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by CannedHam on February 18th, 2007

CannedHam

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What is a Point-Farmer?

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Answers. 9 helpful answers below.

  • by Yarnlady is happy every day on June 23rd, 2008

    Yarnlady is happy every day

    A point farmer is a user who is more interested in getting points than providing a useful contribution Answerbag. You can usually tell who they are by the content of their questions as related in other answers here.

    There is something to be said in their defense, and that is to point out that every contribution increases the revenue possibilities for the owners, and there the viability of the site for the "non-farmer" users.

    This user is not to be confused with a user whose major contribution is in moderation points. The moderation feature helps keep the site "clean" and fun for the rest of us, and is not a "point farmer" per se.

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  • by BigDaddyBS on July 12th, 2008

    BigDaddyBS

    From all I've seen and heard, it's someone who will ask questions they KNOW will gather a lot of points... In other words:

    Some will toss out a single seed (one question) and hope to reap a tree with a lotta fruit on it (a LOTTA points).

    Some claim congratulatory questioners are points farmers because almost everyone who answers - congratulates the one for whom the question is asked - uprates the questioner - They would more prefer that the person who is being congratulated ask the question themselves. Seems a bit narcissistic to me to do so.)

    Some will sow a field full of seeds (questions), hoping to reap a huge crop (points).

    These are the questions that all look alike, but are all technically different, like "What do you think about <city, state>?" or "Would you live in <city, state>? Why?" where <city, state> changes, but the rest of the question doesn't really change that much, if at all.

    In the latter case, though, there are those who are actually working to fill the AB database with valid question that ask opinionated answers, to provide a good searchable database for others. "Points-farmers" or not, they are providing a service for AB. (Except those asking "First thing you think of about the number XX" or the alphabet question in http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/486071 .) The others, to me, are filling the database with answers.

    In many cases, with the exception of the latter parenthetical phrase, it seems to me that most people calling someone a "points farmer" are jealous that they hadn't thought of the idea being used themselves.

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  • by CannedHam on February 18th, 2007

    CannedHam

    Someone who asks questions, usually in very large numbers, for the sole purpose of generating points towards increasing their AB level. Question types used in point-farming include, but are not limited to:

    1 - Questions that are common knowledge or are very easily answered via search engines

    Example: Who was the first President of the US?

    2 - A series of questions that could be grouped together into a single question

    Example: Asking "What is the origin of upper and lowercase A (Aa)?", "What is the origin of upper and lowercase B (Bb)?" etc until Zz is reached instead of asking "What is the origin of upper and lowercase letters used in typing?"

    3 - Asking more than one type of question in a 24 hour period.

    Example: Asking "What is the origin of the Russian surname [insert different name each time here]?" 20 times in one day.

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  • by Dmitri on June 23rd, 2008

    Dmitri

    Like Samantha said, a point farmer is there to raise points like a regular farmer raises crops. Ole Mcdonald had a farm, here a oink, er point . . .

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  • by Chris on July 12th, 2008

    Chris

    Well, I have been called one, because I asked science questions... yeah, go figure...

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  • by I'm a ginger on June 23rd, 2008

    I'm a ginger

    I assume it is someone who posts a lot of questions or answers to gather points faster so that they can move up in levels.

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  • by Kevisaurus is a Carnotaurus today on June 23rd, 2008

    Kevisaurus is a Carnotaurus today

    Simply put, someone who asks questions just for points and who rarely responds to the questions in comments and hardly ever distributes out points for any answers received. I treat all of my questions as thought children and nurture them with duly earned points and comments. It is best to take ownership of one's question and nurture every question that you receive. Don't we ask questions because we want to know?

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  • by Takei-Shihan on June 23rd, 2008

    Takei-Shihan

    ... a person who ASKS many, many, many mostly opinion based questions with a possibility for a vast set of diverse answers ... these questions get far more answers than a technical question with only one possible correct response ... the "opinion" questions will usually get many answers and most answerers will award points to the asker ... so they plant the questions and harvest many more points than if they asked a "only one right" type of question ... or more points than if they just answered some one else's question.

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  • by nevets - badgicide on March 3rd, 2007

    nevets - badgicide

    A "point-farmer" is a term created by user CannedHam. It is a reference to any user who is here simply to earn points.

    With the definition comes an accusation that another user, Drublic, was asking lots of questions simply to earn points.

    The term was coined on February 26th 2007:
    "I got stuck in the box for downchecking a bunch of point-farming questions posted by drublic. I guess it's ok to point-farm but trying to reverse the gratuitous self-aggrandizing is evil, evil, evil."
    - http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/142803/410948

    In response to CannedHam:
    http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/142803/410948
    http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/145395/425259

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