2123 Answers

Saturday, November 22, 2008

I've been amusing myself by answering questions on Answers.Yahoo.com. You get points for answering questions (2 each), and you can use the points to ask questions (5 each), and if your answer is chosen as the best answer, you get 10 more points.

I'm doing pretty well, considering. One quarter of my answers gets chosen as best, and I have over 1,000 points.

I'm amused by the social questions. Most of the questions in the social and math/science sections are asked by kids. Oh, the drama! "She did this, then she did that, and ... what should I do?" My answers look like "Consider it from her viewpoint ... consequences ... options ...." Usually, the answer chosen as best in those categories is more like "Set fire to her house."

Sigh. I guess I don't understand.

In other categories it looks like the kid has copied a homework or take-home test question verbatim, with "show your work". It annoys me that others actually do the work in the response, without explaining the concept that the asker seems to be missing. There's a whole herd of kids out there getting their homework done for them and learning nothing. Hey, Yahoo! This is not helping!

The legal, home, business, travel, medical, and so on categories fare much better. The responses sometimes come from people with obvious expertise (although you can't trust an answer that starts with "I'm a doctor, and..."). I'm learning a few things in those categories.

Well, it's better than playing games, I guess.

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A long time ago I did the same thing on WikiAnswers. I got noticed by the supervisors there, and was contacted, "Your name has been passed around among the supervisors here", and was offered a job (job?) as a supervisor. "Join the team!"

I turned it down. I don't want ANY responsibility. For anything.
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