Not very friendly people...

[Moonhead]

Is it just me, or is there a lot of "not very friendly" answers being posted at the moment? I know a lot of the questions recently have been quite annoying, but surely if you think a question is a bit "silly" you just shouldnt answer it, rather then being nasty to the poster. I'm only thinking of it from a newcomer's point of view. It cant be very nice to have some short, sharp and sarky comments to a genuinely asked question - most of them must think we're a horrid site! This of course, does not include the "blanks" question, as I'm sure ingnoring the "previous posted" warning is down to greed for those Euros!... :o) Feel free to send me your own short, sharp, sarky comments now...

[becks]

Sometimes I am nasty and i hold my hands up to it, but i'm only horrible if the question is ridiculous and like you said the blanks thing derserves all the abuse they get. I personally don't like some of the sarky comments and at times there does seem to be a clique of people. Howeve bear in mind that it is the school holidays and questions like "what happens to my bum if i keep having bum sex?" deserve stupid answers. i too have had my fair share of nasty answers - most recently when i got seriously berated for asking why england didn't have a footie team in the olympics, instead of somone rationally explaining to me that england doesn't compete in the olympics great britian does and why there is no GB team i got told i was going to upset people, rah rah rah, and that was a genuine mistake. i try and do what my mum has always told me, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. (except when it comes to tucking blanks into blanks.)

[Moonhead]

Its not just sarkiness, as sometimes, like you said becks, some silly q's deserve silly a's, but its the telling people they should have googled the answer first, or got it from somewhere else etc etc thst I think isnt fair. Whats the point in being a Question and Answer site if we're going to tell people off for asking questions??

[Lexi Genie]

Exactly! People can be really mean!I am a new member and have been browsing the site, and I have come across some seriously rude answers!!! I have given a few answers but they're always considerate and at least respectful, even if i don't agree! There should be more people in the world like us :P

[IggyB]

I have enjoyed this site for a about 2 years, initially I enjoyed the spirit of the site, informative and funny with a sprinkling of pointed teasing, over the last few months the site has definitely deteriated to simply a platform for peoples egos that presumable have few opportunities to come over so arrogant and rude in the real world. Complaining about people asking too easy questions or that their spelling and grammar are incorrect is just boring and unhelpful � you all need to either play nicely or go somewhere else to abuse people THIS ISN�T THAT SORT OF A FORUM. Anyway the regulars on this site are fantasic, well informed, entertaining and I�m sure Very Good Looking, it�s just a shame that their posts and comments are being drowned out by a deluge of aggressive, boring morons� I think I�m going to give this site a miss for a few months to see if it improves, so bye bye ABer hope the site recovers.

[DOB]

I agree. Some replies to people have been quite nasty and probably hurtful in some instances. It seems that when somebody gets an "LOL" after one of their messages, they believe they have a right to abuse anybody else using the site. Also, the replies to some questions where there questioner uses txt spk as opposed to the Queen's English have become very cutting irrespective of the content of the question, which in some cases can be very personal.

[jenstar]

Oddly enough, I haven't been anything like my usual sarky self recently. I ought to take an anger mismanagement course and start being nasty to people again...

[georgit79]

What's the blanks thing? I'm intrigued! I want to see all the nasty comments!

[PaulB]

Right behind you IggyB

[Kit]

It's not the questions that get me down. It's some posters' childish responses to the answers that they have been given. I hate having my time wasted, but it's hard spotting trolls in advance.

[worder]

i think some of us, people have no manners at all. i'm not saying everyone has to get stars, but if someone gives an answer, at least acknowledge the answer, say thank you. also, less American bashing would be sooo nice.

[Philtaz]

I'm the same as becks: Guilty as charged! I do endeavour to answer sensible questions to the best of my ability but sometimes you look at a question and the old adage springs to mind: Ask a stupid question..................

[vittoria]

I have been on the AB almost from the start and I think you have a point, and it is a shame.

[secretspirit]

I agree as well. I hold my hands up to being a b*tch over the blanks thing and some of the obviously joke/ridiculous questions but if someone really wants advice is it fair to be nasty to them because they haven't put the comma in the right place? Until you get the feel of a place you don't necessarily know what's expected and I think some of them get scared away!

[female19]

i am a friendly person but often experience nasty stuff however i have replied to some of these questions sarky as they are so ridiculous

[AB Editor]

Hi AnswerBankers, You have all noticed a variety of changes to the AnswerBank over the past few weeks, some good and some not so good! As many of you know, the AnswerBank was acquired in June by Crystal Guides Ltd, an independent online publisher of sites such UK Net Guide www.uknetguide.co.uk Most of the work we have done so far has been on the technical infrastructure of the site, and so far we have only made minor improvements to the 'front end' such as removing pop-up advertising and creating the Quiz channel. The primary reason for the change in the 'feel' of the site, which many of you regular AB users have noticed, is the increase in traffic. Up until June the AnswerBank was visited by around 10,000 users a month. In July that figure reached almost 400,000! This will inevitably produce a broader range of questions and answers, some of them intelligent, thought provoking and in keeping with the spirit of AnswerBank - and others rather silly or downright bizarre! While we welcome this new level of users it has meant that we have been stretched to the limit as far as editorial resources are concerned and we apologise if certain things have slipped under the radar and not been picked up. This is where the moderating influence of the regular AB users is so important in maintaining the quality of the site. Please bear with us as we adjust to this new found popularity and rest assured that we at Crystal Guides are very committed to developing the site in conjunction with you - the loyal and regular users. With this in mind we are launching a new 'Suggestions' channel next week to open the debate (which has already started in certain areas of the site) on what you want from AnswerBank. From all the team at AnswerBank, thank you for you patience and we look forward to hearing your suggestions! Regards, AB Editor

[becks]

I agree but with all that's been said but i think sometimes it is laziness that makes people ask on here, instead of doing their own research, and i'm also REALLY wary of answering questions that are clearly some kid's homeowrk, so they get eff off messages. And if one more person asks if they need a passport to visit another country i will probably vomit on them. As for the txt spk stuff i'm sorry but it's a massive bugbear for me, i cannot stand it, kids have got to learn to write properly as this is becoming a problem in GCSE exams and stuff. However instead of posting back to these, i just ignore. I think it's sad that some people are leaving too, that surely goes against everything this site has been trying to achieve. So long AB-ers, hope to see you back soon...

[robber1]

I must admit to being one of the most sarcastic posters. At least I was a year ago. I now try to stop my natural urge. I agree with most comments so far. It annoys me beyond words to read some of the questions and instead of guiving a pithy reply I just ignore them now. The standard in AB has steadily dropped over the last year and I only drop in occasionally now. It is such a shame because this was a top class site. On a lighter note, my humour is often interpreted wrongly and people take offense when none was intended. So, if I reply to any of you in the future it will be in the right spirit OK?

[darth vader]

quite often i try to be as impartial and helpful as possible. sometimes i put humour in to help the thread, or just to lighten up the thread. sometimes i get annoyed by the way the thread goes, and show my anger. we are human after all, (actually that's a lie i am from an immaculate conception on Rydor 3, but that's another story) and when we see the level of questions which warrant a short or curt reply then we are hard-pressed not to respond: before the quiz section (which we can now thankfully avoid like a plague) we were inundated with the same stupid quiz questions and after being asked for the 14th time "what is tasty tasty very very tasty" you feel like crushing a grape. another annoyance is the "tell me about the 2nd world war cos i have 5 minutes to write a 2000 word essay on it and couldn't be bothered 2 months ago cos i was surfing and down the student union bar all the time" questions where we're asked to do their work for them. Finally we have the digression to the " i reely fancy him but cud i be shure he luvs me?" questions which are really sinking the site to the bottom of the pit. OK we should just ignore these questions but as the ab editor has been reluctant to police this site then i believe we have a duty to flush out the trogs before they kill off our beloved AB - we've already seen the loss of sft, incitatus, quizmonster, spellmaster through general apathy of the type of questions we are getting lately, and i feel indiesinger (as well as myself and a few other regulars) are losing the will to trawl the muck on this site looking for questions worth answering.

[darth vader]

and the answer is definitely Nebraska - ok?

[brawburd]

no it's not Darth - it's wingwalking! (That's one for the old-timers!)