Feedback in regard to the Ask A Question feature

[Just_Me_D]

Now that the Ask A Question feature has been implemented for a few months now, what is the community's impression of it? Post both pros and cons as YOU see it.

 

[kataran]

Pros> give new device owners a chance to interact with our forum without the stress of having to sign up first and in some cases when they see there Questions answered they end up joining and becoming an active part of the community.

Cons> it's an easy avenue for spam and tends to be in small cases a way to clog up the boards with useless chatter


iMore Ambassador -iPhone 5s

 

[taz323]

For the most part, seems to be going ok. Would like to see some what of a format for how they are asking the questions. There's times when there's just not enough info.

 

[John Yester]

Spam hits "Ask Question" first as it the top of the forum list... quite common on any board... It's at the top it gets hit, vs some where deeper.

I think it works out good.. Lot's of people get answers quick and some threads have turned into some great discussion.

 

[pr1nce]

I think for the most part it's worked out good. It's give people a chance to ask a question and get answers quickly. Hopefully, they enjoy the experience and become members. A con is sometimes we get questions and just not enough information to help.

 

[Jaguarr40]

I believe and have said that it is a good thing to have but there is much work to do to make it acceptable to both users and Mods/ Ambassadors. I mean there are repeated questions that we all know come from the same person, Spam as John mentioned and I think the worst part is that when you answer a question you never know if the person came back and read it or if you ever did anything to help the person who asked it.

 

[iOS Gravity]

Its good, but people are always asking about how to bypass the iCloud activation lock. Someone should sticky a notification for that. There should also be some sort of form to fill out so we can better understand the question because some people post 2 word questions.

 

[Just_Me_D]

Its good, but people are always asking about how to bypass the iCloud activation lock. Someone should sticky a notification for that. There should also be some sort of form to fill out so we can better understand the question because some people post 2 word questions.

It doesn't need to be stickied. They'd still ask even if is was...

 

[iOS Gravity]

It doesn't need to be stickied. They'd still ask even if is was...

I know. Might help some people before they post a question. Or maybe a notification when they're about to post anything iCloud related?

 

[anon(4698833)]

It's a convenience but also, a degrading factor to the community...

PROS: It keeps spam in a centralized point and limits how much spam gets into the other subs; it provides a nice place for new comers to ask a question and get a feel to how the community responds to varying levels of questions BEFORE they decide to actually sign up for an official membership; it provides a place for people to test out their "helper" skills within the community...and at times really weeds out who knows their stuff here, who doesn't know jack squat and the technical levels the core members are that venture into the area.

CONS: It cheapens the experience of iMore, creating an almost "catch all" to traffic here on the website...preventing people from actually putting forth a legitimate effort to become a part of the community, and just scatter shot random questions and thoughts in there; Being that it is the first place most people see on iMore, when you go in there, at times it looks like such an amateur offering, mainly reflective upon just how asinine some/most of the posts are; It's the HUB for the "I forgot my password" posts...and this, I think, is because you don't have to really put much effort into posting something like that vs. the effort it takes to sign up for iMore and go through that process...I think we'd get less of that traffic if the forum still required sign up even in the Q&A section.

...to me, if you're looking for traffic quantity, it's an effective method to garner such results...but if you're looking for quality, it's a total strike out and pulls away from what makes a community solid (in my opinion), and that is long standing core members who create more long standing core members through knowledge and member effort.

 

[iEd]

I think a user should be required to sign up to ask a question. There should be some effort involved from the person asking the question to get the answer.

 

[anon(4698833)]

I think a user should be required to sign up to ask a question. There should be some effort involved from the person asking the question to get the answer.

At the very least this should be in place...I mean it's not going to solve all the issues that area creates, but it will at least curb some of the non-sense. I mean you have threads like "How do I spy on my son's device?"...I think we all know that a person who has to take the time to sign up for an account, have it verified and what not is not going to bother for a question like that.

And I've said this before...and I understand that I'm a normal member here just like the other thousands of them, but this websites recent focus on quantity vs. quality has become very apparent, obvious and a bit concerning. I mean sure, who wouldn't want their website to garner impressive traffic flow...going about it in this way though, at least in my opinion, is degrading to the "brand" so to speak.