+4 votes
417 views
in Miscellaneous ♑ by

A.M, AmiRite, Similar worlds, blurtit to name a few. Similar worlds is a joke any way and my brief stint at Amrite bored me to tears. Same old few people on blurtit and A.M. Although this site isn't very busy, it's still my favorite. Is there something new out there that I don't see?

10 Answers

+5 votes
by

Rooster, I hope that is not true...I hope the Q/A concept has not run its course...but it appears they may indeed be in a slump. 

The few really successful ones, it seems they sell out for money? Or, might you have an idea as to the real reason Ask.com shut down its Q/A branch, for example?

Good quality moderation might be a huge problem, plus clear TOS; some of the sites seem to try allowing profanity/obscenity to attract users, but that puts off many people too. 

I have wondered if this site, SOLVED, might have the potential to step in to the vacancy left by Ask.com; however that would involve a huge time commitment and I think Dan may be a student? I have looked at Answers.com, and imo it just does not work as well as Ask did.

* * *

Anyway, because of time constraints I only go to one site at a time, and like you this is the one I like best now. I learn as much here as I did on sites with lots more people.

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+1

What I heard about why Ask.com shut down was because they weren't making near enough money from the advertisers. Many pulled out and it was getting bad. Eric told me once what those Mods were paid and it was around $3000.00 a month on up. Can't remember how many there were then but at least a half dozen. I heard they really cleaned house when they shut down the Q&A part of it. It boiled down to money like most all of them.

I remember when I first joined this site and it was full of members from Ask, Blurtit and Sodahead but the blurtit members went back to blurtit and the rest kind of scattered. I'm really disappointed in the Blurtit people as they just all left here and I don't hear anything much from any of them. Oh well, life goes on!

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+2

Indeed life does go on, Rooster...SOLVED is a nice site, though, a very nice upside potential.

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+1

Virginia, just in case ...


+5 votes
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Isn't it obvious why so many of us are not online much right now ?


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+1

Ha ha, are you SAYING, Darkest Serenity, that some people actually have a non-digital life?

...blowin' through the jasmine in my mind...beautiful old song!

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+2

@Serenity. Only site that is busy is that nasty one. It can be OK but I stay away!

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+2

A nice sound, Serenity - we are missing you here.

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+1

I assume it is Yahoo Answers. Just guessing as I haven't been there in a long time.

+4 votes
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I think it's very difficult for a Q&A site to achieve critical mass, and even then large sites like Yahoo Buzz and SH decided it wasn't worth it, businesswise.

As for this site, I'll take quality over quantity anytime.  :)

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+1

@Tink: I sure agree there! :)

+4 votes
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Unfortunately, too many think "too big" and "too fast"; there must be constant "action", "speed", big crowds of members, a lot of advertisement, too showy colours, etc., etc. - and there are all these trendy, addicting computer games ...

And all these political, social, religious, welfare and other more or less conflictual themes seem to be the ideal frame, for certain dubious groups or individuals, to promote and spread hate, violence and contempt, and to use the most vulgar and offensive language - especially on popular Q & A pages.

Like Virginia, Think, you and most here, I'd rather have quality, instead of quantity, even if, in our too fast moving world, this way of thinking and discussing looks rather boring, too slow and old-fashioned - oh and not sufficiently lucrative.





+3 votes
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Politics are too polarized now, so talking about them with people you disagree with just winds up being pointless and unpleasant 

+4 votes
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I agree with those saying quality over quantity. More importantly, I think it's important for Internet users (read: everyone) to ensure that there are a wide variety of sites being used, and not put all our eggs in one or two baskets of the dominant Internet sites. The more that people do that, the more all of us will lose our choices and independence, as they take advantage of the situation to tilt the rules more in their favor, exploit us, and harvest our data. The freedom to be anonymous online, i.e. being guaranteed only to be an actual human being but not tied to an offline identity, is important and should be fought for by those who care about freedom and empowering individuals. The alternative is humanity's enslavement to big institutions.

+2 votes
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Yes, they are dying. Only Yahoo Answers and Quora are popular. Others are unknown and do not have many users. They lose users because of spammers, moderators and admins.

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Exactly.

+1 vote
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They are dying partly because people are sick to death of politics and arguing. A happy site is a successful site and there is nothing happy about a bunch of trolls posting bait posts and insulting each other. People generally just want fun and there is not much of that happening on a Q&A sites these days. Even the better ones are falling apart.


+1 vote
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Some are-but one has just been wrecked by its owners for no apparent reason Amirite?Oh I don't have to say that here!Seniors forums are very active-at least the ones I am on.

+2 votes
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+2

Thank you!

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+1

I'll have to check that one out. Thanks!

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