Article Q&A for All!

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   samanthacubbisonposted 5 years ago

   
   
   
   It's time to share your knowledge and expertise with Article Q&A! Some of you may have already noticed this feature appearing on select articles over the past few months. Our most recent update enables it to be utilized on all articles that have been moved to our Network Sites! Article Q&A is meant for Hubbers to connect with readers, and to help said readers find answers easily without the unrelated clutter of the Comments Capsule. If they generate enough traffic, individual Q&As will remain on their own page after being reviewed by a moderator. This page will earn the same way that articles do. The Article Q&A feature not only allows for an orderly means of communication, but it can increase your overall impressions, too.
   
   For more information, please review the new Article Q&A addition to the FAQ.

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      Jean Bakulaposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I have found the Q&A to be a terrible addition to this site. I write very detailed articles, and most questioners just don't read, they skip to the bottom to ask a question which was answered in the article.
      
      I am not opposed to fixing a few grammar mistakes, we all make them. But some of these questions are so illiterate I can't even tell what the people are asking. It takes a long time to correct them if you have 10 of them a day. And it's hard to believe the staff screens them, when I get things like, "my moon is is vens, bf compat?"
      
      But mainly, they want free astrology readings, although I write about other topics. I try to answer the intelligent questions, and some of them do remain on a page with advertisements. But I see maybe one person a week reading one of those articles when I check my stats. So it's not a money maker.
      
      At first, people were just copying and pasting all their planets and what zodiac signs they were in from astrology sites, and expecting me to interpret this; which costs between $100-$200 no matter what astrologer you see. And that's just the initial interpretation, astrology isn't so much about prediction in our times, except in India, it's a personality profile which explains your challenge areas in life, and your strengths to solve them. Further work requires another chart for the same fee.
      
      Then they began asking about their trinities, the positions of their Sun, Moon and Ascendant. I answered those for a few months. But I have already written long, detailed articles, actually series, which explain all Sun and Moon Sign meanings, and also an article with Ascendant meanings. So the readers can be given links to other articles I have written for HP on niche sites, and get their own answers to their questions. But I have been chastised by the administration over this several times, and at this point, feel angry. What's wrong with directing a reader to another article which I have written that can help them? It's still a win for both of us.
      
      When the administration decides to return one of these answers to an individual article, it's the wrong one. It should go to whatever Sun sign is asked about in the trinity.
      
      This doesn't seem like a big deal for you, but even a small interpretation takes me about 15-20 minutes, and if it's not read (many of the questioners don't even come back to get the answer) It's a big time waster. You refuse to accept that these people just want free interpretations from me, and it took me 40 yrs. of classes, study, and workshops I taught to get where I am now.
      
      I also have a site which directs people to the place to go to get astrology or tarot readings, my fees, and what info I need, HP does graciously provide that on my profile page. These people all want something for nothing. I do answer if the question is serious, or the person seems afraid. But since they also have that option, and don't take it, I don't see why I should waste my valuable time on people who merely want something for nothing.
      
      I'm not putting a disclaimer on almost all of my articles, and now have the questions stopped. I find the Q&A to be useless, we could use that time productively to write new articles. I don't see the harm in giving the questioner a link to an article I wrote which is usually on Exemplore.com. The questions I get from readers on Owlcation or other sites are normally sensible and do ask what may not have been covered in the article, and I don't mind that.
      
      At least the comments keep an older article alive if it's evergreen, and I see use in that. Otherwise the feature is a waste of time, catering to people who don' want to be bothered reading.

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         samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Just to clarify, the administration does not decide whether a Q&A is returned or not. If the Q&A in question does not earn traffic, it is sent to the article's page. This feature has been fairly helpful for many users to generate traffic and connect with their readers, so it's not going anywhere...But of course, you don't need to use it! With the newest update, you can even choose to just keep it on your less high-priority articles.

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            Jean Bakulaposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks for the clarification, many of the questions I get are not easily returned to a specific article, because the questioner is asking for a free astrological profile. I didn't know the staff wasn't returning them to the article, whether correctly or not.
            
            I feel I have a good connection with my readers, so didn't really need this feature to foster that. From opinions I read, many feel the same as I do, but if you think it's helpful, it's not my site. I can use it on articles on other niches, I write about other topics. Sorry if I was tough about it, but it's frustrating to say no when metaphysics is a spiritual pursuit. It was my goal to write when I came here, but with astrology, I was already at a teaching level, so wrote for that purpose. And you did ask what we thought!

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      charlesnuamahposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      As others have said, I don't really see the point in the Q&A feature. I paused the feature after a while because I was getting the same questions over and over again. Also, the amount of work involved in editing and then answering a question doesn't match the reward. Funny enough, my questions that have done well traffic-wise have been questions that I have asked myself.

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         micadeoluposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         I've been on hubpages for over 6 years now and I'm considering leaving. I can't figure out why my hub scores keep going down despite all I've done to edit and polish my articles.
         
         Then again, I think hubpages should always be specific on why hubs can't be published or features so that writers can always easily correct their write-ups.

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            theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Maybe it's the HubPages demons?

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               micadeoluposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Well, may be you want to send the demons now but my space is secured. Lol.

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      OldRosesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I don't have many of the problems mentioned by hubbers here.  I like the Q&A because occasionally someone will ask a question the answer to which I realize I should have included in my hub originally.  Mostly I get a lot of repititious questions, so I hide new ones that have already been asked and answered, sometimes more than once!

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      Guckenbergerposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I like the idea a lot. Keep up the good work, and please let me know if there are any updates to the Q&A anytime soon!

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   jansharesposted 5 years ago

   Lots of my questions have grammatical and spelling errors. I answer them anyway. Is that a mistake? Does the reader receive my answer even if it doesn't appear on the article due to poor grammar/spelling? I hate not to answer questions just because the reader is not conscientious. Advice please?

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      Will Apseposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I haven't been involved with Q&A for a while but when it first came out you could edit the question however you liked. In fact, the feature encouraged you to correct bad spelling and punctuation.

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      paradigmsearchposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      HP does allow us to rewrite the reader's question I believe.

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         eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         The process is convoluted though. A simple edit button would make more sense.

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            theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            There is a simple Edit button.
            
            

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         TIMETRAVELER2posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, it does.  I do it all the time.  Just click "NO" and then the question will appear below.  You can then edit it.

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            jansharesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you.

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      samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      @janshares, if the question or answer is irrelevant, purely personal or riddled with spelling/grammar mistakes, they will often be rejected. So do try to make inquiries readable, and feel free to ignore those that are not on-topic.

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         jansharesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Hi samanthacubbison, somehow I missed the memo about editing them. I click "yes" to the question about making sure it's error free but I don't recall seeing how to edit it. (Thanks Bev, I'll click the button from now on. I always felt I wasn't doing something right with Q&A)
         
         So Sam, if you could answer my question directly, all those answers I gave were never seen by the reader? The questions are not connected to their email where they receive a notification that the question is answered? I get that they are not posted but I'm still not clear on whether the reader gets an answer.

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         1. 82

            samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            There is an "edit" button when you go to answer a question. If the Q&As are deemed unfixable by our mod team, then we do not publish them. You can see your current Article Q&As in the corresponding tab. They do not get a notification. We have included an automated email that is sent to you if a Q&A does not pass QAP.

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               jansharesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Sigh. Okay. SMH

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                  samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  Also, to be clear, the questions are sent to your inbox "as-is." We only moderate them once you have chosen to answer them or not. So it's up to you if you want to tackle them! As someone who has reviewed several of your Q&As, I think you're doing a great job making these decisions and answering with clear and compassionate responses. Keep it up!

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                     jansharesposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     Thanks, Sam. I appreciate the explanation and support. I will edit those that I want to answer from now on if they need it.

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                        samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                        OFC!

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                     eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                     Why not put an edit button next to questions on an article proper? We have to go all round the world to edit them?

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                        samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                        As @theraggededge pointed out, there is an edit button right next to both the question and the answer.

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                           eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                           There isn't on my browser? Well not on an article that is.

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         Ben716posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         I think it's not a good idea if a Q&A piece is rejected by the admins because of grammatical errors and spellings that it should forever be deleted. Why not ask the concerned hubber to correct the mistakes for it to be published.
         
         I'm feeling guilty for 3 weeks that a genuine question was asked but it was deleted because I misspelled a word. The reader in question might think am unconcerned.

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            samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Don't fret! Questions don't get rejected for such reasons. Our team reviews every Q&A before publication, which includes a grammar/spelling brushup. So you're not going to be penalized for the incorrect usage of "you're" or anything. We do ask that authors attempt to correct errors beforehand, otherwise, a Q&A can be rejected for being "beyond repair."

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   Rupert Taylorposted 5 years ago

   Coincidentally, I just disabled the function because the questions I was getting were mostly answered in the text of the article. It's clear some people read the title and blurb and can't be bothered with the rest. I received one question, and I quote verbatim, that asked "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?" Another one inquired "How are you?" Out of a few dozen queries I would say two or three were legitimate questions.

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      Guckenbergerposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      That's somethin' buddy. I hope that you have better fortunes in the future.

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   paradigmsearchposted 5 years ago

   Yeah, I turned it off for awhile for the same reason. Because of samanthacubbison's post, I've turned it back on again. We'll see how it goes.

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   TeriSilverposted 5 years ago

   I edit the questions and try to answer most, but it's becoming quite tedious. For example, I get many questions on my "cartoons" article. People have some vague image in their memory from 40 years ago they can hardly describe and ask me to identify the cartoon for them. Sometimes I can ... after a search that takes some time. And, yes, there are some articles that have information in the text that no one bothers to read, apparently.  But because I have many pieces that focus on nostalgia, the questions come from people who think I can read their minds. Very frustrating. Yet, I hesitate to turn off the Q & A function if it is helping to increase stats or traffic.

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      psycheskinnerposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      When you are too busy you could refer them to a subreddit like 'whatisthisthing' or 'vintage'

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         Will Apseposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Just drop a hint.
         
         https://www.reddit.com/r/stupidquestions/

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   Will Apseposted 5 years ago

   I reckon you are a little too kindhearted, Jean. There is nothing wrong with ignoring the demands of strangers in this setting.

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      Jean Bakulaposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I know. But it's an art geared to helping other people. After spending all these years using it for that purpose, it's hard for me to turn people away. And I have articles that can answer the questions, at least some, so don't see the harm in directing people there.

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   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   This is how my questions appear.
   

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      samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      All of your Q&As will appear in the corresponding section of your profile. You must answer the question before it appears on its own page/article. This is the time that you are "supposed" to edit them, rather than after they've already been published.

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         eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         There can always be typos though and we may wish to add content to answers, so we have to select the "Q&A" tab, turn on the "answered" filter to refresh the list, search for the question and edit that way, which is long winded.

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            samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            After you answer a question, our team reviews it once more before publication. So to find more typos or errors should be a rare occurrence.

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   TeriSilverposted 5 years ago

   One thing I'd like to suggest is the ability to edit answers after they've been published.  For example, I had a question about a cartoon that I could not immediately answer, and told the reader, but upon a further search, I was able to provide an answer. Because I could not edit my answer, I think it was Matt who helped me to re-do the whole thing, but that seems rather unnecessary and it was a bit of a hassle. So ... let us edit our answers after publishing, please.  TY.

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      eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      You can, but you have to do it through the "Q&A" tab from your account page and there's about six steps involved. An edit button next to the "helpful" button would make more sense.

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         Jean Bakulaposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         I used to know how to do that, as I wanted to add to some of the answers I wrote. Can anyone recall the steps to the process?

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            theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            You change the filter to Answered. Then, if you can't see the question, type Ctrl & F to find a part of the text. Then once located, click Edit on the question or answer.

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               Jean Bakulaposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks. I believe I asked this before, and I wrote the steps down. Now if I could only find it.......This office area is really a mess!

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   eugbugposted 5 years ago

   Is there a reason why we can't add images to answers?

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      EricFarmer8xposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Good point. I think allowing one image would help. That way there can be a featured image for certain things.

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         eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Presumably it has something to do with page load time if lots of Q&As build up on an article, with accompanying images.

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            EricFarmer8xposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Good point. I forgot about them building up below the hubs. I still think maybe a tiny thumbnail picture could help perhaps though?

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               eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               It would. A lot of people ask questions or comment on my articles and because the questions are often technical, they need to include a diagram and I could also help by providing a diagram. Currently the only way of doing this is to link to an image hosting site.

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    eugbugposted 5 years ago

    Come to think of it, the reason given before for not allowing attachments was that they could contain malicious code. But lots of other sites allow it, and do they get compromised?

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       samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

       Yeah, page load times are a big factor. Also, if answers are migrated back to an article's page, it can look cluttered and cause more technical issues. If you think about the moderation team who reviews each and every photo added to an article, you can imagine the extra work that would be involved in moderating Q&A images (there are soooo many Q&As). It would be difficult to monitor these images while providing safe and high-quality content on the platform. But maybe someday (soon) we can make it work!

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          eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

          Fingers crossed (and toes)

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    eugbugposted 5 years ago

    "If you think about the moderation team who reviews each and every photo "
    
    I had an image in my head of lots of robots doing that work

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       samanthacubbisonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

       Nope! We have a wonderful team of real-life human people who review articles/images with their own two eyes. (Robots can make mistakes, especially when dealing with editorial-style material.)
       
       I appreciate the feedback, though. I love seeing Hubbers get creative and brainstorm together.

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    Ben716posted 5 years ago

    I find Q&A an interesting and plausible added feature. Some of my relationship articles had been moved to the vertical site, Pairedlife. While some readers never read the whole article while others glance at the title and go directly to asking questions; this feature is helpful in various ways.
    
    First, it helps in connecting with readers. The more the interaction the more readers it will draw to the articles. Again, in answering questions it portrays how a writer cares for the article he/she has written and the intended audience.
    
    Though it's good to point out Q&A doesn't work well for certain types of articles.
    
    Lastly, it will make sense moving Q&A pieces that are getting high traffic to depend on themselves. I enjoy answering questions and some of the questions are getting huge traffic.

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    theraggededgeposted 5 years ago

    I'm considering pausing Q&A now. I am having so many questions not posted because they are similar to other questions that I feel I'm wasting my time answering them. Even though I try to make each answer completely unique.
    
    Surely it makes more sense to weed them out before the writer sees them?

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       DrMark1961posted 5 years agoin reply to this

       I have not answered several hundred questions for that very reason. If someone was really interested, and looked through all of the questions that have been answered, they would find exactly what they are looking for.
       The other thing that feels like a waste to me is when I spend a lot of my time answering a question and then check my stats later and find that the original poster did not even come back to read the answer.
       I no longer get enough page views to justify all of the time it takes.
       I have not paused it because once a week or so I will find a good question, and I think if you pause it the capsule will disappear. All of those question/answers that are available will no longer show up.

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    Wesman Todd Shawposted 5 years ago

    I can actually edit the questions? If this is true, then I certainly was not aware of it. Next time I go there I'll see if I'm able to figure out how to do so.
    
    I was starting to get into the idea of being a comedian with the questions which were submitted purely to troll me. LOL.

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       Jean Bakulaposted 5 years agoin reply to this

       Sometimes I think so too, judging from the questions I am asked! Seriously though, ragged edge (Bev) gives instructions early in this thread on how to go back and change or add to an answer. You must get a lot of good questions about guitars. They put ads on them, it's worth it for you.

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       theraggededgeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

       For new, unanswered questions:
       
       Go here: https://hubpages.com/my/hubs/qanda
       
       Look at the questions. At the end of each one, you'll see a red Edit link. That's the boy to click.
       
       For questions already answered, just copying my previous post in here:
       
       Go here: https://hubpages.com/my/hubs/qanda
       
       You change the filter to Answered.
       
       If you can't see the question, type Ctrl & F to find a part of the text.
       
       Once located, click Edit on the question or answer.

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    Chriswillman90posted 5 years ago

    Why are all my answers getting rejected. Should I stop answering Q&As.

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    Will Apseposted 5 years ago

    Staff really should be clear about what they are trying to acheive with this feature. Seems to me they should say something like:
    
    "We need new content and this seems a good way of getting it.
    
    It isn't really about answering readers questions. it is about taking them as hints or inspiration, to conjure something keyword and search friendly then writing a mini-page answering the question you have come up with."
    
    I don't see anything wrong with that, if that is what they are looking for.
    
    I am happy to be corrected.

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       Will Apseposted 5 years agoin reply to this

       Hi, late night self! This is not the utter drivel that you so often produce, but just to point out:
       
       "Mini-pages" need good info if they are not to drag down the overall quality of the site.
       
       The answers will be better off on the page that prompted them in 90 per cent of cases. Leaving them detached for months might not be a good approach.
       
       Some people obviously get upset that they cannot answer all the questions thrown at them (many humans take responsibility terribly seriously). They aren't all cynical brutes like you.
       
       p.s. just remember I know where you live before you think about reporting me. And try drinking less.

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          Randy Godwinposted 5 years agoin reply to this

          Wow! I've heard of split personalities Will, but alcohol induced responses to ones self? 

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          eugbugposted 5 years agoin reply to this

          Which one lives up the tree?

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             Will Apseposted 5 years agoin reply to this

             We all do. It is a commune. This is "far too early in the morning me" and I can tell you it is hell.

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    micadeoluposted 5 years ago

    Let's try to be nicer to ourselves, even at crisis time.

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    paradigmsearchposted 5 years ago

    I got inspired and turned Q&A back on a little while ago. Alas, I've reverted back to uninspired and turned the thing off again.

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       Jean Bakulaposted 5 years agoin reply to this

       I have this same conflict with myself.

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