Are the best fluther questions better now than they were a year or two ago?

No, they are not. There used to be some really interesting questions that sparked very deep discussions.

JMHO….no. The questions were better a year ago…more challenging overall.

I haven’t been here all that long. Only about a year and a half. I would say the overall quality of the questions is about the same really. It could be argued either way.

The advent of the social section could be seen negatively. It has opened up a can of worms by allowing a bunch of what might be termed nonsense questions. I’m not saying the questions we have now are indeed nonsense. I’m simply saying that it could be argued that way.

However, it could also be argued the other way and that things have improved by offering a more democratic forum for debate on many topics that might have been deemed trivial before.

Hahahaha!! ;¬}

I miss the questions that first brought me to the site in ‘09.

Ah, here we go again. Another opportunity for the long-timers to say “Wasn’t it nice when we all had rotary-dial phones?”

What does “better” mean to you? I’ve seen some pretty ridiculous questions from ‘09 thanks to JohnPowell’s random question feature and enough to interest me for a full day here that I don’t even get through ¼ of my “Questions for you” list.

Yeah, there are some days when it seems the entire population is hormonal or took silly-pills, but the “you’re using my site incorrectly” attitude is really irksome especially when it seems to come from a double-standard of “my question is excellent but yours is frivolity”.

Different strokes, people.

does anyone else want to use this soapbox? I’m finished with it.

@Blueroses A good point.

Good point, indeed, @Blueroses , in fact today I’ve been following some pretty intense ones. Probably the difference is that we, as a community, are more diverse now, and more numerous. If you old-timers hadn’t been so busy with your…er…pancakes, you wouldn’t have spawned so many new baby tentacly ones!

The best questions are good all the time. The problem now seems to be that we have “so many” questions, and it’s harder to even find the good ones.

And what @Blueroses said.

what @WasCy said

mmmmmmmm Pancakes & rotary telephones.

@Blueroses Excellent comment, love. Couldn’t agree more, but I won’t add to what you said. I’m in a terrible mood and would only end up getting myself modded.

Definitely what @WasCy said. But it’s all good. We will get better. I think.

Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.

ok, I was making BLT’s for the family when I answered earlier, so I didn’t have much time to give a proper answer (I still agree with @WasCy) ....

There are always great questions. Why else would we all stick around for as long as we do? @hawaii_jake is correct when he says the advent of the social section could be seen negatively. Many users were unhappy when Fluther added sections and allowed more “fluff” questions. Some users decided to not visit as much, some left, but many were also happy with the new change

Yes, there were nonsense questions before, but most of them are still there because the mods at the time didn’t catch it, or for whatever reason were allowed to stay, but believe me, I had many questions modded when I first joined 2½ yrs ago because they were considered poll type questions.

There’s nothing wrong with missing the good old days. That is the time when you fell in love with the site and made strong connections with other users who may not be here any longer. I’m sure many newer users will bring up the good times they had when they first joined, and comment about whatever changes may have occurred during their time here.

The best questions are those you allow yourself to get involved in.

I can’t remember when I joined…last year, or the one before that. Ur.
@hawaii_jake makes a good point, about site functions perhaps adjusting the nature of questions a bit here and there. But I personally don’t think that much has been enough of a significant change to give the site a complete makeover. It’s pretty much the same as I remember it when I first joined. See I dun be thinkin that the intent of the site changes that much, I see big discussions and cool debates all over. I just don’t participate in them much, so maybe I miss out, but they’re there. Stuff gets added, some gets taken out, but the core remains. Whatever that is to anyone.
People come, people go, sometimes a lot of new people register, probbaly cuz of the whole Twitter thing. But think of it, we got a lot of awesome members this way. I don’t see any real decline in quality, not any groundbreaking increase thereof. Fluther is unique enough to be adamant on what it wants to be, so it seems to remain pretty much the same despite some changes that may otherwise invite a facelift.
But I also haven’t been here all that long, so, eh. I also like @Blueroses post. This site is for everyone who decides to join and contribute seriously, or not so much, as long as the boundaries are respected, which are very few. Compared to a lot of other Q&A sites I’ve seen, anyways. It doesn’t belong to a select few who cry about the golden days, or to some random newbies who get all syndicate on how shit should work. At least, that’s what I think, less I’m too naive.
But nah, haven’t seen any real change in quality, intent or reception. Just some technical stuff here and there that’s almost insignificant in the face of what this question asks. But as I say, old timer I ain’t, haven’t seen what this place was years ago.

I love pancakes and rotary phones, but @bob_ is correct: nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.

@Blueroses wrote a brilliant piece – I agree, as did @WasCy and @jonsblond

I agree with @hawaii_jake – the place has evolved and changed due to the Social section. I think @marinelife is thinking about the quality of questions before the Social section. I don’t argue – I just think that it saved Fluther as a whole. Don’t you all remember wis.dm?

Can you imagine this site without a Social section? Why would any youngsters come in (and yes, homework and relationship and computer questions are tiresome, but some of them stay on)?

How could Auggie and a handful of volunteers even mod and run this place?

I have some advice: heed Blueroses words. There were some Babby and Frizzer questions then, there will always be some of them; in “Social” – or not. It doesn’t matter – they are questions being asked by people, by jellies; family.

Finally, to quote from a song by Baz Luhrmann:

Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of
fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the
ugly parts and recycling it for more than
it’s worth.

That was my advice. Probably not worth very much.

Just to clarify my point, the laughter was aimed at the proposterous notion that “everything was better back then.” An all too familiar cry & if I may be so bold, a tedious one.

@Blueroses I had an answer to this question in my mind and then I read your answer and my thought process completely changed. GA

Worth lurve, anyway, @zen, whatever that’s worth.

Cheers.

I want to qualify my earlier answer in that when I first joined many of my questions and answers were modded robustly. Any question that remotely resembled any question ever asked here was denied. Today it seems almost anything goes and the same exact question can be asked over and over and over. Maybe a Gestapo Mod has moved on or Twitter has something to do with the change in standards here. IMHO it is a change for the better as all that modding really rubbed me the wrong way.