Sorry but have to laugh at this site

[Comeagain?]

However, legitimate questions are largely outnumbered by a bunch of whiny grumblers. The ratio of good questions to garbage continues to rapidly decline.

Yes and No.

How do you separate a good question from a bad question? Just because people ask the same question, doesn't make them garbage. It makes them somewhat redundant, but you hardly ever get two threads that are completely the same, and have the same answer. Chances are, one of those repeat threads will have something else to add, that may help someone who searches later on.

 

[cvaldes]

I agree that MR readers should use the search function more frequently.

It would also help if people added useful, descriptive subject titles. Asking the same question over and over does not help the forum in that the search query results just get overwhelming. If you have a problem and the search engine returns 50 threads, there's really no way for a human being to parse through all those threads to look for the real solution.

Again, a big problem is the heavy reliance on human-based moderation. Duplicate questions should be banned or automatically merged. Bad/incorrect answers should be able to be scored appropriately by the community to bury the post in question.

I forget where I saw it, but I recall reading one "helpful answer" where the person suggested sticking a pin in the hole next to the headphone jack to reset the iPhone 4S. Well, that's not a reset button; sticking a pin in that hole would destroy a microphone.

Bad stuff like that can't be easily flagged. What if someone stumbles upon that, then doesn't see the response five posts later warning that doing so will destroy the second microphone (the one for noise reduction)?

This site (like many others) is too heavily trafficked for human-based response moderation. It is probably beyond the tipping point as a trustworthy source of problem solving, at least with the current implementation of forum software.

Even then, the downward sliding demographic of this site may be too much for new forum tools to rectify.

There's a difference between data (good & bad), knowledge, and wisdom. Sadly, most Internet sites are unable to provide their communities with systems that will help sort between these categories.

 

[peeaanuut]

Good question or bad questions is one thing. Thats subjective. And who knows, maybe the person that posted about resetting with a pin really thought that was how you did it. Doesnt make them a troll, just makes the missinfored. The posts that bug me are the ones that have no purporse but just to complain. Example:

THE NEW IPHONE DIDNT HAVE NFC!!!!1 I CANT BELIEVE IT, IM DUMPING ALL MY STOCK AND MOVING TO RUSSIA TO HUNT DINOSAURS AND YOU ARE AN IDIOT IF YOU STAY WITH APPLE!


Now, I have been known to make a snarky or comic response because thats just how I am, but its usually in response to someone elses snarky response. Sometimes they can be fun. I just recently started heading back to this sight and I see they took off the downvote button? couldnt be bring that back? i remember there was a thread where it just because a big downvote party on some guys dump comment, but besides that 1 time, couldnt it still work?

 

[cvaldes]

One serious issue is that there is no way to flag bad/incorrect responses.

The Powers That Be neutered the comment forum by removing the "thumbs down" button. Yes, you can call it out in a reply, but what should really happen is that the incorrect comment should be buried by default, both in the default thread view as well as the default search results.

If you want to spout out what you think you know to the community, the forum's structure should let the community moderate the content (not the person).

That "pin in the mike hole to reset your iPhone" is a perfect example of how community sourced information can actually damage property. There's good information, there's bad information.

I will reiterate that this is not a unique problem at MacRumors. Almost every single popular site with a Q&A forum has these problems. Comment forums typically don't scale well because forum operators typically stick with volunteer forum moderators way beyond their effectiveness.

 

[GGJstudios]

One serious issue is that there is no way to flag bad/incorrect responses.

The Powers That Be neutered the comment forum by removing the "thumbs down" button. Yes, you can call it out in a reply, but what should really happen is that the incorrect comment should be buried by default, both in the default thread view as well as the default search results.

If you want to spout out what you think you know to the community, the forum's structure should let the community moderate the content (not the person).

That "pin in the mike hole to reset your iPhone" is a perfect example of how community sourced information can actually damage property. There's good information, there's bad information.

I will reiterate that this is not a unique problem at MacRumors. Almost every single popular site with a Q&A forum has these problems. Comment forums typically don't scale well because forum operators typically stick with volunteer forum moderators way beyond their effectiveness.

And yet, simply downvoting such a post doesn't explain whether you did so just because don't like the response or the poster, or whether you disagree, or whether the information posted is inaccurate. The only way to effectively correct misinformation is to quote the post and post the correction. If someone is intentionally posting false/misleading/damaging information, report the post, as that's a violation of forum rules.

 

[cvaldes]

Again, incorrect information needs to be buried. You don't want that stuff turning up in search engine results. It's not like Google where search results are influenced by the number of hyperlinks pointing to the URL in question.

Anyhow, it's probably time for me to move on. I knew from the day I signed up here that this time would arrive since I've seen this happen again and again on countless other websites.

Six years is a pretty good stretch at any one site, even a tad bit too long.

It's time for me to ride off into the sunset. Not that anyone should care.

 

[peeaanuut]

maybe in conjunction with the downvote there could be a reliability meter. Some sights have stats on thanks or upvotes/downvotes. Now sites like reddit where karma doesnt equate to good or bad posts is not a good example, but some of my car forums allow you to thank and upvote/downvote a post and a small snippet of those stats is on the left side by the avatar. its up to the reader to decide if someone with a reliability level of 2% is someone they want to go with.

of course, any system will have flaws and people will abuse it but still they work for the most part.

 

[GGJstudios]

Again, incorrect information needs to be buried. You don't want that stuff turning up in search engine results.

You can't bury misinformation by not replying to it. The fact that it was posted once means it can show up in search engine results. If something is wrong with the information in a post, people need to know which part of the post is wrong, why it is wrong and what the right information is. There's no way to communicate that with a vote button.

 

[peeaanuut]

Good question or bad questions is one thing. Thats subjective. And who knows, maybe the person that posted about resetting with a pin really thought that was how you did it. Doesnt make them a troll, just makes the missinfored. The posts that bug me are the ones that have no purporse but just to complain. Example:

THE NEW IPHONE DIDNT HAVE NFC!!!!1 I CANT BELIEVE IT, IM DUMPING ALL MY STOCK AND MOVING TO RUSSIA TO HUNT DINOSAURS AND YOU ARE AN IDIOT IF YOU STAY WITH APPLE!


Now, I have been known to make a snarky or comic response because thats just how I am, but its usually in response to someone elses snarky response. Sometimes they can be fun. I just recently started heading back to this sight and I see they took off the downvote button? couldnt be bring that back? i remember there was a thread where it just because a big downvote party on some guys dump comment, but besides that 1 time, couldnt it still work?

So I make the sarcastic part of that comment and then today I find this:

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2012/10/boy-discovers-mammoth.html


darn you internet!!!!!!