Please Move "Ask a Question" Box

1. 83

   Whitney05posted 14 years ago

   I have had many personal requests that stem from this feature. Sometimes I am not sure what the person is asking because I'm not sure what hub they came from.
   
   A question that just says "my reptile," doesn't help me answer the question because all reptiles are different, and I have hubs on different reptile species.
   
   Plus, these people sign up to ask the one question and never come back. It most definitely falsifies the statistics on the site. We have so many hubbers, but how many of them signed up to ask that one question and never come back? I had about 10 at one time, at one point. I get 1 or 2 a day and several on the weekends.
   
   They are asking questions that may benefit others who may find the hub but never find the question. This in turn means, I have to answer the question again on the hub. Although, not everyone reads all the comments before asking  their own question, it would eliminate having to answer the same question multiple times.
   
   I've asked before, but never heard feedback from the team. It's been a while, and it's still a concern for me. I'm bringing it up again.

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2. 73

   relacheposted 14 years ago

   I find this box is drawing lots of questions that are in no way Hub-worthy.  The Q&A section is over-flowing with poor quality questions already, and sure doesn't need more help on that front.

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3. 83

   Whitney05posted 14 years ago

   Relache, I'll second that one.
   
   
   Plus, it's leading towards many duplicate and similar questions. I've had several personal requests that I've been asked a few times now, but they're public and duplicated throughout the question/answer section, versus just duplicated in my hub. Questions that are super similar and previously answered can be deleted in a hub, but it's up to HP to delete the same questions in the requests.

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4. 83

   Whitney05posted 14 years ago

   I would like to hear HubPages opinion on this. It has been brought up many times, and I have never heard their opinion.

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   1. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, Whitney, I'd like to know what the benefit is - there must be one, or they'd have got rid of it long ago.
      
      The trouble is it's trying to be too many things at once.  I see a lot of questions which obviously relate to a single Hub or even a single forum post, but without that context the question makes no sense.
      
      Maybe one solution would be that  if someone posts a question from a Hub, the question includes a link to that Hub?

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      1. 72

         Maddie Ruudposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks to all for the feedback.  We like to encourage interaction across the different features of the site, but maybe there is a way to better clarify the purpose of the question box on hubs.
         
         
         
         That's a great suggestion, Marisa.
         
         I'll pass all this on to the team and we'll see what we can do.

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5. 61

   susanlangposted 14 years ago

   Great idea Marisa... sounds like a winner to me.

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6. 71

   mythbusterposted 14 years ago

   Or, if you write primarily strange-topic hubs like most of mine are, nobody will bother to ask you any questions - j/k
   
   I haven't had much of a problem with the few questions I've gotten but I tried to look in on what kinds of questions are in the 'bank' and found very silly questions - as mentioned already by relache and others.
   
   Worse problem: Why on earth isn't anyone asking me about mothman, springheel jack, dover demon, goatman and bunnyman and all the oh-so important characters in life? lol also j/k
   
   

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7. 70

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   Any of the question features should be disabled until they can be properly moderated by a dedicated individual. Its 90% tripe and has no business being auto-linked to the content of those who actually take time to write and publish.
   
   If they want to ask a question they are welcome to use the comments of whatever author sparked their curiosity.
   
   For example:
   
   Maddies most recent hub on Zhu Zhu Hamsters has the following question posted on it:
   
   #
   i say yea it it ask for a last 5 digit phone num i can't remember what is is how can i find out
   asked by scotty_terry25 3 months ago
   
   0 answers    Answer this question
   
   
   That cant be what was envisioned when this feature was created! Its not working.

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   1. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Actually, I agree with you 100% Sunforged, I was just trying to be polite about it - I must be in a good mood today
      
      I've been horrified by some of the questions which have appeared next to my belly dancing Hubs.  I don't mind if the feature stays, but I wish they'd remove them from Hubs - they never used to be there.

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      1. 79

         skyfireposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Or maybe HP could give us option to remove this feature from specific hubs.

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8. 70

   sunforgedposted 14 years ago

   oops, i hope I wasnt impolite - im tied to a coffee machine - and probably unsuitable for human interaction at this point. Hoping I wasnt too negative on anyones pet project..i doubt it though.
   
   usually, website design, no matter the scale is a system of testing and observation, unless HP has a motive we are unaware of (and which is not forthcoming in this thread,so far) ..this small feature, is a fail. Its best to drop it completely and put the energies elsewhere.
   
   i imagine the feature could be doing amazing things for new user registration or some other metric I know nothing about.
   
   Im positive most sentient beings are turned off by the questions when they happen to read them in association with our writings and in a holistic way must be detrimental to the site and its users.
   
   Im not convinced all net users are sentient anymore - a quick foray into myspace or yahoo answers always leaves me bewildered - i dont know why HP would want similar ilk sputtering in the q&A section.
   
   I imagine they want more community policing ...but c,mon, between comments ,forums and hub spam , who has the time?

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9. 83

   Whitney05posted 14 years ago

   I agree. I've had questions asked to me about specific hubs, yet still had no clue what they were asking bc I didn't know what hub they came from. The questions was about a specific reptile, but they never said what species. I couldn't answer the question because I didn't know what species.
   
   
   
   I agree... I don't even care to go there sometimes because the questions are ridiculous.  And, I don't think that the feature is being used properly; it's a waste.
   
   
   
   Please... It seems to cause more confusion and irritation than anything. Plus, it lowers the quality of the question section. The questions once were actually decent and quality questions. Now, they are more cheap and low quality questions. The website is getting people to join because they have to be a member to ask a question; they join and then never come back.

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10. 83

    Whitney05posted 13 years ago

    I have received another personal question where I have NO clue what they person is talking about because they used the 'Ask a Question' box instead of the comments section at the bottom.
    
    
    
    "baby" doesn't help. I can assume it's going to be an animal, and probably one of the following leopard gecko, AFT, a crested gecko, a bearded dragon, hamster, chinchilla, rat, or mouse.

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11. 62

    pisean282311posted 13 years ago

    most of questions , i think asked just for sake of asking..

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12. 68

    Anamika Sposted 13 years ago

    I am sick and tired of the 'Ask a Question' feature because i have to always go and remove the request. I get plenty of questions looking for free astrological analysis or gemstone recommendation which i am not offering.

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13. 83

    Whitney05posted 13 years ago

    I'm bumping this...
    
    
    I had 4 questions posted publicly, that were really hub specific. And, one of the questions was answered by another hubber, who posted incorrect information that could seriously cause malnutrition to the animal.
    
    Sometimes, I get questions via the 'ask a question' box and have NO clue what they're asking, bc it's in regards to a specific animal or topic but in the question the asker didn't refer to what because he/she thought that I would know since he/she found the ask box on the hub they found via a search.
    
    Please move this feature, or get rid of it.

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14. 60

    Fiction Tellerposted 13 years ago

    I'm with Whitney.  It's a problematic feature.  I dread getting questions.  I can usually tell where they came from without any difficulty, and the questions can illuminate gaps in my hub - but isn't that what comments are for?  I think it confuses users, too - I get the impression they think it IS a comments box.

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15. 83

    Whitney05posted 13 years ago

    I can typically tell where the questions come from, but when the new user posts questions using 'it' and general terms, it's hard to tell. Sometimes I get 'reptile' well what reptile, as I have hubs on many.
    
    It's definitely a confusing feature for many who just run across the site. It gets people signing up just to ask that one question and never coming back.
    
    It's not much of an interaction feature, as there's no interaction that couldn't take place in the comments box.

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    1. 86

       Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I agree with bells on. The whole Questions/Answers section has been a basket case as long as I've been here, and despite name changes it's not getting any better.
       
       I didn't really care while it was quarantined in its own little section, but I'm heartily sick of it being visible in  my Hubs.  The quality of the questions is often so bad it's embarrassing.  And when people like Sunforged can't see the value, you have to wonder why it's there when not one Hubber seems to like it.

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16. 83

    Whitney05posted 13 years ago

    Marisa, I agree that the questions have gotten out of hand and really low quality and spammy. I think it got worse, when they changed the name of the section to 'Answers.' The section is not like Yahoo Answers, and full of crap.  I wish the restrictions were placed back on the section like the way it once was, and like you I really want it off my hubs. There's no interaction like they said they wanted. There is a person signing up to ask one question and never coming back; that's not interaction.

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    1. 86

       Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Whitney, the funny thing is that I think they changed it to "Answers" because we were all complaining the previous title was misleading.  It's made it worse, not better.
       
       Relache mentioned the original name for the feature in an earlier post - can't find it now.  I remember thinking "why didn't they leave it like that?"

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17. 83

    Whitney05posted 13 years ago

    That may have been on another thread. I know it's been brought up many times. I do remember that though, where Relache mentioned that.
    
    I just don't see how it's making the site more interactive, as it's just getting people to sign up to ask one question.
    
    Either way, the old section was much better than it is lately, with less spam and less low quality questions. The 'Question' section or however it used to be titled, had restrictions for what could be asked: No yes/no questions; No questions about HP that could just be asked in the forums; No opinion questions; No spam; etc.

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18. 83

    Whitney05posted 13 years ago

    Good example of how the 'ask a question' box is confusing people.
    
    
    http://hubpages.com/question/72231/hi-t … swer142207
    
    Read the question. There are no specifics in it. The person signed up solely to ask a question that is hard for me to answer, as I can only assume which of my hubs the person found. I took the most educated guess, but the person should have left the comment at the bottom in the comment section.
    
    Other hubbers who saw the comment were highly confused as to what the person was asking because the question should have been on the hub that the person searched and found.

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    1. 86

       Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Excellent example of why this feature is not working and needs to be changed pronto.

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       1. 72

          Maddie Ruudposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          We're working on it, guys.

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          1. 71

             thisisoliposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             You can hire me to moderate the questions part time

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       2. 83

          Whitney05posted 13 years agoin reply to this

          I love how the other hubbers, laughed and were like, 'be more specific, we don't know what you're talking about.' The only reason I knew was because it was a question directed at me. But there are many times in which even some of those questions directed to me are so vague, I still can't figure out what exactly they're talking about or what animal.
          
          Oh, and that person hasn't come back, so we have a person who signed up, asked one question to never return. Surely that isn't ideal or the purpose of the feature.
          
          
          Maddie, please do remove it or fix it to eliminate this problem.

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    2. 0

       Ari Lamsteinposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Hello everyone,
       
       I'd like to take a minute to introduce myself.  I am the newest member of the HubPages team and I recently implemented a fix to the problem that you describe.  Starting today, all questions that are asked on a hub will have a link to the hub that originated the question.  As an example, see this question:
       
       http://hubpages.com/question/75012/are- … unity-fish
       
       I hope that this improves your experience with the Q&A feature!
       
       Ari

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