Would it be practical to implement a system to weed out silly, useless questions on Fluther?

Not sure how long you’ve been around, but you really do just get used to ignoring them. I’ve gotten used to picking out questions I care about enough to answer. There’s always going to be questions in a subject that you don’t care enough/ know enough about to answer. I just treat some of the “silly questions” the same way.

I don’t mean to be confrontational, but what are you tired of? Don’t click on them and move along. Obviously someone took the time to ask it and that’s their right to do so.

I wish questions that didn’t have a definitive answer were deleted.

Why don’t I like pasta?—Gone.. This can not be answered.

I’m allergic to wheat, what pasta can I eat?—Stays.. That can be answered.

i dont like the questions that are easy answerable via google, wiki, or imdb

Who does the voice of (random character)?

I never hit page #2. So, bullshit questions push real questions off the front page and I never see them.

Why do my sisters farts smell better than mine? We have the same parents.

Noted.

In short-no I don’t think that idea is practical-interests, curiousities and knowledge of the users here are broad and diverse, which at its essence, is what makes this site fun and unique, compared to narrowly-defined user groups or custom-tailored discussion forums.

I’ll spare you on the explanation of the underlying concepts of RSS-feed web sites (you can wiki that one yourself), but the format gives you the option to navigate into the ‘article’ for further reading (the discussion thread) if you’re interested in proceeding.

I have to agree with you on the point that questions like you’re describing come up often, and I have pondered the same solution (maybe even suggested it to the Fluther gods myself at some point).

But If it continues to be a problem for you, I say don’t worry about it, just do like you do when you watch the 900-bajillion plus cable tv channels out there-change the channel, or as others have suggested, ignore the topics that are ‘silly/useless’ (as you put it).

Folks use this site for many reasons-learning, entertainment, information sharing, and even bonding and forming social networks-which is why I think Fluther ROCKS so hard…

Just embrace & enjoy the collective and you’ll be a lot happier (works for me at least)...‘nuff said :)

What about a “Weak question” to offset the “Great question” link? Weight it logarithmically so few “weaks” don’t do anything, but many eventually drop the question off.

I agree and have suggested the addition of the “bad answer/bad question” button. Let them ask the silly questions and let the flutherians bash him/her with negatives. Digg has their thing, we can think of something different.

Re: How old are you and similar questions, maybe have a system where new questions are bumped against old questions and the user is asked first if one of the matching, older questions will do. (If “yes”, the user is sent to that question.) Obviously, there’s a bit of a learning curve on the collective customs of the site (such as searching some before asking) and this could teach that habit.

Perhaps, too, we could just have a set of question guidelines for people to read, such as “Is it just as easy to Google your answer?” Again, it’s not forcing a solution, just prompting folks to mentally run their questions through a filter first.

I find some of the silliest questions the most fun to answer.

Silly is such an arbitrary term..so if it does not interest you its silly? I would rather have one for obvious abusive questions or inappropriate content…I can deal with silly

I usually skip the clearly idiotic questions; however, occasionally I get so exasperated w. immature, sexist, irrelevant, and cruel or incomprehensible answers (or queries) that I become the fluther Scold. It helps hone my writing skills, but that is irrelevant.

A recent example

coffee preferences

@kevbo, I, too, am an advocate of the Digg-style “looks like your question may have already been asked” routine. I think I’ve brought it up before in another thread, but I’ll +1 that suggestion!

it would also be nice to see the most poular tags on the front page to see what people are asking about…(yes, this is off topic)

Ahh, this has been killing me for a while: does everyone have 10 toes? ;-)