What could be done about questions with few answers?

Just because a question has less than 10 answers may not be due to it being posted at the wrong time of day, or lack of interest on the part of the community; it could be the way the question was worded or because it was answered sufficiently in the first few answers.
I like your idea though. I know I am guilty of not reading a lot of the older posts.

I don’t think it matters how many answers you get….. Depending on the question It could only take one answer to help the person…..

Also….I’m still getting answers to questions I asked years ago..

I think the best way is for the OP to be proactive – or, if a user thinks it’s a good question, to take charge. Share the question with people. We all have the tendency to only click back one or two pages – if that. Knowing that, if you ask a question at the wrong time, or it disappears in a flood, and you need more responses, you best be sending it to your peeps.

I know there are no new changes to the site planned for now, but I would love to see a “Take me to a random question” button (like JohnPowell’s app) and/or a box on the right side with clips from quips that might stimulate new people to join discussions.

@iamthemob is right though. People often send me links to great questions that I missed.

I don’t think we need to address the few answers. I answer one question a little while ago first with the right answer the asker was looking for. It didn’t lead to much of a discussion but got him what he needed. The OP can ask more open ended questions if they want.

@Blueroses – If you use Firefox and GreaseMonkey I wrote a script that makes it a button on the page. Here is the script. It looks like this

@Not_the_CIA That’s perfect. I would use that regularly if it were a site feature, but I use Chrome and keep your app right up top in the bookmark bar for easy random fluthering. :-)

If the OP wants more answers, they can send a query to the staff and ask for help.

Instead of a list of questions with few answers, we need a list of questions which were not answered sufficiently. If a question has one or two answers which answer it perfectly, there is no need to have it listed. However, if there is a question with fifty answers, but if no answer actually answers the question, it should be listed as a question which needs answering. The only way to implement this will be to have mods look at each question and decide whether it has been answered. It is impossible for a computer to decide, because it either has to know the correct answer, or reconize a complete answer when it sees one. If the computer knows the answer, asking Fluther is almost useless (unless you want a human element). You could just ask the computer. That leaves the other option. However, the second option involves an AI system which could make me a millionaire. So, you cannot use computers… Yet.

@PhiNotPi It’s a good idea but rather than put further burden on the (volunteer) moderators, why not an option for the OP, within the “My Account” section, to mark whether or not a question was satisfactorily answered.

If marked “not” it could go into a list choice like the orphans.

edited to suggest that this only apply to questions in the General category

That works for me.
Also following Qs you are interested in, even old ones, with a new insight, revives them a little.

Some Qs, however, have few answers because the first or second answers are definitive, and t5he Q is in the general section, which means no horseplay or frivolity [which I miss].

But hey, @anartist , we can frivol all we want here and in social! This is a good thing.

@Blueroses – Chrome works with GM scripts. No need to install anything other than the script.
http://i.imgur.com/sPTp8.png

@Not_the_CIA That really ROCKS!
You deserve a promotion or a pan of homemade brownies or the award of your choice :-)
Thanks so much!