This weeks activity did not go well for me. I was unable to accomplish any of the goals. I finished the reading last week and I started lurking and crafting my strategy. I determined that most of the highest ranking questions were emotional, controversial and opininated. These are questions like, what would you name a pet rock? Is Obama a nitwit? I also noticed that certain topics had larger numbers of comments. So I decided to post these types of questions. I also eliminated any questions that had already been asked to death (ie How much would could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood?). I didn't want to come across as a complete pratt so I limited the number of question instead of throwing every single question and the kitchen sink. So here are my results.
The questions below are in reverse order. So my first question is the bottom question. I tried a varity of topics, some in educational some in conversational. All with no luck.
Category Question Answer Count Date Submitted Status Pts
1. US economy 1.5 Trillion dollars / 303,824,606 Americans = 4,937.05 per american. Wouldn't it have been better if the US gov't just gave us the money? 0 Feb 16, 2009 Active 0
2. Art Why is modern art still called modern art? Isn't that a bit of a misnomer by now? 1 Feb 16, 2009 Active 8
3. Visual Basic Has anyone used the compiler object in VB 2005? 0 Feb 15, 2009 Active 0
4. Relationship basics Why can't women remember to put the toilet seat down? 1 Feb 15, 2009 Active 5
5. Smoking Another dead smoker, smoked for over 40 years, why are the tobacco companies to blame? Where is the personal responsiblity? 1 Feb 13, 2009 Active 7
6. Consumer prices Some say that you get the best value if you buy a car 2 years old. When is the best time to buy a car? 3 Feb 13, 2009 Active 10
7. Religions Another suicide bomber (female) blows up 60 women and children, how is this justified? Is this really religous or more about Worldly power? 3 Feb 13, 2009 Active 0
8. Operating systems What is the best version of Unix for home use? 1 Feb 13, 2009 Active 0
9. Software Have you used the Enterprise Arcitect plub in for Visual Studio 2005/2008 and how does it work? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Is there are better piece of software in your opinion? 0 Feb 12, 2009 Active 0
10. Enterprise resource planning What happened to LeCASE (the Computer Aided Software Enginerring) software? 0 Feb 11, 2009 Active 5
11. Internet What is the best why to try online dating? 1 Feb 11, 2009 Active 0
12. California law What is the real root cause of California's Budgets crisis? 1 Feb 10, 2009 Active 0
So I got two questions that got 3 answers, and the best point score I could get was 10 points. Questions 3 and 9 were not answered, and these were the ones I was hoping would get answered, for my own selfish reasons. My responses faired no better. This leads me to the conclusion that in order to do well you need to be constantly on this site, have a large base of friends, or be really witty. Since I do not have much time, I don't care to be in constant contact with large groups of people I care little for, and I am not extremely witty, I am not terribly surprised at my results, consequently, I probably won't be going to this site after this assignment.
In terms of construction the site was fairly easy to use. Pretty intuitive to learn how to give points and reinforce others answers. It was interesting to feel the impact of the points, and watch the bag change colors. For a brief period of time I was thrilled to get some points, but then I woke up. The closest I actually came to a conversation was with the guy who responded to question 11. But I couldn't really think of anything to ask as the question was more contrieved for response then whether I was really all that interested in dating online. I have also joined some forum groups at facebook and myspace. The results have been fantastically disappointing. The problem is I am more interested in technical stuff then engaging in meaningless conversation. If I wanted to do that I would have remained married.
But there are several things that tied in with the reading. In the reading it was mentioned that many people come to sites to make friends, and the questions that seemed to have the most answers appeared to have a large number of friends. If you followed the trails of people it became obvious that there are groups of people that know (of) each other and respond frequently to each other. The readings also mentioned that many people come to these sites for entertainment and some of the questions and answers were entertaining. Many people feel that they are getting useful information on these sites. I thought that was questionable. Who cares what I would name a pet rock? And why would anyone on this forum be qualified to say whether Obama is a nitwit? Just because someone has an opinion doesn't mean it should be heard or given credence. I had a strategy worked out to engage with people, but there was little chance to use it. I think that basically I failed because I couldn't come up with questions that interested people (ie What would you name a pet rock? and Is Obama a Nitwit?), and I didn't have a large body of friends.
In relation to last weeks reading, this was an example of a depressing Internet experience. But it was more depressing because my grade was tied to whether I could somehow provoke a bunch of people I neither know nor care about into responding to my questions and responses. And that just doesn't smell like computer science to me, more like sales and marketing. I have an MBA, I hate sales and marketing. However, I rate the experience positively it did reinforce why I hate sales, and why I like the technical.
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I had a very similar experience on the site. Contrived, pointless and provocative questions have taken over the discussions. I read an article a while ago, it descibed a common phenomenon in which the quality of user generated content in a website will gradually decrease with the increasing of user base. Sicne the more "trolls" join the community, the more rational people start to leave. This vicious cycle will eventually continue to a point where the community is dominated by the "trolls". I think the only way out is to have some kind of mechanism of weeding out the "trolls". The mechanism should be set up early in the community to make it effective.
ReplyDeleteToo bad that you didn't have a good experience with answerbag. I think the key to getting points and responses is networking. I don't think question quality even matters all that much. When at first I didn't have any luck I added a profile, pictures and started commenting on other people's answers/questions in attempt to connect with them. I agree though that having friends, being witty and or spending lots of time on this site is key to achieving the goals for the assignment.
ReplyDeleteDNI, it's interesting that you bring up trolls because I felt like I was a troll in some of the methods that I used. I asked questions that I wasn't sincerely interested in just to get responses and I also answered questions in attempt to get points and network rather than genuinely help someone. Do you think we are trolls on answerbag?
I agree with you - I wrote in my blog that it felt like a huge popularity contest as to who can ask the most ridiculous question, and I was incredibly surprised when one of my responses hit the required number of points and one of my questions received near eight responses.
ReplyDeleteMike: I've always seen trolling as being obnoxious and trying to start fights, not as pretending to be something you're not. The difference between you and I though was that I tried to ask questions and make answers that were actually relevant to me, which was a more authentic effort to join the community I guess.
But I agree as to the having friends/being witty/spending lots of time on the site angle as the key to getting lots of responses. It's exactly like a real social community where after people get to know you and like you, they'll pay more attention to you.
I also found it difficult to find a way to ask a question that would promote meaningful discussion. I also profoundly disliked some of the profiles I encountered...negative, base, uninteresting, crude...I could go on. However, I did run into a few profiles that I enjoyed engaging with. I only made one of the four goals, though I came close to getting at least two. I spent a lot of my lurking time trying to find those meaningful questions and interesting people.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there is a more technical and expert group out there that you could feel was worthwhile engaging in.
Hey Tom,
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question--I did not meet the required goals. I tried to chalk it all up to a learning experience. It did feel a little like a high school popularity contest, though.
DNI,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your response. It is interesting to hear about trolls. After reading the responses, I agree with your use of the term. Trolling would be anything that brings down the quality of content, inlcuding fight and obnoxious behavior. I have seen this happen in groups. When a group forms ad-hoc and are discussing something, usually others will join, eventually the discussion changes topics and the original members leave. A group still exists, but the reason and quality of the subject matter change.
Mike, I wouldn't say I had a bad experience. I just found the site didn't really meet my needs. I have little interst in "small talk". I don't need to "network" with a group of people I don't know. It would be better for me to join a local IEEE group or some such thing.
Linnea, Thanks for your response. I was always told if you don't have anything positive to say, don't say it. I pretty much practice this online and off. If I disagree, I usually just don't bother responding. After all it really isn't likely that I am going to change this opinionated persons idea's, so why feed pearls to swine? I am sure there are good, interesting people. I just don't want to invest the time. There are fps games I haven't played.
Stacy, Sorry you didn't meet your goals. Don't feel bad, it seems that many didn't. I think the few who did, just figured out how to ask the right questions. You have a young daughter. I have a young son, we both have too much to do then waste time with people we don't know. Its a simple fact.
Thanks All, Tom
As LeJenna stated on BJ’s post, I think we all deserve cigars for our Answerbag experiences. Although some experiences may have been more positive than others, I learned that it pays to be respectful of others. Although some of the questions on Answerbag seemed to be flippant and over the top, in part to gain more points (perhaps to be more unique), others appeared to be genuine. My Answerbag experience was mixed. I feel that it helped to be personable as Mike stated. Using another avatar instead of the generic one and adding a little to your profile seemed to make a difference. In addition, thanking people for their posts seemed to be well received. Although I began to enjoy my experience as I participated more, was that in part because I had to make the required points by the required time? It’s definitely easier to participate in an online community that you feel some connection either by interest or members.
ReplyDeleteI was never good at popularity contests. When asking serious questions did not get me anywhere on answerbag.com, I had to resort to gimmicks and trickery.
ReplyDeleteOnly after I posed as a single female who was interested in police officers and firemen did I start receiving ratings, nevertheless, even after that, I still did not receive the requisite point total.
This whole thing makes me wonder . . . are we doing the experiments or are we the experiment?
From reading the responses of a lot of the ICS691 students, it appears that those who are putting in a lot of time are getting good results.
Last week definitely was a disappointing Internet experience.
I wanted to throw out a bunch of meaningless (to me) questions just to get points, but didn't see the joy in that, especially when my time is precious. I think that asking questions that meant something to me was worth "failing" at the task. It reminded me that when we create social networks, they are made for a reason. They aren't random, otherwise the way we respond to them would be troll-like. I wanted to ask questions like "What's so bad about pirating movies and music?" but what would that have gotten me? Selfish, I know. Wanted to make the experience worthy of my time, and in the end it did.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, love your toilet seat question. I suppose it's because 75% of human interaction with a toilet seat requires the darn thing to be in the down position? Always wanted someone to ask me that question.
I'm the total opposite of you. I think I will visit the site, when I do have some free time to see what goofy question of mine will get me points. That's given that I do find free time to hang out in a useless way.
I also wondered from your experience if online friendships can be infiltrated. Hmmm....