AnswerBaggers: Which features do you miss most?

Teleporting…..oh wait

The Buffet; those bacon-wrapped scallops, mmm ;)

Luv it here, luv it there, luv it everywhere!!

@corwinofamber yum. Lets have a fluther dinner!

I liked the comment thing. But mostly I was there for people.

Every time I try to return to AB, I see it’s littered with oodles of questions making fun of the people who left, and it’s totally immature, lame, and mostly all spelled wrong.

There’s a frightening difference in between the levels of intelligence and civility portrayed on AB and Fluther; so I certainly won’t miss that part of AB. I will however, miss those friends from there who remain.

As for the features, well meh. I’ll miss how easily accessible they all were back there than they are currently with that new gettup.

@Symbeline Thanks but I’m not familiar with AnswerBag. Could you elaborate on specifically what changed that you miss? Was it just a design issue?

I think that most ABers miss the posting more than 3 questions per 12 hours. There were some that posted questions one after the other, and most were pointless questions.
 
But me, honestly, I don’t miss that. I don’t think there are any features on there that I miss. Although I kinda liked the point system, though it was frustrating sometimes. Going to my profile page and seeing red just mad me angry sometimes, especially if it was a troll doing is dirty work.
 
All-in-all, I love Fluther. Not too keen on AB anymore, but used to love it.

I’m WAY too new here to know much about this, but from what I’ve seen so far there isn’t an easy way to respond to an answer, but it may be that I just haven’t figured it out yet. I kind of miss the sillyness. The “Outside the Bag” questions, but again, those may be here as well, I just haven’t found them yet. Also, I’m not clear on the points, and the ettiquette involved.

All in all, Fluther is as good as Answerbag was before, and infinetely better than it is now. I am here to stay.

@my_hearts_in_scotland Thanks.

I don’t like having to follow activity in case someone writes something to me. And I’d like the option to deny people as friends, but that’s not a big deal.
And I really liked being able to say +6

@Symbeline I happened to notice a lot of people making fun of those who left as well. Insulting, really. Even more are positive that all of us will return eventually, which simply increases my desire to never return.

Right now, there is nothing that Answerbag has that Fluther can’t deliver for me. I never asked questions on AB anyway, so the fact that this site limits questions does not bother me at all. The only thing AB has is a bunch of extremely stupid people.
As AB is now, I consider Fluther to be superior. Probably the only thing that could convince me to return completely would be if the site would go back to how it was on Thursday.

Did AB have a mobile site? Just curious cause that is something that Fluther has that really impressed me.

I.fluther.com

@missyb: responding to a previous answer is less straight-forward here than many sites, but it’s pretty easy. Just go to the “answer this question” box like you were typing any given answer, and type the @ symbol. You should see a list of all the previous responders. Choose the one you want to respond to, and go to town.

I’ve never been to AB, so I don’t know how that compares, but I think that’s the equivalent of what you were describing.

@colliedog The comments were messages which you wrote under a person’s answer, and each entry was separated, unlike here where it’s more like a forum post scheme. That doesn’t really matter much though.
Over there right now is also all glitchy, I can’t even make out usernames and stuff because the letters and graphics all lapse over one another.

Another thing I’ll miss is random answers, as in non serious shit, and just saying whatever for the hell of it. I don’t think we can really do this here, but that’s also fine. If I wanna be an ass I can go to Yahoo Answers or something, or back on AB if they fix everything up and make it so that reading an answer isn’t a fucking project.

Whatever happens, I’m here to stay though. Yall stuck with me. :)

@Symbeline Thanks for the detailed answer.

@La_chica_gomela Thanks, I think I got it!

@Symbeline You can can say “non serious shit” as long as someone has already provided at least one pertinent answer to a question.

On AB it was quick to write an answer. Here I have to scroll down and by the time I get to the bottom I have forgotten the question. Then I have to scroll back up to reread the question. Bad memory, sorry, hehe :)
I understand why this is done. It makes you read the answers before yours to dissuade you from writing a duplicate answer. Very good idea actually.
Other than that there’s not much I miss from AB.

@Talimze—Haha yeah, just the fact that they think I’ll come back makes me never want to. XD But meh, I didn’t come here to spite AB…but if I can kill two birds with one stone, then w00t. XD

My impression of the threaded answers/comments is that it essentially devolves one question into multiple ongoing conversations. If the goal of a Q&A site is to ask and answer important questions, then my sense is that threading diminishes the utility of that since you have to read through numerous ongoing answers/comments if you truly want an “answer”.

I miss the categories.

@YARNLADY You know there are tags here that I would imagine serve a similar purpose to categories on AnswerBag?

@Talimze My thoughts exactly. except that I wouldn’t return under any circumstances knowing how little they value their users.

@shilolo Threaded answers/comments is how it works on AB?

@Violet: You do have that option (sort of). The “Your fluther” feature isn’t as much like a “friends” feature as it is like a “following” feature. When someone adds you, that means they’re following you, but it doesn’t mean you’re following them. If you want to add them as well, you have to go to their profile page, and click on “Add [insert name] to my fluther”. If you don’t do this, then they’re not in your fluther. So the default is for it to be one-sided. It’s not perfect, but it’s alright.

@missyb: Yay! :)

Answers are fluid, questions need to adapt to the answers; in order to seek that which is/was/will be. ;)

@stranger_in_a_strange_land What makes you say that?

There is nothing left to miss. It’s just stinking roadkill now.

The one thing I found really superior on the OLD Answerbag was the comment threading. That was very useful and substantially better than the system used here. But of course, since that worked so well, AB ‘fixed’ it to be way more cumbersome with the change.

@CorwinofAmber Not sure I agree that answers are fluid. Many questions have definitive answers.

@ETpro – @shilolo was saying that that feature caused a different problem – each question became a fragmented set of discussions.

I love Fluther, but I do miss some things from the OLD Answerbag.
The ability to comment on answers, creating a thread where ideas could be explored further, where any entries became part of the original answer, and not something separate and disjointed. Sometimes they became long and seriously off-topic, but they were always lively and some ideas were being discussed, or even scoffed at, but it was an exchange!!
I miss the easy ability to see, on one page, that I have activity to my Q&A’s, points and any activity pertaining to me specifically. Things moved quickly if you wanted them to. But basically, it was about community. Not being entertained. We entertained ourselves. It was a popular site. It worked.

@La_chica_gomela – that sounds complicated. I only added a couple of people, and my profile says I have a ton of friends
.....EDIT…. I figured it out. Thank you for your help : )

@YARNLADY I do too. They have them here too I know, but they’re a little less accessible and organized. Took me forever to find the insects category, or tag rather.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Indeed.

@shilolo That’s true. I actually think there should be the ability here to designate a single correct answer – the person writing the question should be able to do this.

@Jewel GA. Thanks.

@ shiliolo, my point is that “the world is flat” used to be the cat’s meow; then, so was slavery. Answers do change ( not for everything), but for our context given the perspective of our purview. Relativity has it’s merits; except when applied to sports. The Celtics are vastly superior to the Lakers over time. ;)

@colliedog I don’t like the idea of someone choosing a single correct answer, as for many things it is relative, and for others the user just doesn’t know enough to identify the correct answer (or they wouldn’t be asking the Q in the first place).
@CorwinofAmber Perhaps, but gravity is gravity…

I miss being able to post nude pics of myself!

@colliedog The massive change was dropped on us like a bomb with no consultation. There was no attempt to provide even minimal instructions. The Admin’s attitude toward complaints was “if you don’t like it, then leave”. So I did, never to return.

There is only one thing I miss. Well, actually, it’s a particular person.

Then again, I have his e-mail address so it’s not like I would have to go back to AB just to chat with him.

@Violet: It’s not a mutual thing. There’s your fluther, and then there are other people’s fluthers. These are separate things.

I just looked at my own profile to see the exact wording. It says, “La_chica_gomela’s fluther” and shows the avatars of the people that I have added. Then it says, “La_chica_gomela is in 110 other fluthers”, those are the people who have added me. You’re right that I don’t have any choice about who adds me, and I can’t make any of those 110 users un-add me, (but I wouldn’t want to because every time someone adds you, you get two lurve points whee!). But you do have control over who you add to your own fluther.

So, in some ways you’re right, because you don’t have control over who adds you, but you do have control over who you add. Does it make sense now? I know it’s really complicated, and it took me a long time to get used to the whole “Your Fluther” feature, which honestly I think is kind of worthless the way it is (don’t tell Bendrew).

@La_chica_gomela I actually prefer it that way since many of the people at AB who found me interesting to follow were not people that I found interesting. That left me with either snubbing them or filling my friends list with people I really didn’t want to get every single update on. Fluther’s lack of mandatory reciprocity actually works well for me.

@Violet That disturbed me a bit too at first, because at AB I had a policy of keeping my “friends list” empty to make stalking me more difficult. But the fluther here doesn;t have the same tracking function. I still won’t add unless added first. I won’t presume upon anyone.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land – I think it will be less creepy here since there is no adult section

Maybe the ability to create comment threads.
FYI: The reason why Keithold does not like this website might be that there’s a 3 question limit per 12 hour period.
Keithold as nice as a person as he is, loves to flood the website with tons of questions for the sole purpose of point farming .

@Violet Yes, you don’t have the stalking creeps here, the mods won’t allow it. I initially put some former ABers on my list, but on reconsideration, took off all the ones that had not asked me, since still find it a bit rude to arbitrarily “grab” somebodys avatar like that. A cultural difference that I will eventually have to get used to.

@Pretty_Lilly I think Keithold was good for 3 questions a minute on a good day!

@Pretty_Lilly I hope that the “point grabbers” will go elsewhere. I’m already a bit worried about our impact here. Some of us are moving up so fast that it’s bound to offend the long time jellys.

I miss a one-shot profile page—see everything. Notice of comments to my answers is desperately missed. I have no interest in scrolling through all of the answers to a single question to see if anyone has @‘d me. I have no interest in “following” every question I answered on my profile page. Anyway, glad to be here to keep in touch somewhat but this place doesn’t make me want to spend hours here. I miss the community that AB was.

@thriftymaid: I’ve never even been to AB and I agree!!!
“I have no interest in scrolling through all of the answers to a single question to see if anyone has @‘d me. I have no interest in “following” every question I answered on my profile page.”

@colliedog, first, thanks!
Not a crticism, but one thing I learned from AB was just how many ‘correct’ answers there were for any single question! It is surprising how many things can affect the way an answer is correct. Even when they all disagree with each other. Some ABers hated the debate and some couldn’t accept that the answers that disagreed with their point of view could be considered correct. Most were OK with it. It was lively! And it was real. And we learned. AB also added an ‘unsubscribe’ button to these answers so if it is particularly upsetting, we had the option to shut it off. Nice feature.
I disagree with the ability of the asker to choose a ‘best answer’. Y!A did this. It sort of ends the exchange. There is no reason to add any other ideas or to point out that there are other – or better – answers. And there usually are some.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land – well someone has to make the first move.

@thriftymaid, excellent point. I had forgotten to mention that! That was part of why it kept moving so well. It didn’t bog down with lots of clicking, scrolling and hunting. It was just all there.

None. Because I’m not from there.

i miss the orange and blue

orange you blue?

@Violet I realize that, but it’s one of the characteristics of my autism that carries over into the cyber-world. Extreme reluctance to make the first move, or any move, in any situation even remotely social. I justify it to myself as extreme courtesy, but it’s really just a function of how my brain is hard-wired.

The things I miss from the old AB…I can see the question easily when answering…to remind me what Im actually answering…Love the thread on the comments section…Like the light that tells me if I have any answers or comments. I dont like the fact that it is so public, as some of my questions were of a personal nature and would have prefered just my AB friends to see. The points thing was fun…loved giving heaps of points out!...It just had an overall good feel about it…but some of the questions grossed me out…that was a bit of a turn off. It was great to meet a bunch of genuinley helpful people and I loved the sense of humour that came out…Peace!

At first I missed the old AB, but honestly, I’m really enjoying Fluther a lot more than I ever enjoyed AB now that I’ve gotten over the whole fiasco.

About 99% of flutherites are much more mature than some ABers. Blatant personal attacks and abuse are not tolerated here. Repeat questions are caught and removed. Questions have to be written in a literate manner.

I don’t think I’ll be going back to AB.

The easy to read and understand updates list, with the new responses to your questions and answers and everything.

I miss the ability to post video questions, answers and comments.

I don’t miss it enough to want to go back…even if the feature was still there.

I like it here.

@SABOTEUR I miss the embedded videos too. They were fun, lol, like Icy’s Jukebox or something like that

@my_hearts_in_scotland: I no longer have an excuse to post Rolling Stones and “To Sir With Love” videos. (((sniff)))

You shouldn’t talk bad about fluther on fluther. The hardcore members will go berserker.

I actually miss the whole format. Everything was so easy and convenient. I liked the comment threads and the sense of community. I don’t miss the trolls, people who only asked questions to start arguments and those who thought that their opinion was the only one which mattered.

I really liked being more easily able to “talk” to each person who answers my questions. It was fast and easy to just click on their name and personally thank or comment on their answers all on the same page. All the comments were in one “thread” so you didn’t have to scroll down through everyone’s answers to keep things straight. I also miss all the pictures and videos we posted. Fluther is great and I’m sure I’ll get used to it though.

To get back to one of the points in the question: I don’t see what Keithold could see in the new site that attracts him back. His major role in the former site was point-farming and there are no points to be gained anymore,

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Then maybe you’re wrong. Maybe he genuinely enjoyed asking questions and getting answers and didn’t care much about the points. Otherwise why, indeed, would he go back?

i don’t miss anything about answerbag, this is my new home…

@Symbeline Remember what the subtitle of his nickname was?headed for 100 He just got under the wire before the axe fell; NUNYA is pissed because she was just about to hit it. And I was angry because I was almost to a simple gold badge. I think he’s hoping that AB will put the points system back out of desperation at losing the vast majority of the top members. Pipe dream stuff. As long as there’s enough Level 1 teenyboppers wandering around in there, the advertisers don’t care.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Oh they ain’t bringing back the points, that’s for sure. He’s dreaming if he thinks that. :/
But no I wasn’t being rude or nothing, I just find it hard to believe that Keith is that kinda bagger. Some other people? Very easy to see. But if it’s true about Keith, I’m surprised. :/

@Symbeline He liked it and is a hell of a nice guy, but he’s an addict going through “points withdrawal’ just like I am. So are NUNYA and Finny. I’m trying to kick it, But I still click GQ in every question I answer and GA to anything I respond to. Even though I know that there is a limit to what will be added to anyones total.

@—Oh well, that’s what makes a varied community after all. For example, on AB I just enjoyed giving random and nonsense crap answers just to be difficult; if we all acted the same or were there for the same reasons, we would bore one another.
At least you have the balls to admit you were there for points, unlike pretty much every other point farmer.—

@Symbeline You and Talimze, shit-stirrers extraordinary, But I denied that I was doing it for points at every opportunity while there. Now I’m like at an AA meeting “Hi, I’m SIASL and I’m a point-aholic”. Only about 5–10% of my answers had any thought in them. In an earlier incarnation I would attack religious bigots and gay-bashers with glee; then I got sucked into the points race.

First and foremost – I want to say that I am utterly in love with Fluther, and am thoroughly pleased to be a member here. I love the 3/12 questions rule (though I understand why a fine user like Keithold would find it restricting) and the community feel here is palpable.

The only thing I miss about AB are the comment threads. These gave us the opportunity to ask subquestions and continue a debate with other users without disrupting the Q-n-A. The downside to AB’s comment threads was that they were not searchable, so if one forgot to bookmark a particular debate, it would be nigh on impossible to remember where you said something. That was particularly hard for me when CuriousFrank disappeared, as I remember him telling me which town he lived in, and I wanted to check the newspapers. I literally looked through nearly every one of my and his answers to find the comment thread that bore that particular tangent. (I did eventually find his obituary, by the way.)

the outside the bag catagory and the comments

I did like AB much better until they made the changes. I liked the “outside the bag” questions cuz I like the silly type of questions and I see they dont have that here. You could also comment a person directly on their comments too. If the creators of AB wanna have up this new site, fine. But wouldnt it be great if they bought back the old bag and kept this new one as a second website?

@Seek_Kolinahr

”(I did eventually find his obituary, by the way.)”
.
—whisper—I didn’t know Frank but I’m sad to read that.
Did the obit list his cause of death?
.
I know Cyndi really missed him and I wonder if she knows about his passing. whisper

The comment threads. In the OLD AB. We could carry on a conversation by using one thread for days or months. On AB it shows when and who has commented on that thread. So if someone else joins in, you know about it. I really miss that. I am a BIG CONVERSATIONAL PERSON and when they took that from me is what really upset me. I asked and answered but I like AB for the friendship…...........the conversation. This site does provide that, but it isn’t with the question and so it doesn’t keep the persons comment back to me. I think that both sides get lost and can’t remember what they said in the last comment they left.(on the fluther site) But oh well, I’d take this over AB for now. Because also this site has oooooodles of people that are just do darn friendly! I feel comfortable with the whole set up here on Fluther.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land You mean you sold out? (insert non-derisive laughter here)

I split my time there arguing with neo-cons and Christian zealots, firing off helpful answers (mostly computer or car related) that honestly required little thought on my part, and just stirring the shit-pot for my own amusement.

@NUNYA The PM thing offers that to an extent, but Fluther has that too. Also, I used to have occasional issues with “collisions” when I was on at the same time as the person I was conversing with.
At least Fluther has “Reptar is crafting a response…”. (However, I think that if such a notice stays up for more than, say, 15 minutes it should change too, “Reptar is passed out on the couch”.)

@Seek_Kolinahr, I have been looking for information about Curious Frank since he vanished. I am so sad to know that he is truly not going to show up one day. But I thank you for letting us know.

I miss these that used to be features on the old AB—-

1) Comment threading that allowed users to “ping-pong” comments in a highly interactive manner. And questions, answers, and comments were all recorded according to the date and time.

2) The ability to edit your questions, answers, and comments.

3) The ability to upload photos and videos in your answers and questions.

4) The display of all questions and feedback according to when it was posted, in a linear fashion.

5) The ability to find your friends quickly on the site, and their activity, the ability to see their avatars clearly, and the lettering/font was much bigger and easier to read.

6) The awarding of points, and the levels you achieved from those points (eg., “100 points until level 70 Guru”)

7) The “fun factor”. The new AB isn’t fun anymore. It has moved a step back and is now rather boring, and the uniform, depressing dull blue color doesn’t help either!

@MRSHINYSHOES
Re:#1 and 4 – They are posted here in chronological order, and real-time enough that you can actually see if the other person is typing. It’s almost like IM that way. Seems much better than any of the three versions of AB I’ve seen.
Re:#2 – You can edit your posts here if you do so within ten minutes of posting them, just like you had five minutes to edit comment under the old AB.
Re:#5 – Must be your settings. Regardless of which computer of mine I am on, I see everything just fine, even on my netbook.
Re:#6 – Nobody Lurves you! :D

@stranger_in_a_strange_land – you must be the highest functioning autistic person ever. I almost don’t believe you (but I do, because I like you).

@Violet I doubt it. Don’t get me wrong; stranger is a good guy and all, but I think that Dr Temple Grandin also does well for herself too. I don’t want to detract from stranger mind you, but I have to side with the odds here. Many of us are pretty high functioning.

@jerv – I’m sorry, could you dumb that last comment down for me please?

@Violet Dr Grandin is also autistic, as is John Elder Robison (the guy who designed/built the guitars for KISS), and many other autistic people have done all sorts of great stuff.
Granted, I want to be like Stranger when I grow up (he has a few years on me), but I think that if you look at things objectively, you will have to admit the he isn’t the most high-functioning ever.

Duhhhh… what was the question?

@jerv – I am only familiar with children with severe autism.

I liked the threaded comments, and I liked that AB welcomes a wider type of questions that would get moderated off Fluther. For example social questions, humorous questions etc. But Fluther is still better than what AB has become.

@downtide This isn’t threaded enough for you?

@jerv it’s still harder for me to follow. Maybe I’ll get used to it eventually.

I miss the rapid-fire answers and rejoinders and the lively spontaniety. I’m trying to learn this, though.

@raylrodr Fluther has an Alexa rating as the 21,479th most popular Internet destination by visits. In contrast, AB is rated 1,441th most popular. The traffic level will be coming up here though, and down there IMHO.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land I’m sure most people who were farmers didn’t admit it anyways. As for bashing religious bigots and gay bashers well, it’s a fair cause. Did my fair share of that myself. :)

the direct interaction with friends on threads

@YCLYHO They use the AT symbol here with the user’s name attached, and that automagically forms a link right to the answer you are commenting on. Not bad, but it does make it confusing as to what is answer to the question and what is discussion regarding prior answers.