some examples:

Do You Make Money From The Internet?
Whats the most valuable thing to you?
Steve Jobs vs Bill Gates?
What do you hate about computers?
Leave your twitter names here!

Actually, I just copied the top few main page questions, ignoring a [closed] question.

All of these questions do not have one true answer. In addition, many of them are completely opinion-based or personality-based. I rewrote the above examples as best I could to be answerable questions:

Best way to make money off the Internet
How to value my asssets
Who will last longer: Jobs or Gates?
Best methods to help prevent BSOD's
Where do I post my Twitter username on this site? (Hint: on your profile)

Now there are more definitive answers to these questions. "The best way to make money off the Internet is _______ because _______." While there may be multiple answers to this exact question, the question should provide more information about the user's specific case (e.g. if the user has a cooking website, what's the best way to make money off that website).

The "personalization" of the Q&A, I argue, should be with the questioner and not the answerer. Questions should strive to be specific so they can answer a real-world question the questioner is having.

However, what if someone really wants to know the general opinion of a "Jobs vs Gate" war? Well, besides going to another forum, the questioner can use a feature on LG called community wiki. I don't know about you, but one thing which stands out in the name community wiki is community. CW questions are geared toward collecting information about the community itself. "What is the community's favourite keyboard" is a question best left as a community wiki.

My question is: Should there be a move of more general, unanswerable questions to CW? Should unanswerable questions be locked? Or should these questions be transformed into answerable questions and answered properly? I'd like to hear from the community itself on this one.

But what about my karma! I want an Optimus Maximus! If you really want karma, contribute meaningful content. Posting your favourite ice cream shouldn't give you karma; that stuff belongs on your profile where it isn't cluttering my question space.

This question is marked "community wiki".

asked Jun 07 '10 at 02:32

strager's gravatar image

strager
656102034

edited Jun 07 '10 at 09:16

1

This totally makes sense to me. It seems most of the "questions" on LG are asking for opinions, likes, or dislikes. I don't believe that was the intention of this site.

(Jun 07 '10 at 09:15) jhagedon jhagedon's gravatar image

Well how longs a piece of string if you can answer that then your question means nothing

This answer is marked "community wiki".

answered Jun 07 '10 at 09:23

Harro's gravatar image

Harro
21681121

... What? I'm not following your response at all.

(Jun 07 '10 at 09:26) strager strager's gravatar image

well can you tell me how long a piece of string really is

(Jun 07 '10 at 09:27) Harro Harro's gravatar image

No; the question is not specific enough for me to be able to answer it.

(Jun 07 '10 at 09:27) strager strager's gravatar image
Your answer
toggle preview

Follow this question

By Email:

Once you sign in you will be able to subscribe for any updates here

By RSS:

Answers

Answers and Comments

Markdown Basics

  • *italic* or __italic__
  • **bold** or __bold__
  • link:[text](http://url.com/ "title")
  • image?![alt text](/path/img.jpg "title")
  • numbered list: 1. Foo 2. Bar
  • to add a line break simply add two spaces to where you would like the new line to be.
  • basic HTML tags are also supported


Join Us in the Chat Room

Tags:

×166
×151
×19
×3

Asked: Jun 07 '10 at 02:32

Seen: 414 times

Last updated: Jun 07 '10 at 09:27