Why do some of the veteran Askvillers still take answer slots?”
Hi Morning Dew, I often use an answer slot to say something that I want to make sure the question poster is aware of. MD, you may not be aware of this, but when an “official” answer is posted, or a PM, the poster or the person PM’d gets an email to notify them of this. It does NOT happen on posts to the DB (and what a disaster that would be, so good thing!) So, especially with newbie posters, I try to post an answer, if I am so inclined and have the time. On my “this is not Amazon.com; here’s the number,” they will be short answers. But all the best advice in the world won’t help most newbies, as they don’t yet know about the DBs. As woodchips said, the points/gold we earn are irrelevant. As to your statement, “I get tired of voting on their answers,” unless YOU post an answer, or a question, you are not expected (or permitted) to vote. And even then, it is optional, although when you speak of Askville etiquette, etiquette dictates that, if you post a question, you take the time to rat
.. you can dress up an answer using pictures: Tables, Answer Slot Comment Actual pictures Links only Formatted tables Junky ones And many types of embedded objects, like videos. Formatting is also easier. A few of us know how to use boldface, italics, and underlines in comments, but the feature is undocumented and prone to error. And you can’t do anything about COLORS, either.
Back when Askville first opened up, it was a Q&A site. I like researching and then answering questions in the areas that I find of interest. That is what keeps me coming back to Askville. Once the POWERS THAT BE on Askville decided to renege on the vague promises concerning Questville and stopped allowing us to turn our quest gold into anything useful, many veterans either left Askville or just stopped answering questions, relying instead upon the DB. I don’t like the DB, since most of the discussions involve personalities, rather than ideas. So that is why this veteran keeps answering questions.
That said, the main reason that I prefer to use the answer slot is when I use the DB instead, there is always some one that wanted to argue with you. Then you loose your temper and say something that you should not have said. This gets you banned or strikes against. This just happened to two people last week, if you had not noticed. The Gold has nothing to do with answering the question or going on the DB. Since the Gold is worthless and means nothing. A few years ago we use to be able to spend it at the Askville store. We could buy coffee cups, gift certificates etc. but that went away fast. If I answer anything anymore on the DB it is only if I am one of the first ones on there, and I never come back anymore to see if someone answered me back. Why get a strike or banned for something that can be avoided. The new people have the same time to answer a question as the seasoned member here. There are some questions that would go unanswered if it wasn’t for the older people here.
