Where did it all go wrong......

[sft42]

.......for this little website then?

It has to be said the standard of your average question has fell through the floor on here and due to loads of the regular contributers being cheesed off and not posting as much the standard of answers overall has plummeted as well.......Is it all down to the new ownership of the site?

Your thoughts on the back of a sealed down envelope to....well to the box above actually.

[saffstar]

Hello dear, haven't seen you around for ages - I suppose that illustrates your point doesn't it? I think it's due to the take over - I'm sure I read somewhere recently that the site's being advertised to death and so we're getting a massive influx of newcomers, not all of whom are interested in protecting the friendly & interesting set up we've so far had here. The fact that we've had some downright abusive contributions lately isn't helping either.

[apricot]

New owners, poor and inconsistent editing, school holidays, declining standards of education *I think I should stop here*. I complained to the editor of a blatant advertisement a few days ago. In the old days ABed would have spotted that immediately and removed it. I know we moaned about the old ABed but, come back old ed all is forgiven.

[tartanwiz]

Hi sft. I totally agree - the Answerbank ain't what it used to be. Too much abuse and unfriendly replies, infantile questions by schoolkids having a laugh, not enough intelligent questions and answers and not enough intelligent humour. This site used to be a daily obsession and pleasure for me, but recently I've become bored, disillusioned, offended and cheesed off. I'll stick around though. Is it the new ownership of the site? Well, it hasn't helped, that's for sure.

[woofgang]

actually folks, I believe that it has gone through phases of this before although maybe not for so long. The old profanity gremlin used to cut the whole post instead of asterisking words which may have helped...also do you think that we could be victims of our own success? I would be sorry to lose my old ab colleagues and hope that things will settele down a bit once the little darlings are back in sschool and have less time for net surfing...

[woofgang]

forgot to add, that yes I do think that the tightness of editing had an effect too, one of the suggestions put by t'management is that some of us regs might like to monitor specific categories, what do we think about that??

[Pinotage]

Seem to have lost a lot of old questions also; a couple of questions have been asked in last week (TIR - date of internet) that I answered originally and wanted to post a link to them, but I couldn't find the and didn't want to bother to do the research again, so left question answered

I'm depressed also by the ignorant illiterate scribbles that pass for questions

[andy hughes]

The site has changed, and is enjoying(?) the input of a lot of new visitors, but i am sure that for the less committed, and those who think their posts are 'humourous', the novelty will wear off. Remember, cream always rises to the top. Welcome back SFT - stick it out with us (oo-er!)

[cheyenne]

i am quite new to this site and i think i post interesting questions,and try to give helpfull answers.i also take the micky if the question is posted for that purpose only.a lot of people who have been on this sight for a while have also answered my questions and have been very helpfull.and we were all dismayed by the sexual questions.but i also believe everyone on this site was a newbie at one point or another and its very easy to get into this situation where we dont like these newcomers ?this is are site weve been hear longer.it takes a while to find yourself around this site and get use to the way people respond to questions etc.so give the new ones a chance to settle down before you condemn them out of hand???i respect the people who have been around a long time and give sensible answers,but i dont believe you can read a book by looking at the cover???

[Philtaz]

What I do find perplexing is the amount of people who are too idle to do a little bit of detective work via Google or some of the other search engines.

[bernardo]

I haven't really noticed any decline of the sort that you're talking about, apart from teenage angst questions in txt lngwj during the school holidays.

[pinus]

If you don't like teh questions, ignore them

[archbishop]

This started out as a basically UK site for the uninformed.That is ask a question and hope somebody on here could answer.With parental controls not everyone can use a search engine,google,jeeves etc.Recently we seem to have a large influx from our North American Colonies and as we all know we are separated by a common language.

[mike1222]

I'm very much a newbie, and like Philtaz, I'm surprised at the number of questions posted that could be answered by a simple Google search. It may still have a noveltie value for me but still a good site!

[Headtime]

I first started using this site a couple of years ago, and was immediately struck by what an amazing bunch of people populated the site. People such as Quizzy, Andy Hughes, Tartanwiz, Woofgang, Darth et al who go out of their way to provide sensible and (largely) accurate answers to peoples questions with good grace. I even remember posing a question 'way back when' about people not using Google to find their answers. But in reality, many people do not know how to Google effectively, and when presented with millions of links that may or may not contain an answer - what's the harm in posting a question here? And often it's fun to answer someone's question by doing a bit of Googling for them. As for irritating users, well there seems to have been a surge in stupid posts recently (as people have said it is the school holidays)... But there are also people like New Forester that have arrived on the site with good knowlege and top-class responses. And I'm sure a lot of people will remember 'Spellmaster' from days of yore... need I say more?

[darth vader]

thanks Headtime, the cheque is in the post. The site has gone downhill a bit but i am getting used to ignoring the more inane questions.

[cheyenne]

whats the harm in posting a question here??exactly,headtime.isnt that why its called the answerbank???.surely this isnt some exclusive club for people that are so intelligent its above them to answer questions to us less mortals??its starting to get a bit like,were better than them how dare they put there questions on this site ?thanks bernardo and smudge for being above this nonsense??

[saffstar]

vinny100, I don't think anyone objects to a bit of new blood. As you said, everyone was new once, I've only been around for about a year myself - it's the new 'contributors' who seem to delight in slagging people off & posting deliberately ofensive questions that are the problem, like the delightful person who's now been kicked out, I believe, who was advising depressed people to kill themselves, amongst other things. As I said, I've only been around for a year & I haven't seen this happen before, so I hope that woofgang is right and things will settle down again soon. I love this site and I'll certainly be sticking around for a while yet.

[Janetex]

Lovely to see you sft, I agree with Andy,I'm hanging around hoping it will all come out in the wash.

[Headtime]

Vinny, That's exactly the point I'm making. I'm not suggesting for a moment that Answerbank is an exclusive club. What has always made Answerbank great is the inclusive and tolerant nature of posters and answerers alike. It never was a cliquey club of regulars. I said in my previous post, that there's nothing wrong in posting a question that can easily be answered via Google. There are a lot of stupid questions at the mo', but there always has been. I reckon it goes in waves.

[I.R.]

Well, the site is addictive, no doubt. Learnt about it about 3 wks ago, and I've been stuck since then. Apart from questions that are offensive outright, irritating posts can be ignored, can't they? What YOU find irritating could be enlightening to someone else. The superior attitude of some contributors is what I find irritating.