Do you think Fluther should hand out a "best answer" award once a month?

As in the best answer of the month?

No, I already think people hand out lurve waay too openly, it is not a contest.

Or for the most best answers?

Yes! With gold star stickers. AND a ” best question” award, with the monthly awards accumulating on a “best of Fluther” page.

Nocountry, I’ll pass…

@shock – it’s not a contest but an indicator of how valuable your contributions are percieved by the community.

How about worst answer too? I seem to have lots of those LMAO

Yes, thank you nocountry, I am well aware of the fact. However, once fluther starts handing out awards, it no longer becomes an indicator of the community, but rather of the people in charge.

It’d be tricky. Should it be based in voting or selection. If it’s voting, it’ll be just like the whole lurve business which doesn’t indicate quality or thoroughness. If its selection, won’t that require a lot of the admins? It would be hard to pick one answer to be better than all others, even those related to a different question….

I think what they’re doing with interviewing people who are recognized as good contributors is a better idea. Maybe they should include examples of good answers from that flutherite in the interview.

Nocountry, that is an awesome idea, but with the awesome quality of this site, it would be a risk because it would become more of a copy and paste rather than being in an active collective striving to give their opinions and answers.

Shock, you don’t need to get an attitude about it. Besides, if the nominees were determined by lurve, how is that an indicator of the people in charge?

One idea would be that the person who asks the question can mark one answer to be the best one. This is used on LinkedIn. Although you probably would have to close or mark the questions as answered when you give out the best answer, otherwise you just never know when you should give it.

@Awww – I agree that it could be a danger, but I think having a showcase space of examples of popularly-determined (and maybe a “staff pick” section as well) great Q&A’s would be fun, a small incentive to provoke the caliber of questions and answers, and be a good reference for curious newcomers.

@nocountry: I am sorry if you thought I was rude, it was not my intention and for that I apologize. However, I think that you are missing the point I am trying to make.

I am saying that an award given out by fluther would not be a democratic decision in the same way that lurve is handed out by fluther members.

I just wish they would keep up with the interviews. And put a link to the chat room where people can see it. The place is fun but has been dead lately.

no problem shock, I did think you were being snarky but thanks for clearing it up :0 gold star for you

I’ll say no as I wish there were no point system at all. I think it encourages people to give overly positive, predictable or “moral” responses where they’re not necessary. I find myself cringing while reading half the stuff on here because it’s just so mushy and goody two shoes sounding. So many responses come off sounding like the last 2 minutes of an episode of Full House. With some members here getting points for almost every word they post, I’m sure this idea would turn out the same way. I’d much rather go for a “predictable” or “sub-par” flag at the end of every post.

Let the flaming commence.

what john said.

@Camera:
you come here and let me give you a big high five.

I agree with Camera.

But if they did have a “best answer award” I really wouldn’t care, or care to notice.

I recently came here after being a regular on Askville for a long time. “Best Answers” are awarded on all questions there, and that award carries a point bonus. It does have the positive effect of encouraging people to go the extra distance on their answers (Askville answers are often way longer and more exhaustive than what I’m seeing here, mostly because everyone’s tring to snag “Best Answer”)

But, having said that, the competitive element that all this introduces into the process has been pretty toxic to that community. There is no end to the squabbles over how answers are rated. One of the things I’m loving about Fluther is how non-competitive it is, and how free people are to show appreciation to others.

so best answer is much like lurve?

No, there is a way of sending “compliments”, which have no point value, but “Best Answer” is determined by voting. All the answerers rate each other’s answers and the asker also votes (asker’s vote is worth twice as much). The obvious problem is that the answerers have every incentive to rate the other answers low, which causes huge resentment. And depending on the nature of the question, the asker often doesn’t have a clue which answers are correct and which aren’t (which is why they’re asking in the first place).

Under the Fluther system, giving someone a pat on the back for a good answer doesn’t cost anybody any competitive advantage, so the positive feedback flows much more freely. That feels great to me, after all the cat fights on Askville.

Don’t worry, @camera, some great (and not so goody-too-shoes) things have happened after Full House. For example, Jodie Sweetin hosted Pants Off Dance Off! ;)

Seriously, though, the questions/answers I appreciate most on fluther are the ones that are open, honest, and transparent. But I want those open, honest, and transparent questions/answers posted in a way that’s positive and polite. I think there can be a balance between the two (and, the way I try to balance is with humor).

If anything, I think of lurve as something that might encourage people to be thorough, thoughtful, and coherent with their questions and answers.

I think this will create more problems than it solves. Selecting a single best answer also implies a single best question. Also on what basis do you judge? Sometimes the shortest answers are the best, especially if they are a url to precisely what the user was asking for.

Perhaps instead of a “best-of”, just have a scoreboard of recent answers that have a high rating. It should select a random subset, not just the absolutely highest rated. This would showcase the quality of responses on this site without the headaches of picking a “best-of-the-month” entry.

Fluther has a very laid-back atmosphere, and I have to see it disappear in favor of raw competition for Lurve.