Sunday, December 16, 2007

A new insight into WHY dumb answers keep getting chosen

For a while now I'd been wondering why people tend to vote for inane, poorly thought out and generally dumb replies when choosing the "Best Answer." The following question and associated "Best Answer" are very telling:
Question:
Do most people on yahoo answers think if they give a LONG answer they will automatically recieve(sic) "best answer"
just wondering....sometimes it seems like peeps ramble and ramble and ramble... :)

does anyone else notice this?

Additional Details

some of you dont(sic) need to "defend" yourselfs(sic) i'm(sic) just asking a general opinion...not saying whether it's right or wrong!


Best Answer, Chosen by Asker:
no, short answers are usually the best for most questions because most questions are just basic opinions, occasionally there will be a question which will need lots of detail but they are quite rare.

I hate it when people just write and write for no apparant(sic) reason, they could get their point across within a line but they just write and write and write and write and write and write and you wonder if they will ever stop.


Remember kids, a well thought out, well researched answer will be ignored if it's "too long." This is the Internet age after all. If reading something takes longer than listening to a TV News sound byte, then of COURSE you MUST be a long winded jerk who just likes to hear themselves talk!

In other words: Yahoo Answers is, as far as the asker and answerer above are concerned, an exclusive club for people with very, very short attention spans.

1 comment:

Jon said...

Sorry for commenting on an old post, but this is the one that my story is most relevant to.

I just posted my first answer (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ao_IGUm8lwf1xcxHzhVZD1_ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20090811171801AARN7nT&show=7#profile-info-raD455itaa) to Yahoo! Answers, and just look at the post that was chosen by the asker in response to his/her computer problem: "blah h8 stuuff lyke dat! sry, i dunno." Sure, the asker gave only one star. But to choose that pile of garbage when there is an actual answer there?