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AB-Rich	January 18th, 2012 at 1:03 pm SOPA/PIPA Today, Wikipedia, craigslist and many other sites are protesting proposed legislation that threatens to fundamentally alter the responsibilities of Websites to control the content posted on them. Yes, this would extend to Answerbag as well, and even though we're a relatively small outpost on the Web, a few Answerbaggers have started polls and discussions about the proposed legislation: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2639957 http://www.answerbag.com/polls/answerbag-participate-anti-sopa-stop-online-piracy-act-blackout-january-18th-2012-not_2653012 Feel free to join in the discussion! 5 comments \| Post one Comments All I have to say is that I hope these bills are put down because, while I am quite capable of living like I did before the internet, I would not like it. Now I know how limited and biased the news media available just in this nation really is. I would miss a lot about the internet but being confined to non internet news media scares the crap out of me. I also have no doubt that what news media we could access online would be strictly regulated so it would be no better than non online news media. Report by Arisztid on January 18th, 2012 :) Thank you for addressing this issue! Report by AnonymousGirl on January 18th, 2012 Tol Ari...the heat was too much for the politcos. They all backed down and the bills have been tabled for the forseeable future. These guys had no idea what they were doing. The ones that backed it initially got scared and withdrew support. Nothing is as strong as the people banding together in a common cause and speaking out. Nothing! Happy Saturday! :) Report by RosieGHM Jetpacker on January 21st, 2012 I'm glad this was backed down. Now I can't find the "Contact Us" page so I need to suggest the following: Please add the "Arab Spring" subcategory under http://www.answerbag.com/category/politics-and-modern-events_578 Thank you. Report by Running, Fall Up on February 3rd, 2012 Now the others are starting to agree to a chatroom! See http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/11825053 Report by Running, Fall Up on February 8th, 2012
AB-Rich	January 4th, 2012 at 10:35 pm Facebook login should be working now Thanks to everyone who helped us track down the cause of the recent Facebook login problems, and for your patience over the holidays. It should be fixed now, so try it when you can and post here if you have any problems. And happy 2012! 9 comments \| Post one Comments Cheers Rich, that is good news and I saw a question it it today where someone was saying it was fixed for them so I guess it has worked, at least for some. Well done :) Report by Gingerminx on January 4th, 2012 thank you Rich. Happy 2012 to everyone! :-) Report by iwnit on January 4th, 2012 I tried it today and it worked just fine, even quicker than usual :) Thanks for the fix. I'm sure many will appreciate it. Report by Galeanda on January 5th, 2012 Hi AB-Rich :) I'm glad for others that option works but I plan on never facebooking my way around the internet. The plain old single sign-in option is the one I've used since "AB Day One for Me" and it has always worked 100% of the time for me. Excellent. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," so I add, "Please don't ever take away the option of just simply signing into answerbag, and only, answerbag." But perhaps I'm the only one who just signs in without the excess social sites following me here. :) My best to everyone! Be well, all ~ Report by WelbyQuentin on January 5th, 2012 I agree with Welby. I also have nothing to do with Facebook and use the single sign-in option. Please don't remove that. Report by Stu B in his fleece-lined COAT on January 5th, 2012 Nope Welby, you are not alone. I do the same thing and in fact I don't belong to any of those social networking sites. Report by Gingerminx on January 5th, 2012 Yeah, me too. Never used the fbook sign in but I'm glad to hear it's fixed for those that do. :) Happy 2012! Report by trouble... slouching toward the Apocalyp on January 6th, 2012 Happy New year Rich! Thank you so much for helping me when i was in need. All has been working just well for me lately. A few others have experienced questions being slowly posted. But i am Happy! Thank you again and a have a good one! Report by dorothybulls on January 6th, 2012 I am glad to hear things are working out with Answerbag's Facebook sign in feature, even though I prefer not to use it myself! On an unrelated note, could you please do a blog post about SOPA??? Thanks!! More details here: "What could the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) mean for Answerbag?" http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2639957 "Should Answerbag participate in the anti-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) blackout on January 18th, 2012? Why or why not?" http://www.answerbag.com/polls/answerbag-participate-anti-sopa-stop-online-piracy-act-blackout-january-18th-2012-not_2653012 Report by AnonymousGirl on January 16th, 2012
AB-Rich	November 28th, 2011 at 11:47 am Holiday flags Music, decorations, temperatures and commercial intensity are just some of the things that change during the holiday season, and we here at Answerbag thought it might be a good time to ask whether you think we should alter our spam flag review policy accordingly. Our usual rule of thumb to accept a spam flag is if it promotes a product or includes a link that's repetitive across many answers or comments, isn't responsive to the question, or otherwise is more about promoting commerce than conversation. However, during the holidays we've traditionally seen more Q&A about what is and isn't worth buying. Some folks think that's a valid use for Answerbag, while others might just as reasonably feel inclined to flag such posts as spam. With that said, what do you suggest our threshold for accepting a spam flag should be? Should it change during the holidays? The moderators will be reviewing your responses, and if we can come to some consensus, that will be the basis of our policy. Thanks, and happy holidays to all! 18 comments \| Post one Comments Thanks for the post Rich. I think your spam policy should be the same all year 'round. Spam is spam is spam IMO. I think if people want to advertise their products on AB at any time of year .. they should pay for the "space" like the rest of your advertisers do. That's fair to everyone ... and no one wants to see more "ads" than necessary. Happy Holidays to you! Report by Mrs. Cleaver on November 28th, 2011 Accept them if they're truly spam. Reject them if they're not. Report by AnonymousGirl on November 28th, 2011 Spam policy? I was put in the penalty box for "spam" when I sent a message to AB staff via the contact form with what I thought was a good suggestion for the site. Is that the spam policy you're talking about? Report by East Hill on November 28th, 2011 __________ ... blatant attempts to sell crap with a question ... FLAG and remove. __________ ... valid answers with a sales link included ... allow and ignore flags. __________ Report by Takei-Shihan on November 28th, 2011 If its out and out spam no matter what time of year it is.. then remove it. Report by buxtonite ..slowly losing my mind on November 28th, 2011 It will obviously be a subjective process; you will have to just take each case individually. For the ones specific to what is/isn't worth buying: Eliminate them because everyone knows they can just go to amazon product ratings or similar to find out that stuff. Leave the ones with a little tweak to them, like what tool is best for a specific purpose or something. People may mix real comments with ads and stuff though, making it difficult to draw a hard cutoff line. For that, use Spam Agent, your anti spam filtering solution. Spam Agent comes preset with over 1,500 filters for the most common spam issues. You also have the ability to create your own custom filters - as many as you wish! View the complete feature list at http://www.anti-spam-software.com/ Report by Dylan K. on November 28th, 2011 Spam is spam. It's promoting things without having bought space or time here. I think it would be opening pandora's box to the world of spammers out there and have AB as their dumping ground for links to all sorts of things. I like to think of this place as free from obvious commercial links in answers. Responses about where to buy something from one member to another is one thing, giving out links is spam. Report by Galeanda on November 28th, 2011 In my view, there should be Zero Tolerance of Spam at any time of the year. There are many reasons, but allow me to list a few: Advertising income is the lifeblood of the Site. Free advertising offers no income to the Site, whatsoever, and is, in fact, theft of service. Thieves by nature, spammers lack integrity. They come from all over the world. Their intentions may go even further than marketing a product or products, but may even use their lures to inflict viruses and engage in identity theft. AB should exercise reasonable protective measures against such invasions and ward off those who would violate the Members’ security, comfort and enjoyment level. I’ve seen spammers in direct competition with legitimate advertisers. If I were a paying advertiser, and I noted free spamming competitors, I’d be incensed and would view a site’s staff as possibly incompetent for its inattentive negligence in allowing it. I would think that a positive marketing tool would be found in pointing out to potential advertisers the absence of spam on the Site, an all too common bane on most social dialogue sites. And if I were a potential advertiser, I would certainly examine a site for its spam tolerance, and would not be inclined to advertise where a site was spam infested during multiple holiday times or any time of year. I would want to advertise on a reasonably “clean” site...or as clean as possible. Bottom line, I think that AB’s Moderators do a fine job rapidly responding to Flags. Theirs is a critical function in my view. I wouldn’t interrupt that performance with some new-found level of holiday tolerance. AB is far improved in cleaning out the spam of late...and I don’t mean just in attacking the BOT attacks, which, thank goodness, are considerably under control this year. If anything, reenforce the message to spammers: At Christmastime, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day...whenever...you are not welcomed here! Zero Tolerance. On the other hand, if you would like to advertise here on Answerbag at a reasonable rate, feel free to contact our Marketing Department Report by ChuckExAnon on November 28th, 2011 The more I'm on the internet, the more I don't understand hardly any of it. I'd suggest to do whatever your rules-setup is. I'd rather see spam then some of the words/speeches I see on the site. I'm quite-correctly told by others whom I respect that I need to remember that it's just the internet , that answerbag is just an internet site, that I need not take it so seriously -- so a little spam here and there does not bother me. I can take a little spam easier than some of the words on the site I'd call hateful and vicious. [ And I understand why those words can remain, depending on the rules. And what I think of certain thoughts of others does not make my opinion of those words a flagging requirement. ] Though if someone asks, do you like Pepsi better than Coke, I hardly call that spam. Or which facial cleanser works best for acne? If someone answers, I wouldn't call that spam. Nor "what album would you recommend is the best by Simple Minds?" It almost seems if someone recommends a movie to go see, than that could be spam, too. i don't know. I went off topic anyway. I'll just continue to participate as usual -- and take the lumps if they happen. Report by WelbyQuentin on November 28th, 2011 Rich i think each one has to be investigated individually the same way all year. And i was very impressed when a Horrible answer yesterday was investigated so quickly. Thank you and Enjoy your Holidays! Report by dorothybulls on November 28th, 2011 The current policy is fine the way it is, year round. Essentially, spam is using the site with the intent to promote the sales of a product or service. This is not what Answerbag is all about. In general, if a product, service, or website is posted as part of a legitimate answer/comment to a legitimate question, it's pretty much understood it's not spam. Another problem with slacking off on the rules as a seasonal response is the fact that these questions, and their associated answers, are available all year round...which would give people a "double-standard" impression. "Why was my answer rejected when it's just like the answers posted to (fill in the blank)?" Additionally, it becomes more difficult to properly moderate on several levels. A new standard would be implimented for the holiday season(s), yet a few months later I must remember to screen spam postings to see if they were posted during the "acceptable" time frame. No, thank you. I like the rules on spam just the way they are! :):) Report by The Chief on November 28th, 2011 I don't support a special holiday rule for spam. It is better if the moderators (CL included) manage to see the big picture and look at other postings of the possible spammer and check for multiple spam postings or for multiple accounts. This takes more time, but it could bring more if you reject several spam postings at the same time or even suspend the spammer account. Isolated "commercial" postings could be given the benefice of the doubt, especially if they answer the question. Report by iwnit on November 28th, 2011 Special rules for the holidays? Is that really necessary? No, don't you change a thing. I love you just as you are.:) Report by trouble slouching toward the Apocalypse on November 29th, 2011 Spam is spam..why allow it during the holiday season....which isn´t even a holiday for a lot of groups? Just get rid of it:) Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on November 29th, 2011 Keep the same spam policy. There is a difference when someone asks: "do you know a good webshop for ordering suits," and people answer those questions by providing links, with questions that have nothing to do with products but do get answered with links to such sites. I always thought such a distinction was part of the spam policy anyway. If you suddenly allow for un-asked spam, we will all get crazy by an overflooding with spammers here. Report by BloedEnMelk on November 29th, 2011 advertising a product and talking about a product, a present, a possible present is imo not a spam. imo a spam would be if the person " obviously" wants to sell a product. Report by shunyata on November 29th, 2011 No change. Keep everything the way it is. Report by rose1980 on December 2nd, 2011 Heh, I know consensus when I see it :). Thanks for all your feedback! Report by AB-Rich on December 6th, 2011
AB-Rich	October 28th, 2011 at 12:17 pm Think of two words... ...that you'd use to describe Answerbag. Regardless of how long you've been on the site, the first two words that come to your mind probably aren't "stable" and "mature" :). But those are some of the words the folks at Demand Media used during a recent conference call to describe our little corner of the Web, and they have some possible implications for us. For those who need a brief history lesson, or who've never scrolled down and deciphered the logos at the bottom of every page, Answerbag was acquired in 2006 by Demand Media, a company with a lot of high-traffic Websites in its portfolio. While we've benefited from Demand's resources, we're also one of many, many mouths Demand needs to feed. In that situation, you prioritize, and seeing Answerbag as stable and mature means we need less attention. And I think, on balance, that this is a good thing. There are some possible downsides. We probably won't get development time to build new features or address longstanding but non-critical problems for a while. If there are tech snafus that affect only a few people, or are intermittent, they're unlikely to get investigated. Of course, any large-scale problems will put us at the top of the priority list, and the community leaders, moderators and I will be here to help, and take care of anything within the scope of our skills, admin tools and database access. However, once people are comfortable with the way a site works, changing it can yield understandable resistance, even with the best intentions. You're here to ask, answer and interact, not to continually relearn interfaces and rating systems. Anyone who was around during previous redesigns can attest to the impact each one had on the Answerbag community. Many folks would have traded in the new look and functions for the site they were familiar with, even with its quirks and flaws. So essentially, being stable and mature means we'll have our familiar site for a while. Answerbaggers past and present have built something that can withstand flaws and redesigns, and at its core remain a place people want to be. Thanks doesn't nearly cover it, but...thanks! 22 comments \| Post one Comments You're welcome! :-) Two words to describe Answerbag: Answer... Bag :D Report by AnonymousGirl on October 28th, 2011 random and useful XP Report by elle9o on October 28th, 2011 Enriching Multifaceted Report by RosieGHM Jetpacker on October 28th, 2011 How about a bag full of nuts! Report by aiar on October 28th, 2011 Enlightening... Effervescent... btw...you have answered my minor snafu problem... Report by beanss on October 28th, 2011 Two "F" words: Friendly and Fun. I visited the Demand Media Site the other day and found no mention whatsoever about Answerbag...nowhere, at all. The Page has no Search feature, either. In any case, I was disappointed that we were not even worth of a mention. I recall having heard about Answerbag on FoxNews back in '08, and that's I came to AB. How is the word getting out these days? I mean, how do we go about attracting new members? Anyway, thanks for the Blog entry, Rich. The Members always appreciated hearing from you. Chuck Report by ChuckExAnon on October 28th, 2011 Facebook Twitter. Report by Mister_Bromide on October 28th, 2011 "But those are some of the words the folks at Demand Media used during a recent conference call to describe our little corner of the Web, and they have some possible implications for us. Why does this make me a bit uncomfortable? Report by Arisztid on October 28th, 2011 Ask. Answer. Report by Inducted Kitty on October 28th, 2011 O.K. yeah... Report by trouble slouching toward the Apocalypse on October 30th, 2011 International Variety Report by Mrs. Cleaver on October 30th, 2011 inquisitive informative Report by shunyata on October 30th, 2011 Fun and Addicting! Report by rose1980 on October 31st, 2011 fun, friendly Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on October 31st, 2011 Rich FYI I am no longer getting access to ádd a description´as part of the question...don´t know if this is an AB glitch or not:) gracias Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on November 2nd, 2011 Totally AWESOME Report by zoso1166 on November 2nd, 2011 Dynamic brain-cloud. Report by Little Prince on November 5th, 2011 Fun, mind-boggling. As to mature, I doubt it will be that again since the lowering of the minimum age limit to align with facebook. PS: I have missing comments again. Report by Gingerminx on November 8th, 2011 I may be mature, and I may be stable. Thanks very much. But despite these two qualities, I am still bloody annoyed at the continualy messed up presentation of AB on my screen. No I would have no trouble accepting responsibility for this - I'm an IT idiot. But AB appears in different styles seemingly on it's own whim. One is obviously the correct one. The other is obviously not - there's no link to log out for example. Perhaps the little logo DemandMedia have at the bottom of screens should be rephrased. Driven (badly) by DemandMedia. How(in the name of God) Partner. Just a suggestion. I expect the aggravating issues to continue. Report by MrWitch on November 18th, 2011 Engaging. Broadening. Report by LynfromNM on November 27th, 2011 Sorry to toss a wet blanket on the holiday cheer, but I notice that the missing, late, and disappearing comments bugs are still around... I think they're going into their 3rd year anniversary now. Have the site engineering folk just declared that they're insoluble, and will always remain? Or is there still some thought that someday they'll be addressed? Report by HasntBeen on November 30th, 2011 when I see comments have disappeared. I just add a comment of my own.. usually just a full stop. it brings back the missing comments. Report by Moley the contrary female dragon on January 5th, 2012
AB-Rich	September 24th, 2011 at 11:56 am Ghost authors? How would you feel if you spoke and no sound came out? We're now up to four Answerbaggers who are in a similar situation--their questions aren't appearing on the live feed on the main page, and worse, anyone who answers those questions find their answers similarly absent. If you'd like to help us track this problem down, post a question, then check the live feed on the home page to see if your question gets listed there. If it doesn't, please post here and we'll add your name to the list of ABers whose accounts have entered...The Twilight Zone. The lesson here, as always, is never use the word "temporary" when describing technical difficulties :). Thanks, Rich 68 comments \| Post one Comments OK, maybe I'm missing something here [it happens...:-)], but if, as you state, the Question did not appear on the live feed, i.e., the Happening Now Home Page, how did anyone see the question in the first place to answer it and be similarly absent?!? Report by ChuckExAnon on September 24th, 2011 There are certain categories that will never appear on the home page; anything to do with homosexuality and outside the bag come to mind. I always thought that this was built into the system as censorship. Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on September 24th, 2011 It's not a problem that greatly bothers me, because I rarely see anything more recent than 11th September. :( Report by Prunesquallor on September 24th, 2011 Bornabrit was unable to post a message on here so she told me to do it. This is her message: Dear all.. Many of us , when we ask a question, it does not appear on the homepage, although we can see it and others can answer it on our profile under our questions . Also, when they answer it that doesn't appear on the homepage. It's not happening to everybody, some people's new posts go to the homepage and therefore keep getting answered from there from the refreshed homepage. This puts at a huge disadvantage those whose posts don't go to the homepage. I've personally answered a lot of my friend's questions from their profiles and seen that the answers never appear on the homepage. When I answer straight from the homepage, that's the only time the answers show up. Hope this helps explain.. just do the test that Rich explains and you will know if this is happening to you.. Bornabrit Report by Andy B on September 24th, 2011 I noticed that my answers only appear on the Home page when I answer a question that's currently on the Home page. If I answer an earlier question, it doesn't appear on the Home page. Why do you think that is? Report by Andy B on September 24th, 2011 Questions posted by everyone are still added to the site; they can be accessed through notifications, friends' activity lists, the profile page of the person who posted the question, and via searching. But many people choose which questions to answer, and which conversations to participate in, by looking at the live feed. Thanks all for the info--the more we can deliver to the tech folks, the more likely it is we can get this fixed. Report by AB-Rich on September 24th, 2011 Some of the questions I posted don't appear on the home page, too. Report by waboo on September 24th, 2011 In my experrience, this happens on your third or fourth question in a day. I have always thought that this is how AB makes sure no one member dominates the home page. Hope this helps. Report by HoboJoe on September 24th, 2011 Wasn't she (Bornabrit) wrongfully put in the PB for spam before (and very recently at that)? I wonder if this has something to do with it. You might want to look into whether or not the other ones were recently accused of spamming the site by the AB Staff and put into the box for it as well. As for how I'd feel if I were in that situation, I'd feel awesome. I would love it if my questions didn't show up on the "Happening Now" page at all and I think it would be pretty cool if we could opt out of being listed on the "Leaderboards". Report by AnonymousGirl on September 24th, 2011 Here's one that I asked and got no responses to. Not sure if it's the system or the question itself. lol http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/11261708 Report by LarryH54 on September 24th, 2011 My account has sporadically been "ghosted". Sometimes questions post, and sometimes not. Report by byankno1 on September 24th, 2011 I have become used to it that answers never post, or disappear, and later sometimes re-appear. answers of others sometimes are missing in alert feature.maybe the program selects it all randomly. I just am putting up with it. Report by shunyata on September 24th, 2011 This morning my questions weren't showing up on the home page. Just tried it and it went on. Bornabrit is having many problems. Maybe you could email her and give her some help. Thank you! Report by dorothybulls on September 24th, 2011 http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2577195 This question I answered of Bornabrit's just showed up in the Happening Now page. I hope that's a good sign? Report by AnonymousGirl on September 24th, 2011 Please note: AnonymousGirl last comment. The question she answered was an OLD question of Bornabrits! Report by dorothybulls on September 24th, 2011 One other possible culprit to look into: The recent drop-down ads that appear on some pages and not others. The drop-downs are a new advertising strategy, and I've noticed strange events with the Site since their initiation that were not happening prior to...events that I won't go into here, since they're not serious. I was just wondering if these new drop-downs are interfering with the otherwise "normal" operation of the Site. Just sayin'...another possibility for you to have looked into as related to this specific issue. And thanks, again, for raising the issue with the troops. Staff communication has been so much improved. Bravo! Report by ChuckExAnon on September 25th, 2011 My comments from yesterday are not showing and the Alerts aren't being made current. Report by rose1980 on September 25th, 2011 Update on Bornabrit: Both old and new questions are not posting on homepage today Sunday the same as they were not posting yesterday! Report by dorothybulls on September 25th, 2011 OK, this is what I’ve done and these are the results. Upon Bornabrit’s IM request to me, I performed the following: I answered her most recently posted Question, which I pulled up from her Profile Question Page. My answer did not cause her Question to appear on the Home Page and, for the same reason, my answer did not appear there, either. It does, however, appear in the thread attached to her Question Page line-up. I then posted the following “Test Question” of my own: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2581777 which did NOT appear on the Home Page. [which, not using protection, caused me to hope that Bornabrit had not given me an AB-STD of sorts! :-)] I then answered a few Questions appearing on the Home Page. No problems. They appeared in normal course. I then posted a second “Test Question” of my own, using a different category than that of the first attempt: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2581797 This one DID appear on the Home Page almost instantly. At this writing there have been three (3) responses. Interestingly enough, I rated and commented on all three of answers...but only one (1) of the comments appeared.. The other two (2) show “No comments”. Bornabrit [isn’t she beautiful...those gorgeous eyes?!?] is understandably frustrated...perhaps others, as well. She can read all this stuff, but can’t participate. She’s a real asset to the Site. I hope this gets straightened out and she up ‘n running real soon. OK, Rich, it’s all yours. :-) Report by ChuckExAnon on September 25th, 2011 Thank you all for your love and support...I am sorry BornaBrit for not responding earlier as all of this is confusing to me....and let's face it...pointless. I have enough problems in my life and I don't need any from one of the only places I have had any pleasure. Hey Rich...will you please delete my account? Thanks and goodbye all :( Report by Element-99 on September 25th, 2011 My early questions are disappearing out of my profile one by one. Every time I post a new question, it pushes another old one out of my profile. How can I retrieve my older questions and get them back into my profile? Has anyone else had this problem? Report by Andy B on September 25th, 2011 @Andy B: We only get a single page of traffic for Questions and Answers on a Member's Profile. Once you've reached the maximum on either of those pages --as you have-- the old ones are no longer viewable. A new answer pushed the old, bottom one out. AB may have them stored in their archives, but that's where they're going to remain...at least for now. We once had multiple pages, but no longer. And let's deal with one issue at a time, OK? If you have other issues, use the "Contact Us" feature found in "About Answerbag" at the bottom of every page. Keep in mind, though, these people are extremely busy addressing priority issues. The subject of this particular blog is the most important for now.'' Thanks, I don't mean to offend. Report by ChuckExAnon on September 25th, 2011 OK, ChuckExAnon, I see what you mean. I thought it was a glitch in my profile. Now I know what it really is, I've no need to mention it again. Thanks for telling me. Report by Andy B on September 25th, 2011 Bornabrit would like people to know that she is able to post using different categories as Chuck suggested. She is trying out different ones and said she will give me a list for others to try as well. She also noted that this started after the problems with the facebook like link that was removed and wondered if the two could be connected. Just somethign the techs might like to think about it. She appreciates the effort everyone is putting in to try and fix this very frustrating problem. Report by Gingerminx on September 25th, 2011 My best to all ( Be Well, Element-99, I'll miss you-- ) I don't think I am personally experiencing any of these circumstances of this thread but I don't ask many questions on the site, either. I am seeing various test questions, etc appearing on the site, so I hope that is good. I hope everyone's concerns get resolved successfully -- and thanks Rich for keeping in touch with everyone. Report by WelbyQuentin on September 25th, 2011 @Andy: Yeah, like Chuck said, older questions get removed off your profile after you ask enough. This feature is awesome. Hopefully they never change it to add every asked question since the beginning like it was before. Your old questions (as long as they were not removed from the public's eye) are most likely still around for public viewing. They just can't be accessed from your "Questions" page. @Gingerminx: The same thing occurred to me previously, that perhaps fixing the Facebook "like" button had something to do with this for some reason or other. It does seem odd that it would only affect certain people and not others, though.... @Rich: The last two questions I answered of Bornabrit's (which are very recent) managed to show up on the "Happening Now" page. Seems like progress is being made. :-) Report by . on September 26th, 2011 note that this question has no 'like' button' http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/548094#ans11268082 Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on September 26th, 2011 sorry disregard my last comment...the question was asked by me:) Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on September 26th, 2011 @DA BEN: LMFAO...'cause I've been there 'n done that, myself! :-) Report by ChuckExAnon on September 26th, 2011 Yep, me too. Only it's my answers and comments that don't post. This morning I couldn't like answers or see comments others had made about my answers. Hell, I couldn't even get to this blog! Frustration is putting it mildly! Reminds me of something we used to say in the Army. WTF? Over. Still can't get to the comments.:( Report by trouble slouching toward the Apocalypse on September 27th, 2011 Now login have gone buggy. Again with Facebook butting in to make a 'joint login' (that dont dont remember and is not automatic). Maybe the lesson we should learn her is that adding Facebook to everything is not the best thing after sliced bread. Personally I hate the place. Marketing execs gone wild. Report by JakobA I^_^I on September 27th, 2011 Bornabrit is super and should never be in the P box Report by Patti jo on September 27th, 2011 I asked a question last night on purpose and it showed up on the main page and thats the first in the last 6/7 questions I've asked , so hopefully it's fixed now Report by Patti jo on September 27th, 2011 Bornabrit has been checking out the categories and the following is a list of the ones she is having trouble with: The categories having problems are as follows: 1:Out side the bag,first thing that comes to mind,this ot that,deep thoughts.( subcategories of outside the bag) 2: Relationships and subcategories 3: about answerbag 4: answerbag glitches &..all answerbag categories 5 life and society depending on the subcategory comes and goes 6 enviromental Report by Gingerminx on September 27th, 2011 Bornabrit has asked that I post the following for her: Bornabrit has personally gone through just about all the categories to fine out which ones do and dont go through the live homepage. She did this by either asking or answering questions and then watching the live homepage..the ones stated above are the ones that didnt go through the live homepage. So it would appear that she has put forth a tremendous effort to help narrow down which categories are involved in this problem. Thanks, Bornabrit! :):) Report by The Chief on September 27th, 2011 I echo The Chief's thanks to Bornabrit and all those who have invested time in figuring out clues and workarounds. We have a meeting tomorrow, after which I'll hopefully have some updates. Report by AB-Rich on September 28th, 2011 Please work on the comment box when you can , it takes me forever to leave a thank you comment or even just a comment , it keeps going back to the top of the page and I have to come back down and start over , in order to leave a comment ! Thank you bunches Report by Patti jo on September 29th, 2011 Hi, Patti jo. The problem you are having would only be an Answerbag problem if everyone, or a lot of folks, were experiencing it and it was being caused by AB Site programs or operations. Personally, I'm not having the same problem that you are...and I haven't heard that many others are, either. What I'm trying to say is that the problem may be with your own computer...the sensitivity of your touch pad/mouse, or the security system you are using, or your Internet speed or a host of other things. You may need to make certain you allow everything on the page your are working on to fully load, including the several ads, before you attempt to post your comments...otherwise the page will "shift" to the top while you're in the midst of what your are doing. I know it can be a pain in the a$$, but sometimes you have to be patient. I'm not saying that what I've written here is gospel...but it is what I've personally experienced in the past when I just wanted to get something done...on MY timing. And what I'm saying is that AB staff folks aren't likely able to solve your individual problem. I'm only responding here because I know that they --Staff-- just can't address every individual problem presented to them...and I just can't keep my mouth shut. :-) Stay well, lil Lady. Chuck Report by ChuckExAnon on September 29th, 2011 @ Chuck , Any help is welcomed and I thank you . After almost 6 years of being here I sure understand what the staff go through , thats why I said , when they get a chance ! Thank you so much again Your friend Patti Report by Patti jo on September 29th, 2011 My question also did not appear on the homepage. I guess I am in the "Twilight Zone" as well! Sad, sad. : > ( Report by Self Consuming Cannibal on September 30th, 2011 Update: the short version is that this may be expected behavior. As some of you have theorized, over the years there have been problems with spam users flooding the homepage, and some of the "circuit breaker" code designed to prevent this may be limiting what gets posted on the main page. I say "may," because the people who wrote this code no longer work on Answerbag, and tracking it down and fixing it--while making sure not to break anything else--isn't a quick job if you're not already familiar with the code. I reported this to the Demand folks on Thursday and they acknowledge that this is a serious problem, and are trying to track down developers who may still be at Demand who can hopefully provide some insight on this. When I know more I'll post again. Report by AB-Rich on October 1st, 2011 Rich i am having problems once again! When i push comment it closes and goes back to my question and i have to find the answer once again open comment once more to make the comment.Or my comment is appearing as an answer of mine. Report by dorothybulls on October 1st, 2011 To Patti jo, dorothybulls, Rich, et al.: Regarding problems being brought to your attention regarding the "Comment" feature. I just realized that there was a time back before the changeover that we were unable to flag/report comments. When the Site was changed back in late '09, or shortly thereafter, a new feature was added whereby comments could, in fact, be reported/flagged where Terms of Use (TOU) violations were thought to have occurred. Perhaps that new feature has gone awry and is causing folks to have problems posting their comments lately. Just a thought! Chuck Report by ChuckExAnon on October 1st, 2011 Well the question that i asked never came up on the home page, and never came up on the questions page either. it came up in the category page. i answered my question to see if it would come up on the home page what's happening...after some time later...still nothing. ...this is the first time this has happened for me. Report by Baba on October 5th, 2011 well it finally came to the Questions page after 43 minutes Report by Baba on October 5th, 2011 Still haveng problems when i try to make a coment it closes and goes to the question and i have to try at least three times before i can stop on comment and type. Can you help me please? Report by dorothybulls on October 5th, 2011 I am receiving alerts about comments that aren't there when I look at the site. Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on October 7th, 2011 and now my questions are not posting on the main page again...I'm not complaining...just trying to help you solve the problems Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on October 8th, 2011 does this help with the main page problem of questions not showing? Note the time of the order of appearance on the page, Activity Posted Philip_H9732 answered the question: What is the longest mount of time you have kept an article of clothing? 18 seconds ago XT answered the question: Research has shown that Answer Bag can be linked to _____________. 11 seconds ago Gratefully Me answered the question: Research has shown that Answer Bag can be linked to _____________. 3 seconds ago nest answered the question: Research has shown that Answer Bag can be linked to _____________. 2 seconds ago Scumop answered the question: What if you found out that God and The Lord weren't the same guy, and one answered to the other? 18 seconds ago Read more: Answerbag.com \| Ask Questions, Get Answers, Find Information http://www.answerbag.com/#ixzz1aJoZDRdL Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on October 9th, 2011 Rich please give us an update reguarding the problems that many others who are not leaving messages to make you aware of the problems. Today one more problem has been added. Some of my old questions in Alert that friends have answered go to new main page and disappear. Please let us know what we can do. Thank you! Report by dorothybulls on October 10th, 2011 I'm afraid some of these problems are a mix of new and old. Phantom comment notifications sometimes happen when you receive a comment but the post is flagged and deleted before you view it. When a link redirects to the home page, that's usually a sign that it has been flagged and removed; send a link to the question via the Contact Us page and we'll review it. Report by AB-Rich on October 10th, 2011 Thank you Rich Report by Patti jo on October 10th, 2011 @ ChuckExAnon, you may have something there , I may try to use another browser as well , I'm using Internet Exployer and I bet using Firefox would help . Thanks again , I'll try that @ Dorothybulls , you might also try using Firefox Report by Patti jo on October 10th, 2011 Changing my browser did the trick , now I can leave comments fast and easy ! I went to Firefox Report by Patti jo on October 11th, 2011 I have just posted two questions (about 15 minutes ago) which do not show at the main page.. One was in the category of 'Home and Garden', the other one in 'outside the bag > first thing coming to mind'. One has now shown up at the 'questions' page, but not on the homepage. The other one (asked first) has not shown up on both pages yet. I don't post questions often, but I have noticed earlier that 'outside the bag' questions often do not come to the main page (or it takes a lot of time before they appear). So I;m not sure if it is me, or AB. Sorry if I have said something that has been said before, I haven't read all 52 comments. :) Report by BloedEnMelk on October 12th, 2011 Thank you so much Rich for your suggestions. When i get a chance i will give it a try! And i would like you to know there are some very wonderful answerbaggers on ab who are very supportive. Thank you once again! Report by dorothybulls on October 12th, 2011 Not showing up in the live feed http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2595736 Report by my2cents on October 16th, 2011 my comment on this question disappeared:( http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/11357140 Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on October 17th, 2011 I agree with Dorothybulls. we are not complaining we are trying to help you make this site better. Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on October 17th, 2011 Update: As patty jo suggested i changed my browser over to another and haven't had a real problem since then. However i haven't had much time on ab lately for a true test. I cannot wait until i do have the time! Thank you DA BEN yanggui for your help and support as well! Report by dorothybulls on October 17th, 2011 A question I asked a few minutes ago in Marriage Traditions isn't showing up on the Home Page. I've had comments not show up and a few answers but this is the first question that I've noticed. http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2598260 So, am I a ghost now? Or Lost in Space :) Report by Galeanda on October 20th, 2011 Only a very few of my questions are showing up on the main page...and furthermore, when I answered one of Rosie's questions from 'questions asked by my friends'..it didn't show up on the home page either. Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on October 21st, 2011 Galeanda I'm a ghost with you I think:) Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on October 21st, 2011 I just tried to report a question (/q_view/2597628) as offensive. And found it impossible, because the report div that pops up go UNDER the first answer so the submit button is neither visible nor clickable. The report divs for answers work fine. Current browser is IE. It should be supported ;) Report by JakobA I^_^I on October 21st, 2011 Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on October 21st, 2011 http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2599153 this question runs outside the box the question is in. So much so, that I cannot read what is under the other answerbag material on the screen. This is happening to a lot of questions. Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on October 21st, 2011 Oh No! Rich everything was fine for a week after changing my Browser as Patti jo suggested. And now all comments are disappearing as Galeanda's are. Report by dorothybulls on October 22nd, 2011 I asked about this before but the problem persist. In Sept./Oct. I researched that I have asked apprx. 172 questions, out of these I can only find a total of 10 question left on the home page question archives. I can't find the 2 questions I posted on 10/26/11 on the home page message board. Needless to say it seems strange to me. It seems that questions I post dissapear after apprx. 9 hours and are archived to my page but not on the home page archives. I would greatly appreciate at least an answer even if it is to just disregard/ignore the problem... Beanss! Report by beanss on October 27th, 2011
AB-Rich	September 16th, 2011 at 11:01 am So what had happened... Greetings all, You may remember the mysterious appearance of Facebook likes alongside Answerbag likes in answers last week. Well, we didn't like (pun intended) those any more than you did, so they should be gone for good. In the process of fixing that last weekend, we broke the question categorization tool, but that's now back too. Thanks everyone for your reports, and for your opinions, from polite to passionate ;). Of course, we now have reports that the Questions page isn't updating; the workaround for now is to view the live feed on the home page, though doing so lets you view answers as well as questions. Thanks and happy Answerbagging, Rich 18 comments \| Post one Comments Sorry but you had those reports days ago and more than once. Report by Wellduh on September 16th, 2011 Thanks as always Rich for your responsiveness to the needs and opinions of the community. And for your diplomacy. ;-) Report by gtravels loves her life penguin on September 16th, 2011 Thanks for the update Rich. It's very helpful to know that AB is aware of these things and is working on them. I really appreciate that! Report by Mrs. Cleaver on September 16th, 2011 Thanks again Rich Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on September 16th, 2011 Cheers Rich! I am so glad to hear that that facebook like won't be back, it was a real pain in my sit upon. Report by Gingerminx on September 16th, 2011 Many thanks always, Rich. You didn't have to take the time to explain...but you did! That calls for deserved admiration. From the many...from me...you got it, the admiration, that is, including, as gtravels said, the diplomacy! Don't think it goes unnoticed. Report by ChuckExAnon on September 16th, 2011 Thanks so much, Rich! I'm glad to hear that you guys don't like those Facebook "like" buttons, either! This news made my evening. It's also great to hear, yet again, that you guys are on top of things and are listening. Report by Dot A.G. on September 16th, 2011 Thank you Rich! Report by XT on September 16th, 2011 Everyone thought i was making the problems up for attention! lol Thank you! Report by dorothybulls on September 16th, 2011 Please get rid of all Facebook icons! Do you have a concrete number of how many people use them? Are they just there so you look like you're up-to-date? Report by Mister_Bromide on September 16th, 2011 Thanks so much Rich Report by Patti jo on September 16th, 2011 Why are my early questions disappearing one by one off the list in my profile? I can see that my question about star signs - which I posted only about 2 months ago - is going to be the next one to disappear. I'm still getting occasional answers to that question. I commented on an answer to it yesterday and I am still waiting for more feedback. How can I retrieve my early questions? Report by Andy B on September 19th, 2011 Thanks Rich. Good call. Report by trouble slouching toward the Apocalypse on September 20th, 2011 Rich just to let you know i am showing that i have mail and there is none. Thank you for all your information! Report by dorothybulls on September 20th, 2011 My mute option has disappeared:( Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on September 20th, 2011 The '' Question '' button is still going back to Sept. 11 , 2011 ! Thanks a bunch Report by Patti jo on September 21st, 2011 What's the update on getting the current questions to show consistently? Report by Wellduh on September 23rd, 2011 we had a great converstion. why was this question answer line removed/disappeared. please reinstate Report by shunyata on September 24th, 2011
AB-Rich	September 11th, 2011 at 3:35 pm Temporary technical difficulties Hi all, We're aware Answerbag is sporadically available today, sometimes disconnecting and not allowing new questions to be categorized appropriately. Please bear with us, and if you notice any other odd behavior (apart from the usual oddness ;)) please post them here. Thanks, Rich 34 comments \| Post one Comments Have you any idea what's causing it? Report by Andy B on September 11th, 2011 Before seeing your new Blog, I had just sent a "Contact Us" regarding the problems I encountered, i.e., I am unable to pull up my Profile Page or my Alerts. When the attempt is made, I'm brought back to the Home Page. Good luck in the repair. Maybe it's the "terrorists"... :-} Report by ChuckExAnon on September 11th, 2011 I cannot choose a category for any questions ? Has this been addressed yet? Report by ARTICFOX700 on September 11th, 2011 Be patient, everyone. They're aware of the problem(s). They're trying to address it/them. Don't ask, or expect, explanations. Just let them do their work...Please. And thanks, Rich, for communicating with us troops. That's always appreciated...by most of us. Report by ChuckExAnon on September 11th, 2011 When I click "Profile" on the top, it's redirect to home page. Do you know what the problem is? Report by XT on September 11th, 2011 it also seems comment and messages, and questions are missing besides my points going backward. oh well the advertisements seem to be intact. Report by shunyata on September 11th, 2011 thanks for letting us know, Rich Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on September 11th, 2011 Oh, so that explains everything. Thanks for letting us know. I know I don't hold it against you guys, just so long as that Facebook "Like" button under answers stays away. Answerbag usually works like a peach (at least for me). It's great to know you guys are on top of things. ^_^ Report by AnonymousGirl on September 11th, 2011 My Profile and Alert pages can be accessed again. Thank you. Response time was commendable. Again, thanks for communicating with us about the problem(s). Report by ChuckExAnon on September 11th, 2011 Thank you Rich. Report by XT on September 11th, 2011 Thanks all for your patience and understanding, when I have more details about why this is happening/has happened I'll post an update. Report by AB-Rich on September 11th, 2011 Thank you for letting us know Rich. I agree with AG about that facebook like link that was at the bottom of the answers. So long as it stays gone I am happy. Report by Gingerminx on September 11th, 2011 When flagging something in the wrong category, the only choice for a correct category is "Adult". Report by Mrs. Cleaver on September 12th, 2011 thanks for letting us know Report by shunyata on September 12th, 2011 Note Inwits answer in the following question....the links continue right across the whole screen...(do not stay in the answer area). This has been happening for some time but seems to be more prevalent now:) http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2573537#ans11215777 Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on September 12th, 2011 Categorising problem is even worse today than it was yesterday. How long before I can post new questions? Report by Andy B on September 12th, 2011 I can only occasionally see a current question. Most of what I get now are 20-24 hrs old. Is this a problem with me or is it one that you are aware of and are working on? Report by Wellduh on September 12th, 2011 (apart from the usual oddness ;)) I love that!:D Report by trouble slouching toward the Apocalypse on September 12th, 2011 I've just noticed other people are posting new questions, but it's still stubbornly refusing to display the appropriate category for my next question. How can I post a new question about snow? Report by Andy B on September 12th, 2011 The categorization problem is on the fix list for tomorrow--hopefully it isn't too complex. The Facebook Like vs. Answerbag Like situation might be tangled up in this too--more info as I get it from the tech folks.... Report by AB-Rich on September 12th, 2011 How did it get like this? Also, how come other people have managed to post new questions but I can't? I bet we'll see snow on the ground by the time I've posted my snow question. Report by Andy B on September 12th, 2011 @ Andy B Different browsers behave differently in many 'edge' situations. As an example IE will but borders on the outside of a sized area (increasing its effective size); Mozilla puts them on the inside (decreasing its effective area). Report by JakobA I^_^I on September 12th, 2011 LOL I thought it was my Wifi connection acting up again. Report by LarryH54 on September 12th, 2011 It isn't sporadic at all. It has been this way for about 48 hours now. Why is it so hard to fix? I am still seeing the same questions from 2 days ago and can't get any current ones. Report by virginiabay on September 13th, 2011 How do I categorise a Music question? It is not offering me that option. How long before I can post a new question about music? Report by Andy B on September 13th, 2011 Sorry to report no new information about the problem. However, you can categorize questions by entering a term in the category search box (e.g. snow) on the Ask a Question page, and access all categories containing that term. Report by AB-Rich on September 13th, 2011 Some members profile names are not showing up on the questions or answers ! Thanks a bunch Patti jo Report by Patti jo on September 14th, 2011 Category browse is now fixed! Thanks everyone for your input. Otherl tech problems that aren't widespread we collect through the Contact Us link here: http://www.answerbag.com/contact-us/ Report by AB-Rich on September 15th, 2011 What about the fact that we are mostly only getting questions from 9-11? Is that problem being addressed? Report by Wellduh on September 15th, 2011 Sure Rich! Report by aiar on September 15th, 2011 Will the question page be fixed? It seems to be stuck. Report by Gingerminx on September 15th, 2011 I don't think the profile name thing is true. I changed my screen name to " . " on purpose and therefore it looked like my profile name wasn't showing up to Patti jo. However, I purposely made my screen name like that. I believe that's what Patti jo is referring to because she thought it was an error and even told me so. It was just a misunderstanding, though. Not a glitch. Report by Dot A.G. on September 16th, 2011 New messages instead of showing as the topmost message on the page is showing as the last though the correct time and date is being reflected. Report by ENigma on September 19th, 2011 Seems it's still broken. The latest question at the top of the questions page was asked on 11 Sept. Report by RC loves ice cream on September 24th, 2011
AB-Rich	August 3rd, 2011 at 1:40 pm Related questions module When you're viewing a question, you may have noticed a "Related Questions" module on the lower right of the page. It's designed to offer suggestions for similar questions that may not be in the same category as the one you're currently viewing, and that you might not find otherwise. Some of you pointed out that this module would occasionally suggest questions that were...suggestive, like links to adult questions from non-adult pages. As of last week that should be fixed, but if you see any other questionable suggestions, or want to comment on the usefulness of the module more generally, please let us know either here or via Contact Us. Thanks! 9 comments \| Post one Comments I think it can be pretty useful. Perhaps showing questions from different users whenever possible would be nice. Thanks for the heads up, Rich! Report by AnonymousGirl on August 3rd, 2011 Thanks for the info Rich ! Why are pictures not posting , I love to add a picture to my answers ? Please Rich Report by Patti jo on August 4th, 2011 Thanks Rich! You are ALWAYS coming to our rescue. Ask Lex (who I TOTALLY trust now) to add me and message me when he has time. . Freedom00 Report by Freedom00 on August 4th, 2011 Hi Rich, the only thing I noticed it, that sometimes Questions posted are united with "similar" Questions posted before. I also noticed that sometimes such union is "incorrect" because the Question posted was maybe related but different in character. Report by shunyata on August 7th, 2011 PS: I also find "uniting" a NEW question with a question that was asked 5 years ago, because it is vaguely related, sort of weird or discouraging. Report by shunyata on August 7th, 2011 I AM VERY VERY ANGRY What happened to my answer to http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2329862 And WHO took the decision to remove it ? It seem to me that any non-incoherent criticism of Christianity is increasingly being used as a 'valid' reason to censor the site and remove comments, answers and even whole questions. If I thought this was a deliberate policy decision from AB management I would be even more angry. regards JakobA Report by JakobA I^_^I on August 25th, 2011 PS: the 'contact us' link have been removed from the bottom of every page. The closest I could find were a 'contact form' on the 'About Answerbag' page. Report by JakobA I^_^I on August 25th, 2011 I'm not sure that I understand why this is happening or even if it should be...but on the home page there are questions appearing that will send you into AB4Adults. This one for example: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2567883 Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on September 2nd, 2011 Are we supposed to have facebook crap at the bottom left of each answer now (to be the first of my friends to like this)? I really hope not. Not only is the addition irritating but it might be adding to my lag since each of those links have to be loaded. Report by Arisztid on September 7th, 2011
AB-Rich	July 11th, 2011 at 12:08 pm Messages for the mods? We're happy to welcome back AB-Eric to our small stable of moderators! These are the folks who review and investigate your reports of inappropriate content on Answerbag, and work mostly behind the scenes, unlike our stalwart community leaders. When you submit reports through the Contact Us link, I compile and communicate them to the mods as necessary, but I think it's important to give you folks the chance to ask questions or voice concerns directly to the moderators, so I invite you to do so as a reply to this post. I'd ask only that you keep your comments general, to avoid this becoming a list of specific grievances. Remember, moderators can't fix bugs or add features, and to anticipate the most common moderation complaint (Why was X removed but not Y?): --Probably no one reported Y --Maybe Y is in an appropriate category for the content, X wasn't --X may have been posted by an account that was later nuked, removing all its content, even if some was valid --X may have become a venue for personal attacks or spam, and removed on that basis --We may have simply made a mistake. Submit a request via Contact Us, and I'll review it. I restore content that people claim was wrongly-removed, though I'm not able to confirm every action with an individual reply. So if you'd like to suggest ways for us to make better decisions about which content to remove and which to keep, here's your chance.... 19 comments \| Post one Comments I might suggest that moderators do more of a job of "policing" flags rather than simply just removing content that is flagged and then asking users to flag less if problems arise or flags are challenged. Most users are only flagging what they feel is unacceptable .. but they aren't always as well-versed on what is and isn't acceptable as mods are. Report by Mrs. Cleaver on July 11th, 2011 Yes, I agree. Sometimes the most innocuous questions are removed, and I know that many users are so tired of contacting moderators to get the decision changed that they are no longer bothering. Surely it's not difficult for a moderator to decide what is and what is not acceptable. In cases where there is a real difficulty in deciding, perhaps they could forward the postings to a higher authority. I also agree that the users have a responsibility to flag wisely, and not because they don't like a particular person or subject. The moderators could help in reinforcing that lesson. Report by Prunesquallor on July 11th, 2011 Don't Penalty Box people who don't deserve it. It has to be said. Report by Isaac on July 11th, 2011 Where do I begin. I spend a lot of time on ABAdult and I moderate as much as I possibly can. But not matter How much time I spend moderating, it is like the wild west out there. The Adult section has basically turned into the new craigslist. Several times a day there are people posting questions such as: -"who ants to naked skype?" -"Who wants to trade nude pics?" -"I'm looking to hook up with a slutty chick in Cleavland tonight. Who's game?" Also, many of these posters claim to be underage. I just saw a 12 year old asking for someone to meet him for sex! Now there are big problems with this. I can flag these questions, but even if I do, they are ALWAYS listed on that persons page. So if they post an email or msn chat name, it doesn't matter if they are flagged. Their message is still getting out. Also, the vast majority of people abusing AB in this way are first time users. They ask one inappropriate question and never come back. This can be easily fixed by making it so only contributors can post questions. For example: -users must have at least 5pts to post a question -users may answer questions immediately but must wait at least 5 days to post a question -users must answer 5 questions before they can ask questions. These are very simple requirements that would help to ensure that AB does not get a sleazy reputation as an online hookup site. If you are afraid of the site being less accessible then just do it to the Adult section. It is not really advertised would not be as noticed. Besides that is where all these problem users are trolling anyway. Another problem I see is duplicate questions. Now I realize that I can flag them myself, but I don't always know if something is duplicated or not. However when you go to flag a duplicate it will conveniently bring up a list of questions close to the one you selected. Sometimes with exact duplicates listed. My problem is, if the system knows that there are exact duplicates of questions, why is it allowing them to be posted. That seems like something the mods could be deleting behind the scenes. Oh well I guess that is enough for now, but I will post more when I think of them. Report by buster on July 11th, 2011 The best thing for mods to do on this site, I think, is simply to be more careful. I realize that there is a lot for them to go through, but they really shouldn't just be removing things that are flagged without any real investigation, no matter how tedious it is. And that is what is happening. I've had many answers deleted for no discernible reason, and I've been wrongfully banned on more than one occasion. I can appeal the bans and they get sorted out quickly, but I often don't notice that my answers are gone until months later, and by then there isn't much point. One way that can be improved is if we could get some kind of notification when our content is removed. I don't even get an email notification when I get banned anymore, I just have to find it out by trying to post a five paragraph answer. So, maybe if we could get some notice when our posts are removed, we could keep better track of it and hopefully that would instill some caution in the mods who otherwise remove content with impunity. Report by Talimze on July 11th, 2011 Hello everyone, Thanks for your suggestions on how to improve the moderation process. We'll keep trying to get better. AB-Eric Moderator Report by AB-Eric on July 11th, 2011 I would like to second Talimze's comment on notifications. There are several areas that I would really like to have notifications for -if a person is placed in the penalty box, they should at least be to for what purpose, it would be nice to be able to make an appeal, but at the very least you should know why you are there. -I would like a notification if any content I have added has been removed. I work hard on everything I put up here. I should know when it is taken down. -as an aside I would like a notification if my answer is chosen as a 'best answer' I know that technically we are supposed to receive an email, but that rarely happens. I don't see why we can't receive them along with alerts on other likes and comments. -also when I post in the forum it would be nice to receive notifications like any other question (sorry for the asides.) Report by buster on July 11th, 2011 Welcome to AB - AB-Eric glad your here Report by Patti jo on July 11th, 2011 @buster: I understand your concerns as you expressed in you first suggestions above. Regarding your one suggestion restricting brand new Members posting a Question, however, if that had been the case back when I joined the Site in 2008, I likely wouldn't have joined at all. You see, I had heard about AB on FoxNews, and I had a question in my mind that I was interested in for answers. I thought I'd give AB a shot. Then, when I asked the question --my first action on the Site-- and received answers, I decided to explore the Site further...and, BOOM, I was hooked. :-) What I'm trying to say, aside from the scoundrels that are lurking out there, there are likely far more who come to AB for an answer to a particular question and then decide to hang in here. I don't think the good folks, potential members, should be discouraged from posting their question by virtue of a hard-nosed restriction. The Site needs a flow of good members in order to grow. We just need to look for, spot report and hopefully zap the scoundrels when they show up. I do, however, respect what you're suggesting in an effort to protect our Site, particularly from the predators. Report by ChuckExAnon on July 12th, 2011 Hi there Eric! Welcome back! Mahalo for returning. We missed ya! Happy Tuesday to you! :) Report by RosieGHM Jetpacker on July 12th, 2011 I agree with Chuck. If Answerbag didn't let me post a question right away, I'd be turned off from this site (probably forever). Anyway, this is great news. Welcome back, Eric! Report by AnonymousGirl on July 12th, 2011 I do hear what you are saying. I know it is not a perfect solution, but maybe it can be at least a jumping off point. As I had mentioned earlier, maybe this could by implemented only on AB4Adults. Many sites have stronger security on adult sections, and hopefully the only people it would drive away are those looking to abuse the system. Report by buster on July 13th, 2011 @ Moderators: The only recommendation I have is to carefully review all flaged material. Inappropriately rejected material is frustrating. That said, I realize the sheer amount of flagged material to be reviewed must be phenominal and you have my respect for the amount of work that alone must take. @ AB Members: As a reminder, please don't forget that the Community Leaders are also here to help. We are not Moderators, which means (among other things) that we are not in the "flow path" for reviewing flagged material, nor do we get any messages from the "Contact us" link. But, unlike the Moderators, CL's are easier to access on a one-to-one basis via Personal Message to us. Do not forget that we are part of the resources available to you. @ Eric: Welcome back! Report by The Chief on July 14th, 2011 Welcome back Eric. I've been a very good boy since you've been gone.:) Report by trouble ... on July 15th, 2011 Welcome Home, Eric! Can you help me with a teensy problem? I am logged in and can view the home page and my profile and open and view questions, but no answers display. When i answer a question it vanishes. When I click on my question to comment on answers, I get a blank white page. No answers display. Has something happened? Thanks for any guidance you may have. Report by Chicago Lady on July 20th, 2011 Report by Chicago Lady on July 20th, 2011 Thanks all for the comments, and once again The Chief provides a much better summary and explanation of what we do than I did! Chicago Lady, sorry to hear you're having problems with the site. Our role as moderators and community leaders is to collect reports and evidence of site glitches and forward them to the tech folks. One of the first things they ask is how many users are affected, and when it's just one person, their usual response it that it's probably something wrong on your end, like a browser setting. If this persists, feel free to email admin@answerbag.com with more details and we'll do what we can to help diagnose it. Report by AB-Rich on July 22nd, 2011 Thanks so much, Rich! I am not the only one as I found other questions about it. However, it has resolved itself!! Hurray!!!! We appreciate all you do!!! :-) Report by Chicago Lady on July 24th, 2011 Notifications on content removal is a super idea. We had it 2 years ago, but then it stopped. Maybe it can be reinstated by just reconnecting that software. Report by JakobA I^_^I on August 26th, 2011
AB-Rich	June 8th, 2011 at 10:33 am Points dance We've had some reports that people's point totals are dancing up and down (usually down) unpredictably. We've seen this behavior before and are investigating. In the meantime, if this has happened to you, could you post a comment to this blog with as much information as you have? Thanks and stay tuned... 78 comments \| Post one Comments Thanks for opening up this blog! My points were about 1000 less than yesterday and the lot in the leaderboard accordingly. Report by Whitehair on June 8th, 2011 My points have dropped since last night. I don't know exactly how much, but around 400-500. Report by Booknight on June 8th, 2011 My points dropped 5,400 since yesterday. I always see my points go up early a.m. .. when Leaderboard is updated. Today for the first time, I saw them plunge at that same time. I always see slight fluctuations (50 or so) during the day, but never this much. Report by Mrs. Cleaver on June 8th, 2011 Sure. On Tuesday when I signed off at noon my point total was 120,085 (with a visit for awhile into 120,180 land. It has done this daily since forever and I can't figure it out why but who cares?). This morning, Wednesday, my points were at 117,293. I figured there was some sort of massive points adjustment and didn't think it necessary to even ask a question about it. Others have however so here we all are! Report by RosieGHM Jetpacker on June 8th, 2011 I neglected to add that my profile is all I ever look at which is how I know the points i have on a daily basis. I know there are leaderboards but since I don't look at them I haven't a clue what they were and I don't have a clue what are. I assume they bounced around as well. Report by RosieGHM Jetpacker on June 8th, 2011 i've lost about 5000 / to 6000 since yesterday. i had 32,000 ish now i have 26,000 something Report by The Anonymous Witch on June 8th, 2011 have lost two thousand Report by Baba on June 8th, 2011 I nearly hit 10,00 then dropped back down to 8,000 - darn! Report by Scotslass on June 8th, 2011 I was on 4200 and now on 3700 Report by Little Miss Sunshine on June 8th, 2011 I don't look at my points that often, but I have noticed this already quite some time ago that it can bounce up and down with a few hundred points in a short time.... Report by BloedEnMelk on June 8th, 2011 I think I lost about 5000 points Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on June 8th, 2011 I'm down about 4500 points. Report by gtravels loves her life penguin on June 8th, 2011 Was around 2,200, now around 1,750. Report by drequeen on June 8th, 2011 well I guess the wrath of whatever hit me the worst. darn I lost more than 15.000+ points overnight. Rich, the website cannot exist without members posting questions and answers. I actually made it my duty to answer MANY questions no one seems to want to answer, as a service to AB. I find it like a kick in the teeth having overnight taken more than 15.000+ points from my account. every time I look at your pic I am thinking, ' this guy is holding a german beer mug". is that so? I have a small collection of such mugs. their original purpose was to keep the beer cold. cheers chris I like AB, but I think members deserve some respect. I have written about the problem to " contact us" half a dozen time over the last 3 months. No one ever bothers to answer. My points are at a certain level in the morning than 100-200 less at night, every night. this however tops it all 15.000+points less, is not really encouraging me to make the ( profitable to AB staff) efforts to answer questions. Report by shunyata on June 8th, 2011 PS: I ask respectfully to repair the a) glitch and add the b) missing points of more than 15.000 points. I am looking at the leaderboard. it seems " only a few are being punished here". and it seems I have the greatest losses. to get 15.000 points takes a LONG time. so please correct the matter. Report by shunyata on June 8th, 2011 My points are 4,154 now. I have no idea what they were yesterday. Report by JakobA I^_^I on June 8th, 2011 Was at Sage and over 1100 points this morning now down to 986 and Brain Report by Echo141 on June 8th, 2011 I seem to have lost 2,000. I was at something like 17,490. Report by Prunesquallor on June 8th, 2011 Thanks everyone, and please continue to post. We have a conference call scheduled for tomorrow and I'll post any updates. Report by AB-Rich on June 8th, 2011 I'm down aroundI 1825 points. I was less than 200 points from 8,000. Report by J and B on June 8th, 2011 I seem to have lost around a thousand or so points. Report by Gingerminx on June 8th, 2011 I rarely check mine but I know the last time I did I was only about 2000 from the next rank. Now I'm almost 6000 points away. I don't know when the 4000 points disappeared. Report by Wellduh on June 8th, 2011 I remember having over 71,000 (maybe even over 72,000) something points and I now only have 68,000 something points according to my profile stats. It's not that big of a deal. It just struck me as odd. It's great to hear that you're looking into this, though! It shows you guys are paying attention, regardless of the people who make claims that you aren't. :-) Report by AnonymousGirl on June 8th, 2011 I was a Guru a couple of days ago.Since this question came up I'm now a Maestro again. What happened?. Report by level headed on June 8th, 2011 Yesterday I had more than 900 points (I can't precise it), today I got only 838. Report by Diogo on June 8th, 2011 Mine has dropped 50 - 100 points. However, shunyata reports a drop of around 15,000 points. http://www.answerbag.com/profile/1212798/ Here is a question with some posts on this, most with numbers associated with them: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2513765#ans10819061 Report by The Chief on June 8th, 2011 i dnt really keep track of my points so i wouldnt know :s lol Report by ian on June 8th, 2011 seems no one is down 15.000+ points like me. I mean really AB CORRECT THIS PLEASE Report by shunyata on June 8th, 2011 Hi, I was at over 20,000 points (cuz I became a Swami!), but now my points are lower now and I've been demoted to Guru! ;-) Report by Shemarq the Wamama on June 8th, 2011 Another disappearing question: Atheists, can you refute these arguments? by Jacobb 6 hours ago \| 11 answers Read more: Atheists, can you refute these arguments - search results \| Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/search/?q=Atheists%2C+can+you+refute+these+arguments#ixzz1OkFwE3u9 the url of the question is http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2514070 but that only takes us to the 'social sciences' category. Rather annoying as I had just spent almost 2 hours formulating and posting an answer. Could these disappearing questions have something to do with people loosing points ? (because the likes questions and answers get disappear with the question) Report by JakobA I^_^I on June 8th, 2011 Mine dropped from 9903 to 9755 in one day. Report by Stu B needs no COAT for summer on June 8th, 2011 Mine won't pick up - and I've never made the leaderboard, despite the fact that I rarely answer less than 20 questions a DAY. Report by Slartibartfast on June 8th, 2011 Yes,and my points have dropped by over 2000.That's all I have.Thanks for looking into it guys. Report by Charlie is a girl on June 8th, 2011 @JakobA, It had been rejected by someone. I do not see why as I do not think it violates the terms of service and it is a legitimate question. So, I can't say how long it will stay but I reinstated it. Report by Gingerminx on June 8th, 2011 yesterday it was about 2600... now it's 2400+ :( Please fix this. I♥AB! Report by Mr. Bean -ciccierrr05- on June 8th, 2011 I've lost 600 or so points... are people un liking my answers? Report by TallJasperMan on June 8th, 2011 For those reading through this whole string... You do not lose points to your total if people unlike any of their previous likes. Only the number of points shown on your questions or answers is affected when this happens. Report by The Chief on June 9th, 2011 Yeterday I had over 4450 points and answered more questions. today I open up and I now have 3600. Where are my 800+ points? Report by pintapride on June 9th, 2011 My points dropped 8,000 yesterday. From number 60 (29,357 points) down to number 99 (21,357 points) on the leaderboard. Report by waboo on June 9th, 2011 shunyata .. i tried to help you out because i was concened about you losing so many points . a google cashad page of the leader board from april 1st (6 days ago) shows you had 44,268 points .... you now have 31,735 you said you lost 15,000+ would have put you at 46,735 points yesterday . are you saying you actually made more than 2,467 points in 6 days ? wow .. i'm impressed . i truly hope you get your Correct amount of points back . ....good luck . ... ;-) Report by The Anonymous Witch on June 9th, 2011 sorry .. * june 1st* (6 days ago ) Report by The Anonymous Witch on June 9th, 2011 Ah, back up again - thank you. :) Report by Prunesquallor on June 9th, 2011 Looks like things are back to normal for me! Thanks, guys! :-) Report by AnonymousGirl on June 9th, 2011 not sure how 65 liked questions and 341 liked answers in the past 7 days relates to over 2,465 points in 6 days .. but it looks like shunyata got his 15000 too. i'm so happy for him .... ;-) mine are up too . not where i thought they were but they are up . Report by The Anonymous Witch on June 9th, 2011 It would appear that missing points have been returned for the moment, BUT there is still an annoying discrepancy between the numbers on the Leader Board versus the numbers on our profile pages. Which one is right ?? While the "point dance" is on the front burner, why not fix this discrepancy at the same time ?? Report by Ice man on June 9th, 2011 Mine seem to be back to normal now....thanks Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on June 9th, 2011 Thanks for the overnight work - whoever did it - mine look about right now. Report by Whitehair on June 9th, 2011 I'm back too. Mahalo to all! :) Report by RosieGHM Jetpacker on June 9th, 2011 I'm still trying to verify my previous point total. I'll post when I can prove my loss, but not before. Report by ConservativelyLiberal on June 9th, 2011 I seem to be back to normal, cheers! Report by Gingerminx on June 9th, 2011 Sorry to trouble you with this, I have not been on the site for the past month or so and I have just logged in to find I have lost 1,000 points and dropped 100 places on the leaderboard. As I am a supporter of the points system and have received them hopefully for good answers/questions, there must be a catastrophic fault, unless there is something else going on; hacking? Having logged on today, there does seem to be a technical glich, as they returned to normal!!!! Report by kaetalist on June 9th, 2011 Thanks everyone for your reports and support. While there weren't any firm answers as of the conference call I referred to earlier in this thread, since it apparently fixed itself, this has all the symptoms of a database synchronization issue. I'll post more info as I get it, and hopefully my next blog won't have to resort to site glitch reports to draw this volume of comments ;). Report by AB-Rich on June 10th, 2011 Interesting. I actually find this blog post quite accurately titled. They seem to go back and forth. They drop, but eventually do seem to fix themselves on their own. There seems to be a delay. Figuring out what that delay is might help you figure out the answers you need. I wonder if it's similar to the questions, answers and comments that don't show up right away, but are still there. Maybe we haven't lost any points at all. Maybe they just don't show up as soon as we want them to or consistently. The same can be said for alerts. There seems to be delays in those as well at times. Report by AnonymousGirl on June 12th, 2011 not so anonymous Girl. it seems no matter what is " fixed" points either don't move, upward, or they move upward in the morning, and by night they are where they were before. I just for curiosity watched the last W E E K. MY POINTS ARE aroudn 200 more in the morning, by night they are back to what they were a week ago. shrug. Report by shunyata on June 13th, 2011 Hi Spicy, not sure how that commentary about an offensive person got into this blog? anyway I went to that profile, and see no offenisve stuff. anyway, lol, meanwhile my points are "more" in the morning and in the evenings they plopright back to the previous day's count. I think the AB puter has a heat stroke? shall we send it a keg of beer? Report by shunyata on June 14th, 2011 Lost 3k or 4k for a few days. Now seems back to near normal/what I expected. Thx for checking this. Report by Fr Joe on June 14th, 2011 Why did I lost nearly 1,000 points overnight, and drop way down in the leaderboard as well? :-( Report by Chicago Lady on July 1st, 2011 Good morning, Chicago Lady. It appears that everyone got hit by the point system bug again last night. It's obviously a recurring glitch in the computer system. As you can see, it happened earlier, on June 8. They'll get it fixed, I'm sure, even though it may be only a temporary one...until they find the core culprit. Inasmuch as Rich may not be checking this old Blog traffic, I sent a Contact Us message early this morning, but most of Admistration was still fast asleep Pacific Time. And if they're on a long weekend holiday, the problem may not be addressed for a few daze (sic) from now. We'll just have to wait 'n see. In the meantime, CL, you have a good Independence Day. Stay sober! :-) Chuck Report by ChuckExAnon on July 1st, 2011 Hey! Last night my score was over 8,000. This morning it's 6,429. What's going on???? Report by J and B on July 1st, 2011 Ahh I am a geek :) I've been recording mine and Ombliss's points because we're having a points competition. (Childish, I know. But I'm winning :D!!) Yesterday I had 8,554 and today I have 8,230. Ombliss had 8,319 yesterday and has 6,848 today. To the big bosses who are gonna fix it: I would like mine putting back to normal. But Ombliss told me earlier that he likes his points going backwards and can it continue please? :D lol Oh, and I've disappeared off the top of one of the leaderboards too :( Report by JuiceWGO on July 1st, 2011 @J and B: Read my message just above yours. The point system glitch has been a problem several times in the past. Based on past experience, as soon as Administration can get to it, it will be corrected at least temporarily and your points will be restored. Remember, though, this is a holiday weekend, and Administration may not be on duty. @JuiceWGO: Too funny! :-) Two Members fighting for the AB World Cup! :-) Good Luck to you both! Report by ChuckExAnon on July 1st, 2011 Hi Rich, Just checked my points I'm down about 750 since yesterday. Seems like everyone is having trouble today as there are several questions posted about this. Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this. Thanks, 34th st. Report by 34th st. on July 1st, 2011 Here we go again, lost at least 600 points overnight. Will wait and see.... Report by Whitehair on July 1st, 2011 Same here, I just dropped a few hundred points... Report by BloedEnMelk on July 1st, 2011 I lost a few hundred as well. Report by Michelle on July 1st, 2011 Thanks folks, this should help isolate the problem, but if past experience is any indication, it should fix itself within a few days...then those of who who've lost a level title get to re-experience the joy of making it again ;). Continued apologies... Report by AB-Rich on July 1st, 2011 I lost 10,000 or so points, sir.. Report by waboo on July 1st, 2011 Rich, The bouncing points just hit big time again, today. Some members have experienced a drop of several thousand points, some not at all. Report by The Chief on July 1st, 2011 The points problem seems to be back, like others have said. I was excited to see that it looked to me like I almost reached Illuminati, but then I realized it said 69 instead of a number somewhere in the 70s. I wonder if it's a beginning of the month thing. Report by ... on July 1st, 2011 Well my points total came back after this seismic shift, but unfortunately they have gone down again. Yesterday my points total was 18,150. There was quite a lot of activity both before then and afterwards, so I was expecting the total to go up quite a bit. This morning it was on 16,001. Report by Prunesquallor on July 1st, 2011 Rich, Its just happen again, over 700 points have just gone for some reason!! If it isn't tough enough that the few of us left that like points struggle to keep ABers happy by answering and posting questions, we then lose all those hard earned points. I'm sure they will come back, they did last time. More on the future, no-one is answering the contact form and the enquiry I made about whether it is a good idea that if someone takes the trouble to answer a question, that you would automatically get a point is still outstanding. I have asked questions about this most people say they forget. Can AB also encourage people to "say thanks for the answers with points". To keep up AB revenues we need to get people excited again about the site, so can we also go back to people being able to give up to 10 points, so they can then decide how good the answer is. Also because there is so much disatisfaction on many topics can we get some campaigns together. We don't need minuses back though. Sorry to moan, look forward to hearing from you. Report by kaetalist on July 1st, 2011 yeah sigh, I had more than 50.000 + ( around 50.700 +)and now I am demoted to 33.000. sort of weird becaue most were only demoted a few hundred or a few thousand points. I can actually prove I had way over 50.000. I had a discussion in one of the question/ answer posts were we spoke of points and the " titles " one gets, two days ago. Please be kind and correct the situation. thanks. Report by shunyata on July 1st, 2011 2,500 ish points missing from me this morning, why bother having them? Report by Scotslass on July 2nd, 2011 Thanks, just logged back and have my points back! Report by Scotslass on July 2nd, 2011 Yeah, also got mine back, still would like to hear your thoughts about my points suggestions Rich. Cheers Report by kaetalist on July 2nd, 2011 Compliments to AB Staff, specifically Rich, for the the attention, communication and correction provided to the Site on this recurring issue of Point System breakdown. Go now, Rich, and enjoy what remains of this Holiday weekend. Report by ChuckExAnon on July 2nd, 2011 The more things change the more they stay the same. Ever it was thus. It is simply the ebb and flow of life. One day you're on top of the mountain..the next day you're down in the dumps. But the next mountain is just ahead! Happy Saturday everyone and Happy upcoming 4th of July! :) Report by RosieGHM Jetpacker on July 2nd, 2011 Hi Rich, I don't much care about points, I just like the fun of answering questions, but since you ask, yes it has happened to me, 100 or so, which returned of their own accord a day or so later. IZZY Report by Izzy Eckerslyke on July 13th, 2011
AB-Rich	May 20th, 2011 at 11:43 am Changing labels... Few individuals have had more--and more diverse--labels throughout their lives than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Bodybuilder, actor, politician, and more recently...well, I'm sure you can come up with your own labels. We have him in the "Movie stars and celebrities" category, which is pretty much a catch-all for anyone famous: http://www.answerbag.com/category/arnold-schwarzenegger_1437 But at various points in his life, if you wanted to ask questions about Arnie, you'd naturally look in sports, acting, California government, or the extended Kennedy family. My question, which builds off the previous blog about when current events become history: should labels evolve? Are they relevant on Answerbag? How would you have been labeled at different points in your life? 11 comments \| Post one Comments Child Young girl Young woman Wife Mother Survivor Old lady Report by RosieGHM Jetpacker on May 20th, 2011 I think perhaps the categories are necessary..and to simplify it just list their activities under the one name....ie Schwarzenegger for all of his activies. How would I have labelled my life child student teenager university adult older adult retired old:) Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on May 20th, 2011 Thanks for inviting input, Rich! I think the current category is fine. "Celebrity" pretty much covers everyone famous. However, you raise a good point. Once they are dead, do they remain in the same category, alphabetized by name? (A-H, etc.) I think they should. If you created sub-categories (living or dead) we would still search by name. Often I do not know if someone has passed, and think they are still living. So...I think the current category works. Report by Chicago Lady on May 20th, 2011 Young person, Teenager (cringe....) Adult Supposedly Adult Old person Old fart who shouldn't be driving Fat, Dumb, and Happy Are labels revelant? Don't believe so. For some it turns into a pecking order status game. "I'm a scholar", "I'm an engineer with a degree", "Well, I'm an engineer with 3 degrees", etc.... Do they belong on Answerbag - no. Report by Fr Joe on May 21st, 2011 I do not think they should. Informally we have such a division already, with questions about Arnold the moviestar under films, Arnold the politician under politics, etc. Fine by me. Also AnswerBag have been there for a while now, and things that were important to the teen should be left behind in its appropriate category. We all laugh at the ignorant 'Am I Pregnant' questions, but surely some of us have also asked it at some time :-)) Report by JakobA I^_^I on May 21st, 2011 annoying little boy young jock great sports athlete drug addict good worker Report by IronMike1488 on May 22nd, 2011 What's with all the questions that overlap the boundaries of the answer box and continue across the screen?...an example: this question http://www.answerbag.com/polls/nose-job-wrong-nose_2505062 Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on May 24th, 2011 Da Ben Dan, That question doesn't go over the boundary in my browser. Report by Gingerminx on May 24th, 2011 There have been times when (what da ben dan has described) has happened to me to. But, upon a refresh of my browser, the intended page is back to the way it should have been. And by the way, when I copy and pasted the link into my browser, it did not pull up the intended question, but instead, pulled up a category page for the "Health" category. Report by byankno1 on May 25th, 2011 I recently posted questions that were celebrity related, but not film/movie related. I was looking for a more generic category, such as stars and celebrities. I think movie stars really should be a separate category because there are some very quiet stars that really never achieve as much celebrity noise as the fleeting sex tape celebs. Maybe a category under Life & Society for generic celebs and then broken down as needed into Web, Music, etc. That way art questions and tech questions don't get confused with general celeb curiosity buzz questions. I'm sure Rachel Globus would agree. Report by Halliburton Shill on June 1st, 2011 what is happening with the mute button on comments...sometimes it appears and at other times nada? Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on June 7th, 2011
AB-Rich	May 3rd, 2011 at 12:19 pm Politics and modern events? With the death of Osama bin Laden dominating the day's discussion, I thought I'd point out that we have a dedicated category for OBL-related Q&A: http://www.answerbag.com/category/osama-bin-laden_6860 But this brings up one of the paradoxes of categorization. You might notice this is a subcategory of Politics and modern events--but how much time should pass before a "modern event" becomes "history"? We have no internal policy guideline on this, so we'd love to hear your thoughts! 6 comments \| Post one Comments Love it. Now all those questions can be shoved into one place and I will no longer have to view the people who celebrate a persons death. Report by Gingerminx on May 3rd, 2011 Right on Ginger. Good idea Rich. I will refrain from asking more " critical" questions, because I think people convinced me I MUST be more loyal to our beloved goernment, because after all thEY do know truth, speak truth always. the end for me on this topic. Thanks for putting all questions into the new category. I wish I could delete my old ones posted yesterday. cheers Report by shunyata on May 3rd, 2011 It's not that big of a deal. The following day after a historical event is history. His death is history. Weather or not to show his dead picture is still an event waiting to happen. Report by rose1980 on May 4th, 2011 The transition from modern events to history depends on your perspective. A professor of ancient history is going to have a far different view of modern than CNN. Personally, I would move events over 20 years old into the history section. Report by OldCW wears The COAT of the Cosmos on May 4th, 2011 Why 20 years? That seems rather arbitrary. Report by Stu B in white tie and tailCOAT on May 4th, 2011 My opinion? Play it by ear. Regardless of the historical circumstances behind OBL's death, so long as his influence is felt in his terrorist organization's actions, then current events will keep it alive. Give it some time and simply move it to a historical category whenever it "feels" right. Could be a week, a month, or a year. No rush. Report by The Chief on May 5th, 2011
AB-Rich	April 9th, 2011 at 7:53 pm New home page layout You're not seeing things: the Happening Now feed, composed of the questions and answers submitted by you, has reclaimed its rightful place at the heart of the Answerbag home page. Now you won't have to scroll down quite so far to see the flow of new Q&A. Let us know what you think! 35 comments \| Post one Comments I agree with wellduh. Do something about those bots as well. Report by Nitsua Evets Hates AB Staff on April 9th, 2011 COOL! It's good to see the actual questions at the forefront of the Home Page once again! Thanks! Report by The Chief on April 9th, 2011 Wow, I actually like a change to the site. How strange. Report by Talimze on April 9th, 2011 Gradually, little by little, you are going back to what the old timers like myself missed. It's too bad you lost so many of us. Report by Yarnlady is happy every day on April 9th, 2011 I like the change a lot. Feels more like the "old" times. Well done. Report by Barcaluv on April 9th, 2011 I have some questions. Does this mean that the "Polls", "Debates" "Hot Topics", "Featured Member" etc. sections are gone for good? Or will some of those be re-instated in a different format or layout at a given time? I also wanted to share this link in case anyone is curious about checking out the changes that have happened to AB's layout and appearance through the years. http://waybackmachine.org//http://answerbag.com Report by Barcaluv on April 9th, 2011 I actually love it. Thanks so much, Rich! @Wellduh: The problem with removing those questions and answers is that when you get a post that is removed that you feel shouldn't have been, it would be a bit hard to tell Rich or one of the CLs or one of the other members of the Staff what the link is if it's not right there on your profile. Maybe a fix to this can be that removed material is viewable to the profile holder, the Staff, and Community Leaders only . . . ? In other words, my proposal is to hide removed material from the general public so that that becomes an issue with the administration and the user in question who had removed material only. This would also solve problems with users who truly are embarrassed with things they've asked that they've asked the Staff to remove, but are still frustrated with the posts still showing up on their profiles for all to see. Report by AnonymousGirl on April 10th, 2011 I like the cleaner look. I still wonder why you made the "Contact Us" link so hard to find. It used to be on the bottom of all the "pages" and now you have to click on "About Answerbag" and then find "Contact Us" on the top of the next screen. Report by Mrs. Cleaver on April 10th, 2011 Oh, is that what you did? I thought something was different! Report by Ambrose the Colossal Praying Mantis on April 10th, 2011 AB-Rich: I like the new "keep it simple" look and feel of the homepage. As to the things that have been happening "under the hood" lately, I am missing the extended possibilities to use some HTML code in answers and comments. I guess that this was done as an anti spam measure. Report by iwnit on April 10th, 2011 AB-Rich: one suggestion to the new homepage. As it is basically the same as the "Happening Now" page (plus "Leaderboard" and "Popular questions" and minus "Professionally researched"), why not suppress the "Happening Now" page and show the long list of "Happening Now" Q&As already on the homepage? Report by iwnit on April 10th, 2011 i dont like it really..yall need to change it back please lol Report by MS.TODD on April 10th, 2011 I'm sure you're just stripping down the site for mobile devices. You should get rid of all the graphics and just have a text only site. Report by Mister_Bromide on April 10th, 2011 the answer's pick seems to be working again...at least it shows when you click it...but if you go back to the same answer it no longer shows. Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on April 10th, 2011 It was so long on the other version, that I almost missed that, the first time I signed in to the AB service this morning, and now I'm STARTING to LOVE Answerbag again. You're getting there, so keep up the good work! Report by byankno1 on April 10th, 2011 Thanks, nice to hear you guys like the changes. If the rationale was to optimize the site for mobile devices no one told me ;), but people have been requesting that for a while. Also shielding removed content from display has been on our list, but not highest priority. If someone really wants something removed, I generally go in and edit it, then the next time Google and the other search engines visit the site and update their indexes it disappears. Also, thanks to our tech folks the asker's pick and profile link problems have hopefully been solved. Report by AB-Rich on April 10th, 2011 Well, Rich, thanks for showing us all once again that you guys actually are listening, no matter who tries to tell us otherwise. :) Report by AnonymousGirl on April 10th, 2011 I would love to also see the categories the questions are asked in on the homepage Report by Patti jo on April 10th, 2011 I like it. Report by Shemarq the Wamama on April 10th, 2011 I'm happy to see it, it reminds me of the "good old days" before AB went all "commercial" (for lack of a better term). Good job! Now if you could just bring back the old point system where leveling up actually meant something. 8-) Report by Self Consuming Cannibal on April 10th, 2011 hooray!!! that's good, really! thank u a lot!! Report by Sophie the Valiant on April 10th, 2011 Thankyou very much for changing this as close to back as you have. When I saw it I was hoping it was not a glitch. Report by Arisztid on April 11th, 2011 Thanks! I find myself more and more looking into AB........ Report by Whitehair on April 11th, 2011 the " follow us to facebook" window cannot be deleted and blocks Rick's message. someone told me the blog is about the new homepage. I do like the new homepage. it's simple, and that is cool. cheers Shunyata Report by shunyata on April 11th, 2011 The "new (good old) homepage is terrific! Whoda thunk? Report by trouble ... on April 12th, 2011 Sort of off-topic, and I don't know if this happens to others but when I try to edit a comment, I'm being re-directed to the home page. Can you please look into that? , thanks, Report by Barcaluv on April 12th, 2011 note this question: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2476352 when i look at it...the words go outside the box and into the area on the right hand side of the screen... Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on April 15th, 2011 Barc, what I have taken to doing when that happens is to open link in another tab. That way I get the edit comment box. I have no clue if this still works but it did last time I did it. If it works, it is a temporary solution until the glitch is fixed. Report by Arisztid on April 15th, 2011 I would like your answer to this question..thanks http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2477296 Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on April 17th, 2011 Off Topic When I try to answer a question or click like on the question I get this message: Error Encountered! you are already logged in! Read more: What was the last article you read? \| Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2481584#ixzz1KGyp9pXU Report by Booknight on April 22nd, 2011 Report by Booknight on April 22nd, 2011 I no longer have the previously stated problem. Would someone please remove my goofs -- thanks Report by Booknight on April 22nd, 2011 in addition to my previous question...this one goes outside the box as well http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2484912#ans10638299 the wording runs right across the page. Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on April 26th, 2011 Spam is completely out of hand again. I have given up flagging it because it does no good. It just keeps pouring in. Report by Arisztid on April 28th, 2011 Stay classy answerbag! http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2489686 Report by Perryman on May 3rd, 2011
Rachel Globus	April 5th, 2011 at 5:01 pm So, What’s the Deal with Lent Again? March’s Top Questions Photo Credit: Getty Images A couple big things were front of mind for the curious denizens of the interwebs last month: Lent, temblors, and the lovely, late Elizabeth. 1. Why can’t you eat meat on Fridays during Lent? Theories abound in response to the #1 most-visited question in March (17 answers at last count), but congratulations to Ankhorite, who had the top and surely the most exhaustive answer. Be sure to read down to the part about when beaver, capybara and muskrat were declared “fish” for the purposes of Lent. 2. An enormous earthquake and tsunami hit Japan in mid-March, as everyone now knows. The scale of the disaster was so vast, so beyond comprehension, that at first people simply tried to understand what a 9.0 earthquake meant. On Friday, March 11—the day the earthquake hit—the question How high does the Richter scale go? got more than 100 times more visits than usual. 3. The passing of film great Elizabeth Taylor sparked remembrances across the country, which had many asking, *say, how many times was* she married? Thanks to SASSYWI-Q-Sassia-Jetpacking with NASCAR for getting the numbers right—no mean feat. 4. Lent inspired more than one question about the purpose and origin of meat proscriptions. Our #4 most-visited question was What’s the origin of eating fish on Friday? Answers were as varied and thought-provoking as they were to our #1 question—and not necessarily the same. Kudos to one Anonymous user, who nabbed the top-Liked answer with a story about a bargain struck between a mistress and a pope. 5. Do you know anybody with purple eyes?** Well, if to follow a star from silver screen to silver screen is to know them, then yes—for the late Ms. Taylor was famous for her violet eyes. According to kalbert801, “After four years of med school, five years of residency and my fellowship I can definitively state that violet eyes do exist and are natural.” Lastly, kudos to the askers of Answerbag's top questions: Fun Breanne Green wickedwillie MyKinKStar 2old2dieyoung 5 comments \| Post one Comments I guess I'm confused how these questions and "askers" can be the top for March 2011. All of the questions are from years ago and the askers mentioned have been gone from 2/11 to 2006?? Report by Mrs. Cleaver on April 5th, 2011 Good point Mrs Cleaver. Report by Gingerminx on April 5th, 2011 They're top by the number of visits they receive, not by the number of answers they receive (an equally important metric!). So even if the questions were asked years ago, certain events will cause people to have those questions and search for them, either on Answerbag or search engines such as Google. That's why we saw traffic to questions on Lent, earthquakes and Elizabeth Taylor surge in the past month. So, the question or answer you ask today may still be helping people years after! Pretty neat, eh? Report by Rachel Globus on April 6th, 2011 Ah I see how they are chosen. Report by Gingerminx on April 6th, 2011 hmm, I think you mean blue eyes... purple eyes are impossible, and her's were no except. just plain blue. no idea where the "violet" thing came from. Report by AudreyHepburn on April 9th, 2011
AB-Rich	April 4th, 2011 at 12:05 pm Disappearing answers We've had some reports of people's answers not showing up on the site consistently. If you can view an answer individually from the a_view link, but it doesn't appear when you click "show all answers," you've discovered one of the affected answers. We do have a fix for this, but it requires us to process each answer individually. Please send the link(s) to the answer to a Community Leader, or via the Contact Us link, and we'll restore them. Thanks! 13 comments \| Post one Comments Rich, do you mean to send you the address of the question or answer or both? thanks Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on April 4th, 2011 For over the last year, my answers and questions have been disappearing from both my public&personal profile for both my answers and questions. I started to write q&a's in October 2009, but for each question and answer I write, one of the oldest get's deleted. It's hard to explain. I haven't been able to keep up with these and would like to see these oldest questions& answers restored to these lists. I have already written a forum post on this issue, but it seems like you have hidden this post too from your system and seem to crossed it off the "to-fix" list. Forum Source page: http://www.answerbag.com/forums/topic.php?t=634 Report by byankno1 on April 4th, 2011 Send the link to the answer itself as Rich described. The link to the question is self evident from that. :):) Report by The Chief on April 4th, 2011 Thanks Rich. Another problem that occurs intermittently is that I get notified of a comment to my answer, but when I get there it shows no comments. I discovered a workaround for this: Add a comment myself, then all the previous comments will magically reappear. Report by RC loves ice cream on April 4th, 2011 I'm not as smart as everyone else , because I have no clue how to send links , my answers usally show up after about 20 minutes or so , also the same is happening with the comments as RC said , though when I click on the profile page that says comments , it does nothing , I cant get to my comments . Great to see you Rich and so glad your still here with us Report by Patti jo on April 4th, 2011 Rich why cant we choose '' best answer '' anymore ? We need it ! Thanks a bunch Report by Patti jo on April 4th, 2011 well, I cannot send an answer which disappeared. for instance. A asks : How many eggs do you eat each week ? I answer : I eat three to 4 a week. it is only by " accident" that I later see the answer never showed up. so I can't copy anything to anyone, I would therefore have to copy every single question and my answer and store them somewhere, in order to then check them later, and send those which were not posted in the first place to AB. hmmmmmmmmmmm Please SOMEONE FIX MY " asker's pick feature". I like to give asker's pick and I have not been able to do so for a week. it just doesn't work. thank you so much. I know members appreciate receiving asker's pick. cheers and many thanks. Report by shunyata on April 5th, 2011 Thanks all--we're aware of the Asker's Pick bug but haven't nailed it down yet. @RC: the disappearing comments bug/add a comment workaround has been around so long it's almost a feature, but it's never manifested consistently enough for us to figure it out. @byankow1: I can confirm your experience of having older answers pushed off your profile page but this too isn't consistent or widespread. @shunyata: You should be able to view the answers from your profile page (in your case, here: http://www.answerbag.com/profile/1212798/answers/), then right click on the missing answer, copy the URL, and send that to a CL or Contact Us. Report by AB-Rich on April 5th, 2011 Does this apply to missing comments as well? This is honestly one of the most frustrating bugs I continually come across. Comments that I know exists randomly coming and going for certain questions. Here is an example I just came across: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2075885 I don't know for sure that you see it the same way as I do, but I KNOW I have commented on every question I 'liked' but I don't see any comments at all. Are you guys making any progress on this type of thing. At this point it has been going on for so long it is just plain embarrassing. Report by buster on April 6th, 2011 this one shows that I didn't answer it...but I clearly did: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2470965#ans10553651 Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on April 7th, 2011 my answer doesn't show on this one: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2471795 Report by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on April 8th, 2011 In my 'My Answers page I have: "Answer to: Are Atheists considered Skeptics? Atheists are a-theist, people who do not believe in a god. Why is it so difficult to accept it as that and no more than that ? Why do theists keep on and on trying to add other things to it, such as: - Atheists have no morals - Atheists are miserable and angst ridden - Atheists are minions of Satan - Atheists are skeptics - Atheists are hedonists - Atheists are selfish - etc, etc, etc. Could..." The Question is still there, but my answer have dissapeared. I sort of resent that. Before disappearing it garnered 2 likes. I have reported this via the 'Contact Us' link on the About-Us page, sofar with no response. Report by JakobA I^_^I on May 25th, 2011 In this report: "this one shows that I didn't answer it...but I clearly did: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/2470965#ans10553651 by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on April 7th, 2011" The questions have now also dissapeared. It redirects to the 'social-sciences' category page so there must be some sort of reference to that found before it went astray. Report by JakobA I^_^I on May 25th, 2011

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