What do you qualify as a great question?

This I think is a great question.
Popularity, for me, has nothing to do with what I judge as a great question.
When I read the question on the main page I usually already decided that it is one great question and there are no avatars next to the questions (the usernames I hardly ever read, most of the time I am surprised to see that a certain Jelly was the asker) so that doesn’t influence my judgement as to whether I qualify it as a GQ.
Sometimes I GQ somebodies’ question eventhough I have not an answer to give but I am curious to what answer will be given.
Other times I simply forget to GQ a question, and again other times I don’t give one because there are already Jellies that did it before me.

Popularity has nothing to do with it. The first question I ever asked on Fluther 10 days after I joined got 7 GQs. And your question now has one even though you are fairly new.
A good question, I believe, is one that makes you think. It shouldn’t just be a yes or no type of thing. I like writing out long answers. I like reading long answers. I feel that if you have alot of those on your questions, you got people to think about things.
But, that’s just my opinion. I’m sure you will get 10 different opinions from 10 different jellies.

There have been a number of discussions about what ‘is a good question’. I don’t think you can use the ‘good question’ number as a valid guide though. I often think, ‘oh this is an interesting question’ but forget to hit the button to publicly indicate this. I am sure others do the same thing. I forget to click ‘good answer’ too sometimes. I certainly don’t think it has anything to do with popularity really though.

Here is what I give stars out for:

1— I too would like to know the answer to this. Click
2— Wow, I would have never thought about that. Click
3— Hmm, I can’t seam to beat this person on this debate. Click
4— Dude, that like… so deep man. Click
5— Welcome to Fluther. Click

EDIT:

6— Ohh look! this question has a lot of stars, here, have another. Click

Actually, this works out well, as you are describing my question. That one stands at 2 GQ clicks right now.

One I asked two days prior, got 7 GQ clicks. So if you look at those two questions, the one with the higher score is about the civil rights of Ghosts, you can evaluate both to see why one was clicked 3.5 times more than the other, without having to worry about a popularity variable.

I think @poisonedantidote just about summed up how I feel! My order is a little different:

1— I too would like to know the answer to this. Click
2— Wow, I would have never thought about that. Click
3— Dude, that is like… so deep man. Click
4— Welcome to Fluther. Click

A great question is one that makes me stop and think or whose answer I don’t know.

I don’t have a list of qualifications, but, I will say that the addition of a question mark at the end of the query makes a difference.

I rate at great questions every question that I receive at QFY. I don’t discriminate :D even if at some I don’t reply.

If it either made me laugh, think deeply, or it’s about zombies, I give it a GQ.

@KateTheGreat Yeah, that. For popularity, I dun pay no attentions.

A great question is one that does not seek to inflame others, but to genuinely know something. A great question has no agenda apart from to find out the answer. That answer may be specific and correct, as in the general section, or it may take the form of an opinion if that was what was asked for, as frequently done in the social section.

Following that, I click a great question for these:

- a question I do not know the answer to and would like to know
– a question that I feel is particularly brave, that I would never have dared ask, but would love to know the answer to
– a question that makes me think about something I’ve never considered before (eg the ethics of vaporising ghosts)

- a question that makes me think again about something I thought I had already thought about
– a question that prompts discussion that leads to me re-thinking my own opinions
– a user that I wish to encourage (in particular for me, new or young users that ask questions about music, as I am a music teacher so it’s my natural urge to want to encourage this).

Ask something great?

If I enjoy answering a question and it hasn’t been asked too many times already here then I will GA it.

If I am looking for the answers to a certain question but someone asks it before I have chance then I will GA it.

I never GA or GQ just based on the person who posted it.

I don’t know about popularity as a factor @whitetigress as you’ve been here less than two weeks and look at how many GQ’s you’ve got. I just GQ away – especially for n00bies.