User:Civic Cat/Answerbag

''Based on a vaporized article (Talk:Answerbag). Feel free to edit.''



Answerbag is an answer site where people ask and answer questions. It is also a sad story about how a great answer site, perhaps the best in the internet, was worsened by corporate muckety-mucks who were unresponsive to their contributors. Answerbag could be, and to an extent still can be, be compared to both the Wikipedia Reference Desk and RationalWiki:Saloon Bar save there are far more (informed) respondents in WP’s RD, and since December 2009, similar can likely be said of RW’s SB.

parallels—kinda
There is an interesting parallel in reaction sites. First we have Wikipedia. Then Conservapedia is created in reaction to the supposed Liberal bias of Wikipedia. Then Conservapedia inspires a reaction in the form of RationalWiki (as well as a Storehouse of Knowledge and New Conservapedia). (Then we have RationalWikiWiki.). Many people from Yahoo! Answers once defected to Answerbag. Then many of them defected to Fluther.

version 2.0, maybe
Yahoo Answers, likely because it’s a service of Yahoo!, enjoyed more prominence than Answerbag. Also keep in mind that Google was still not as through out-doing Yahoo as they have now. YA’s rules, even if they were tight to begin with, got tighter. People complained about the restrictions, and questions and answers getting reported, which essentially meant automatic removal of such Q’s and A’s. Many people got fed up with YA, and went to the smaller but cooler site: Answerbag.

AB had only a fraction of YA traffic; however AB made up for it in format and features. Not only did it have several things that YA lack, these things made it perhaps the best answer site.

The rules weren’t as restrictive as YA’s, or many other answer sites. Words weren’t censored and one could attempt humour. The questions were always open, unlike YA where they were open for only a week. One could comment on answers. One could embed videos. One could use html in answers. Links provided would create their own windows. One could also put a lot of stuff in one’s profile page, including html. In YA, one could only use 1000 or so characters and no HTML, save links.

Also, other AB’ers seemed a lot cooler.

It wasn’t perfect. Unlike YA, one couldn’t ad details to one’s question, and while one could answer one’s own question for such, the procedure seemed lamer; but that was about it for bad comparisons with YA (that and traffic).

While at least one notable member didn’t like “DR’s” (down rating—removing points—so that a Q or A could go into the negatives), another found it a good way to deal with bad posts without actually reporting them. Also questions had “permalinks,” where one could either link to the question, or link to the question with a particular answer (usually the link creator’s own answer) just under the question.

After December 2010
Then the changes came. Since then, the rules are more restrictive. They are almost as bad as Yahoo’s. The comment format worsened. It’s not just that there are no more tiny avatars before each comment, but also that the comments are hidden, and there are no more linking to other pages from them. There are fewer links that create their own windows. The avatars are smaller. The spaces in members’ profile pages are smaller. Before the changes, the history of questions asked, and answers and comments given, were nice and neat: now the latter don’t seem to exist and the former two are stacked haphazardly.

Then there are the glitches. They existed before the changes, but they got worse, and most likely remain bad to this day.

In the old days, you’d answer a question, and it’d show up seconds on the main page. After the changed, it would be days before it showed up in the sub-categories. You also have to be careful about how you answer a question, or it will show that you posted on a question twice.

Even the new logo is worse. It looks a bit like a coat-hanger. The colours suggest that it’s trying to look a bit like Facebook.

People complained to the staff, but they got the run around.

One user, here’s her inactive profile (she had a name other than “anonymous” and a pic for an avatar), sent a strongly worded email to the AB staff, and copies to many others. AB didn’t seem to respond, save to remove her forum post or thread. She got a lot of others to join another site called “Fluther.” Indeed, many people there—“flutherites” as they call themselves felt swamped by all the AB defectors as evident in questions asked

Indeed, one of the flutherites joined AB to give her(/his?) views on the site.

currently
Almost a year later, it doesn’t seem that AB is going to change. There was a fair degree of testiness among users in Dec ’09 and Feb-Mar ’10—it may still be going on. Some hated AB, others considered the detractors to be a bunch of whiners, with lots of “the-past-is-the-past-get-use-to-it,” “they-can-do-what-they-want-they’re-a-business,” “why-are-you-complaining-most-people-here-like-the-changes,” and “cut-us-some-slack-we’re-still-improving,” The activity in the site might have been a bit higher just after the changes, but now the number of (active) AB members seem to be a fraction of what it was this time last year (Oct ’10 vis-à-vis Oct ’09). Consider the AB forums for example. Before, people would post on threads at least on an hourly basis. Now it seems days would pass between posts.

Again, even with it’s faults, there is still of a lot of good left in AB, format-wise; but the ill-will, rancor, and sullenness have likely greatly diminished the site; and more than hurts whatever edge it still has on YA or Fluther, is more than hurt whatever edge that good is left. In YA, one had many allies. On AB, one often has few. Connections to Facebook and Twitter doesn’t seem to be helping AB much either.

RationalWiki might have the Vandal bin. AB had, and still has the Penalty Box, where people can be “PB’ed” for abusing the site.

Some notable “good guys” still on the site are “BigDaddyBS,” a bit of an apologist for the site. See also Fluther and Yahoo! Answers.

Again, even with it’s faults, there is still of a lot of good left in AB, format-wise; but the ill-will, rancor, and sullenness have likely greatly diminished the site; and more than hurts whatever edge it still has on YA or Fluther, is more than hurt whatever edge that good is left. In YA, one had many allies. On AB, one often has few. Connections to Facebook and Twitter doesn’t seem to be helping AB much either.

RationalWiki might have the Vandal bin. AB had, and still has the Penalty Box, where people can be “PB’ed” for abusing the site.

Some notable “good guys” still on the site are “BigDaddyBS,” a bit of an apologist for the site. There is also “Aristid COAT of Romani Awareness,” “COAT” being a title on AB-of-sorts, sort of like “sysop” is for here and a few other wikis. Also there is “—” who has a way cool avatar (is it a reclining lady? Is it a cat? Is it a few cacti?).