Should there be a thumbs up / thumbs down for good / bad questions?

Question

And why, or why not? :-)

Answer 1

I believe there used to be.  I like the star.  Maybe we could have splattered rotten fruit and veggies for bad questions.

Answer 2

No; it might come a time when a posters intentions are clearly misunderstood. Especially for the thumbs down.  For the thumbs up that's easier; those types of questions are easiest to understand.

Answer 3

I liked it back when we could give thumbs up and thumbs down on questions because the debates in politics were colossal back then, far more intense and meaty than it ever gets here in GWS and people were thick-skinned enough to play the kind of hardball that developed there.  Back then, people didn't hiss at me and call me a bogeyman "feminist".  They hissed at me and called me a bogeyman "libtard."

(Lamp, Dd, and Shortbus from Ya Politics category. . . I love you guys forever.)  lol

Those thumbs up/down on questions guided huge flockings of participants following threads that formed fluctuating patterns and clusters which  promoted a more dynamic flow of "debate" and analysis.  And, oh my gosh, they were fascinating to watch. That clustering phenomenon should have occured with the star system, which just eliminated that negative thumb's down component of rating a question, but that original rich thread clustering never emerged again.  But, there was a national election heating up which might have directed a larger number of participants into those threads.  Population size is a variable in social "harmonic" flows of consciousness.  So, when population size changes, it's like the frequency changes and new patterns emerge.  I sure miss seeing those rich dynamic currents. It's essentially the same phenonmenon as this video of rice vibrating on a cookie sheet to differnt frequencies:

http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2006/05/i...

It was about the same time as the election when the new star system on questions began.  SO, maybe there's like a flashpoint that requires a certain population size before those rich currents in thread flockings can develop and after participants dropped off here after the election, and they did, in hordes, those more powerful current patterns can't form.  On the other hand, maybe the negative thumbs down component is somehow vital for the formation of those patterns.  

I got the idea that option was discontinued because YA was attempting to build-up its base of askers in those earlier days, focusing on the asker as the "customer to please", and eliminated the thumbs up and down on questions because newbies can be very thin-skinned and getting 11 thumbs down on their first question shocked them into going elsewhere to play on the Internet in that critical introduction sales pitch sorta moment.  

So, we just keep the shocking reality of YA society from new participants until we have them addicted beyond ability to flee any longer.  Resistance is futile.  You will be assimilated. : )

http://www.ibiblio.org/john/photos/thumb...

Answer 4

I think the interesting star should be used more often by people. but good question anyway

Answer 5

Not a thumbs up or down thats opinion- but something other than the 'star'.   Or we could start giving more stars for the good ones.    I would like the ability to give a pfft  to the bad ones.

Answer 6

the report button works just fine. ur gonna be down 10 pts in a little while eleanor.

Answer 7

I think there should be some method for marking a question as a bad one.

Maybe some kind of rating system would help, like displaying a scale system with a base of zero, 1+ for average to excellent questions, and 1- for bad questions.

Answer 8

No, because certain members give TD to the person they dislike without even reading the question.

Answer 9

Yes, because it saves us the trouble of having to read repeat answers, or typing them out.

Answer 10

Apparently there was something like it at one time, but Yahoo removed it.

It's a feature I would like to see brought back.

Cheers :-)

Answer 11

Yes.

Answer 12

that's what being able to report it is for, and some questions are just non rateable

Answer 13

There used to be thumbs up and down for questions and it was removed.  People liked the option of giving stars better.

Most of the "bad questions" are reportable under the community guidelines.

Answer 14

NO

But I do think the thumbs down system for answers needs to be sorted out.

You can find yourself with 3 or 4 thumnbs down for an inoffensive answer simply because someone disagrees with your views or just doesn't like you for some reason.

People should be asked to give a reason for giving a thumbs down before it is allowed to go on there.

Answer 15

NO...because then you`re judging questions..when you`re supposed to be judging "answers"....just cause it's not important to you and you would give it a thumbs down doesnt mean its not important to the person whom is asking....(unless the question is really fricking STUPID!)...but in any case..yeah

Answer 16

yes....

with extra points to encourage people to ask better questions.

Answer 17

You can star the question and the person gets a point.  That's better than a thumbs up!  Giving thumbs down would be good.  It would be a valid response for an objectionable question that is not bad enough to merit reporting.