Less opinions on more questions, privacy and notifications

[DiogoRibeiro]

For the past few weeks, we have been working on several new features here at GirlsAskGuys for both our upcoming mobile app and the website.

Then, two weeks ago, I asked everyone what should we focus on improving first or the most and the results were amazing! I got over 100 opinions, countless replies and 735 poll votes.

It's in response to that wonderful feedback that we introduced and updated some features today:

When less is more

The most voted option on that poll question was "Content". And this new feature is all about making content on GirlsAskGuys more useful for a lot more people.

Starting today, all questions will be closed when you select at least one Most Helpful Opinion (you'll be able to select the second one later) or when they are inactive for 48 hours (no new opinions, replies or poll votes).

This will allow us and the community to focus on the open questions that still need attention and those helpful answers you generously provide. Closed Questions can't receive new opinions or poll votes, but you'll still be able to like or reply to an opinion.

To guarantee that we'll have opinions on every question, we also decided to change how the limits of asking questions work. Now you will have a limit of open questions according to your XPER level. Once you reach that limit, you'll need to close a question selecting MHO or wait until we close it for you.

Talk (just) to me

Another popular demand was for us to make GirlsAskGuys safer and more pleasant to use and we took it very seriously. This is the first of several features aimed at doing that.

On top of being able to ask a question or share an opinion anonymously, you'll be able to do it privately. Only the Asker and the Opinion owner can see Private Opinions.

Askers can check a box to receive all opinions privately on their questions, but regardless of that, Opinion owners can choose to share an opinion privately on any question.

We strongly believe private conversations within a context can be a powerful tool for the GirlsAskGuys community.

Goodbye, ghosts... hello, people!

Last but not least, our notifications got an update that was long overdue.

First of all, we've added some new ones that you'll also see on our mobile app soon. The existing ones were updated with new images and text to make sure the messages are about people and the actions they take on GirlsAskGuys.

Since we have a reasonable amount of notifications now, we're also giving you tools to manage what you want to be notified about. Just hit the Settings page on your Profile to turn all notifications on or off individually.

Finally, the Notifications section on the Profile got a lot more useful with the simple addition of a "Mark all as read" button that should end once and for all the dreaded ghost notifications issue that drove some people crazy.

We know this is a big change, so feel free to get in touch with me or any other Admin if you have questions.

One more thing...

You've convinced us. It's coming back soon.

[lumos]

Questions closing is dumb. You can boost newer questions without having to close down "older" questions (48 hours is not old). It's a bad solution because every question deserves to get as many answers as possible, even if those answers are a few days "late". If anything, this goes against what you're trying to do. There are other ways to change how much attention newer questions get. Change the livefeed, highlight the newest question, whatever. Silencing questions that you deem passé is honestly frustrating.
And don't even get me started on the private opinion thing. People will just abuse it to harass askers. How are us mods supposed to be able to do our job when we can't even see the content on here? We said make the content BETTER, not HIDE ALL OF THE CONTENT!!!1! If you really want to implement this totally AWFUL feature, then you should at the very least make all private opinions visible to mods, so that we get to remove all the creeps and harassers as usual. But then again... that kind of defeats the entire point of the feature? Which just proves how dumb it is. I can't believe this, really. You noticed that site safety was something A LOT of people wanted to see improvements on yet you think THIS is a good feature to implement? Wow. Lol. Ok then.

[Humping_Tornadoes]

"People will just abuse it to harass askers. How are us mods supposed to be able to do our job when we can't even see the content on here?"

This ^^
Though I pretty much agree to everything you said.

[AleDeEurope]

I like the new update... but not the private option. It takes away from the interaction between people. I think if people want to share an opinion they should have to share it to all of us, not just the asker, cause that's what this site is about. If most people start responding privately, this is gonna be dead.
Plus, it's a way for racists, sexists, and overall antagonistic people, to get away with their stuff, cause no one will be able to call them off on that.

I think that will create more division between the people of GAG...

[Yumix]

I have to agree with this

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

good point

[musicbrain5]

Wow, another great point about the private opinions in addition to what @RainbowFanGirl said.

[RainbowFanGirl]

Exactly. They need to get rid of this ASAP. Now assholes will be able to bully the asker without consequence! It's a way for all hell to break lose on questions!

[DiogoRibeiro]

@RainbowFanGirl People will still be able to block or report abusive users as before. Nothing has changed on that end.

[ChocoLada]

That's a fantastic point, I agree too...

[dangerDoge]

Firstly, I like the attempt at updating. No matter how many people hate on it all, I am happy there are people behind the scenes that are thinking up ways to make it better.

1.) The closed question.
I like the *idea* of closing/archiving a question. This not only rids GAG of the overloaded no opinion section, but also stops people from writing an opinion on a year old post that is completely irrelevant now. HOWEVER, with this closed question update, I would argue that the timing is a bit too short for it. Personally, I would say 7 days at the very least, but ideally a month before closing a question. The reasoning is because stuff stays relevant after 48 hours. After a month or so, many things change or lose meaning. I feel like closing a question after a month (regardless of activity on it) makes more sense.
In my ideal little universe I'd make it...
-- close it after a month regardless of what happens on the question
-- if both MHOs are selected by asker, close it within 48 hours
-- perhaps a special exception if you get no opinions on your question at all. Maybe 15 days before the question poofs... That way you can ask it again and it isn't a duplicate.

2.) The private opinion
I actually like it. It stops people from feeling social pressure to conform to what everyone else is writing. The real question is however-- can it be abused? I'm thinking that a dude (or dudet) may post a pervy question. Someone naive answers it. Mods can't see opinions so the guy is basically free to do/say what he wants to the naive girl.
I mean, I've seen an under 18 girl give out her facebook info (and almost number) to a random anon pervy dude before some people commented on her opinion and talked some sense into her. If no one talked to her about it, she would've gone through with it.

3.) Notification bar.
Font is cool. Maybe make it so more can be read? I don't know. In other news, it appears the highlight of a new notification was removed? That makes it a bit hard to figure out where a new notification ends and old one from the past begins. I like to answer my notifications in specific orders so I can respond to them correctly, so that part is a bit annoying.

[dangerDoge]

On a side note, there is a glaring flaw in the closed question update. All of the no opinion ones are still there from greater than 48 hours ago.
They've been damned to the no opinion section for all eternity haha

[RainbowFanGirl]

Exactly my point with the private opinions. It allows people to abuse it, and this us moderators will not be able to do anything about it. I hate that kt tells me that there is a private opinion when I can't see what it says, and thus it shows how pointless it is.

[JuicyBrain]

Why mess around with the time when questions should be closed? Just let the askers decide when they are done with a question.

[BellePepper]

@JuicyBrain Exactly. Isn't that the point of the MUTE button?

[dangerDoge]

@JuicyBrain @BellePepper That wouldn't be a bad idea, but the human element makes me think there could be a matter of unpredicatbility with it.
The purpose of the close question idea in general is to make the person move on so they answer questions that are recent instead of answering old questions... Aka to keep material fresh.

Let's be honest though-- hardly anyone is ever going to close their own question on their own.
-- The no opinion section will remain stacking. Stuff will sit there forever. With a time frame, a question can close and go away so the no opinion section remains with recent stuff. Then, if the 'rejected' question sends a notification to the user saying it was removed (since no one answered it) they can perhaps ask another.
-- If you type an answer and someone closes the question mid type, the answer you typed out goes to waste. (Kind of like getting blocked).

Setting certain rules and time frames I feel makes it all more structured and therefore tidier

[BellePepper]

If it's so much better and tidier then what's the point of featuring questions? Even in the Recent feed there are closed questions everywhere. There were tons of times I would have been interested in answering a question last night BUT OH WAIT IT"S CLOSED. That's stupid Doge!

They promote using XPER to feature your question but it doesn't matter because your question will probably be closed before GaG gets around to featuring it. What a GREAT and well thought out plan.

[dangerDoge]

@BellePepper For featured questions, the purpose of them is to gain coverage. That is irrelevant to the topic of closed questions-- featured questions are already on a time frame for coverage and are meant to stick out a little more so they get extra coverage. As they say... "apples and oranges."

You seem to be referring to how closed questions are popping up amongst regular questions. Note that I was saying 48 hours was too short in my original opinion. A month would be good though. Be honest-- how many questions do you ever see still gaining lots of interest after a month? Not many, if any. And even if there was, they probably shouldn't be there. New content should be focused on vs questions already answered a month ago.

And yes-- it would make it tidier. Have you ever tried scrolling to the bottom of the no opinion section? Haha

On an unrelated sidenote, the feature function does extend the question to be "open" longer (as written in FAQ)

[DiogoRibeiro]

Hello, @dangerDoge. Thanks a lot for your input. Some of the things you said make a lot of sense and we'll definitely take them into consideration when updating or tweaking these new features. ;)

[BellePepper]

If they get "extra coverage" why are many of them already closed to the point that the OP has to go and PERSONALLY ask the admins to fix something that *shouldn't have happened in the first place* so that they're active again? The admins are claiming that as long as the question has had activity on it within the last 48 hours, it will remain open. That obviously hasn't happened either. OR been communicated in the post that is SPECIFICALLY about the changes made to the site. More awesome work brought to you by the GaG admins!

LOL! I'm not crazy like you and @PropaneAccessories XD

[dangerDoge]

@BellePepper That is the fault of the software and coding, not the fault of the idea. Featured questions being closed is a technical issue that can be (and according to a post I saw, is) being remedied. I haven't heard/seen any questions that have been closed after getting recent activity though.

It is a bit irrelevant again though because my stance isn't for the current update, but a tweaked version as previously described.
As I said, my stance on it is for things to be closed after a month, in which case the 'featuring' of a question already is gone.

The recent activity stuff wouldn't be an issue either. In fact, there'd be less aspects to be concerned with in general (which would make it easier to code I can almost guarantee).

I never agreed to things being closed after 48 hours. The bugs are annoying, but that doesn't mean that archiving things (like I described in my original post) is bad. It only means their current method of going about archiving is wrong.

[mooky06]

OHMMGEEEE Diogo!
Closed questions- why just why just whyyyy? :'( I liked allowing Gag users to comment on my question, whenever they were able to come across it. I guess closing the question down does allow for more "other" questions to get answers, but the sites purpose is to get as much advice as you can on a question, and select MHO. Doesn't having a closing down feature, kind of goes against that?

Privacy on a question between asker and opinion owner- That feature maybe interesting. I do not know how that will go, but only one way to find out

Mobile app/controlling notifications from settings tab- A mobile app is something Gagers have talked about wanting (a lot of times). I do not know why that hasn't been done yet. Turning a notification on and off is alright, i suppose.

Where is the downvote button? I'm glad that feature is... sloowwllllyyyyyyyy.. coming back "soon". How soon? unsure?

I think sticking with what people have made questions and comments about (feature wise) is the right way to go on improving Gag. A lot of these changes is something i will have to adapt to.. but i'm definitely not liking my questions being closed down..

[musicbrain5]

I do like the "closed question" feature, HOWEVER, the question asker should be the one who decides whether or not they want to close the question. If that's feasible, great. Sometimes it takes a while to get a satisfactory answer and I want to be the one who decides when I'm done with the Q.

I'm not too sure about the private opinions thing either, but just the option to make all opinions private so that only the asker can see them. I and many others here often read questions that are similar to ours, just to see the answers. I do that so that I don't have to ask a Q that's been asked a thousand times before.

[hellionthesage]

This seems kind of stupid. Why would you remove the ability to comment if you have chosen a MHO? Especially considering that if their are not that many answers or inactivity for 48 hours your forced to choose one any way even if it is not helpfull in any way? If its a hassle the question asker already has the capacity to disavow it and not be notified so what is the point of restricting it further? Doesn't more content by its nature imply, more. You have removed content with that choice, those questions are no longer available and so content is lost rather then gained. If anything you should have it where questiones with few answers pop up in the feed more often or have a section specificly for it rather then taking them away. As for safety, what safety issues are their? Safe: protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed or lost. ie their is, barring hacking attempts, nothing unsafe on this website. Censoring of ideas and opinions is in fact the most unsafe thing you can do as it narrows peoples perceptions to the point of seeing only that which is pleasent or appealing to them instead of the truth. If one person makes a comment and its made private then if their is incorrect information there will be no way for a person to know and give counter statements, so the person in question is then forced to proceed with the assumption of an idea being correct when it is not. Further more debate and argument is not only necessary in life but it is unavoidable. By creating a system that allows people to hide from this fact and hear only that which they want to hear is the most unsafe thing you can do. It is incredibly detrimental to the individual and society as a whole. Also I would point out that currently their is issues (at least I'm having them) where the character limit shows that I am under the max limit yet will not let me send the opinion/reply. (I am assuming that it is not counting either user names or web addresses). Its quite infuriating, especially since I already tend to right books on here so I tend to have this happen frequently. I appreciate the effort put forth to update everything (I have noticed improvments) but I do think some of these are going to defeat the entire purpose of this website.

[justbanANNAz]

... look i appreciate all the hard work u guys put in, but i feel like the things that we want MOST aren't being addressed, and the ones that we don't need, are being brought in or changed.

lets say we roll with the closed questions thing. at least extend the time for EVERYONE. 48 hours of inactivity is simply not enough. many people here, especially on the lower levels, will not be getting much activity on gag, so closing off a question after 2 days doesn't seem right. give it a week and ill be on board. i don't know about the rest of u, but i don't mind getting an opinion on a question a month later at all. i actually like it.

the private opinions idea is interesting. i kinda like it, and i look forward to testing it out.

downvotes... eh, I've always been indifferent.

i still want to place my suggestions of things id like to see:
- a group chat feature, or live chat at least. that will remain at the top of my list.
- allow a question asker to edit their question or mytake once, if they need to after submission.
- allow a max of 3 drafts for a question or mytake rather than just one.
- notify us who unfollows us.
- a more fun profile page would be nice.
- add a food and beverage topic
- i'd like to block some anons permanently, not just on one post.

yeah, I think it's great to try out new things, but it'd b nice to see these other ones around as well.

[RainbowFanGirl]

Yes I agree with you!!!

[ChocoLada]

Yeah, I agree with justbanANNAz :)

[KawaiiPie67]

Live chat live chat live chat!!! I would love that option so mucho <3

[BuchitaBuchys]

And the follow questions/takes. Am I the only one who missed it? :c

[justbanANNAz]

@BuchitaBuchys oh yeah i forgot about that. i miss that too.

[M_A_X]

@KawaiiPie67 I feel like a live chat would only turn people off to the site when they realize nobody has anything to say, and everyone fights for attention. lol

[justbanANNAz]

@M_A_X we're referring to messaging, not really just on the threads.

[M_A_X]

Oh, so you mean like facebook messaging? Gotcha

[justbanANNAz]

@M_A_X i dont have facebook, but whatever. i don't care.

[M_A_X]

I think you're reading something into what I said that I don't mean. I was just confirming I understood what you were saying now.

[Betwyn]

Were you here when we had live chat before?

That is one thing I do not miss at all.

[ikissedtheskyonce]

I agree with blocking anons permanently
They will just keep coming back
One anon did on my question. It was funny because I blocked him again but it's messed up how some anons will stalk users

[justbanANNAz]

@Betwyn i wasn't, but i know i'd enjoy it.

[justbanANNAz]

@ikissedtheskyonce yeah exactly, some of them totally abuse the anon feature.

[justbanANNAz]

@M_A_X ok, my bad. i've encountered so many men with nothing but mockery that it seems i can no longer tell the difference.

[Betwyn]

if you like unsolicited dick pics, yeah.

[M_A_X]

Well, I have aspergers, so mockery is not my game... I have waaayy too many women following me, to be a mocker lol

[justbanANNAz]

@Betwyn how's it unsolicited when u have the private profile option?

[Betwyn]

when we had chat before, anyone could message anyone if they were online.

guys would just pop up asking for nudes or giving them...

[justbanANNAz]

@Betwyn well that's messed up. thank goodness they brought in the private option.

[Betwyn]

oh with inboxing, we always had the private option.

it was just the live chat. Anyone on the site, was fair game.

[VirginiaBeachBum]

I'm sure others have echoed these thoughts, but I'll chime in anyway.

1. Closing out questions this way is just wrong. If they are to be closed, it should be at the option of the asker, not some arbitrary 48 hour period of no opinions or comments or when a MHO is selected. I've found a number of questions for the first time which have been inactive for weeks. Then after giving my opinion, it restarted discussion of the question. Now, I wouldn't even get the chance.

Friday I was in the process of typing a thorough reply to a question. Apparently during that time, the asker selected MHOs (only 5 hours after asking the question) and when I clicked Submit, I was informed the question was closed. So my opinion fell off the face of the earth. Talk about discouraging. If you must close out questions, at least let them be open for 90 days.

2. I'm not sure the Private option was well thought out. As a test, I posted this.

www.girlsaskguys.com/.../q1919826-how-useful-do-you-find-the-private-option-to-be

I selected to allow only private opinions. In doing so, I'm told that anyone not a party to the discussion sees only my question, the update, then a count of the number of each gender which replied the question. So who does it benefit? No one but the asker. And I just did it as a test, because as soon as I reached the minimum number of required replied, I selected MHOs to force closure of the question. So now the question is absolutely worthless to anyone. There are no opinions to like or reply to. How is that beneficial to anyone? I hope this test will illustrate to GAG just how bad the combination of forced private opinions and closed questions are.

If you feel the need for private opinions, then make it an option for each person at the time of reply. People can already post questions and opinions anonymously, so forcing all the opinions to be private seems very unnecessary. Yes, we want GAG to be safer and more pleasant, but this seemed like a giant step in the other direction. This is supposed to be a community. Now it feels less like one.

[VirginiaBeachBum]

(Note: I had to add the following as a reply to this comment, because the system said my post with the text below was too long, even though the counter showed I was only at 2443/2500. So there's an issue which needs to be looked at.)

3. As for the notifications, I'm still deciding on that one. I see the biggest complaint is the number of notifications people are getting, but since I log in frequently and deal with my notifications every time I log on, that hasn't been an issue for me so far. But I'm getting more than I feel I should but can't really put my finger on which ones they are yet. If I see one I think I shouldn't get and can't turn off, I'll reply to this opinion.

[BellePepper]

This is so stupid. WHY do you all keep taking the worst ideas and implementing them? WHHHHHY?
media.giphy.com/media/SEp6Zq6ZkzUNW/giphy.gif
PRIVATE OPINIONS. WHAT WERE YOU ALL THINKING?

This is a LIABILITY issue if nothing less! How many dirty old men will make sexual comments to teen girls in the HDIL topic and noooooooone of them will get removed? You have made this site more accessible to PREDATORS.

Do you know what female users complain about most on this website? PRIVATE MESSAGES. And now you gave people ANOTHER way to leave disgusting messages and harass people!

HOW COULD YOU NOT SEE THIS? **WHO** CAME UP WITH THIS? Please feel free to contact me so I know who to forward all the inappropriate messages I see and hear about to. media.giphy.com/media/4zFx69mkI2Qx2/giphy.gif

You have moderators on this website so USE them.

No one asked for closed questions or polls. NO ONE. If you want more comments on questions why don't you get rid of the "live feed" or change the algorithm so that questions that are more than x days/months old aren't shown?

Wow. So the downvote button was supposed to be back with this update, but it's NOT. Just like being able to follow specific questions is not back. Maybe it you all stopped wasting time with creating new ways for people to be harassed and trolled you would have time to work on these features.

[BellePepper]

Oh! And let's take a look at my awesome new notifications tab! OH WAIT. IT'S USELESS.
https://oi65.tinypic.com/sfh4lc.jpg

Just like the options!
https://oi67.tinypic.com/2zjkxtu.jpg

My notifications tab is NOT the live feed!

[musicbrain5]

More notifications than Facebook! And [phone] for your opinion on the private answers. Never thought of that either.

[BellePepper]

@musicbrain5 Oh my gosh have you seen the girls who will be like "hey guys what do you think of my ass?" And then basically sext with any of the guys they can? Yeah this will def go well. A++ GaG ;D

[BellePepper]

The site is also slower. This update just keeps getting better and better!

[M_A_X]

You've gotten good at making points lately.

I don't see downvotes.

[M_A_X]

Hey, Bellepepper, what do you think of my ass? lol

Joking

[RainbowFanGirl]

I know I'm tired of these UPDATES! They need to begin making G@G greasy again and this is NOT doing it!

[RainbowFanGirl]

great*** haha greasy

[jacquesvol]

@RainbowFanGirl
20 something this morning ;-p

[Girl_Scout]

Here here! I agree wholeheartedly. I've never seen anyone ask for this stuff and now you make it more clear I disagree with the Anon PM and hidden responses.

I got 13 notifications this morning, for three actual notifications. Ridiculous.

[multilevel]

I agree with you :)

[9mfeo]

Yaaaas girl yaaaas. Agree 1x10^30494958584920394%.

[springocelot]

good point about private messages

[dangerDoge]

The notifications are a bit ridiculous, but I mean... They could easily be checked off with settings saved.
Just wondering exactly-- why is it not better to have more options with the notifications and just check off the ones you don't want? That's what I did.

[BellePepper]

@dangerDoge I have checked MANY things off in the settings and I'm STILL getting notifications for things I've unchecked and NOT getting regular notifications for comments on my threads and comments. My notifications tab takes longer to load than actually going to the notifications PAGE. That is a PROBLEM.

I love you Randall, but not even you can spin this into something positive.

[dangerDoge]

Wouldn't that be more of a fixable software but rather than a problem with the update though?

(I must agree with you in one thing though-- I'm not getting any notifications from the notification bar and it is really quite annoying.)

[BellePepper]

@Girl_Scout I've seen people ask for the private commenting but it was usually stupid teenagers and known perverts.

@RainbowFanGirl I am up for anything that makes GaG more like pizza but pizza is great too so I guess that works XD

@multilevel Thank you so much for saying so!

@9mfeo I feel like this entire post was worth it for your comment XD

@springocelot I'm just disappointed it's something WE have to bring up. GaG WAS a good site for younger people to cut their teeth on because there's community feedback, a lot of positivity, and emphasis on personal wellness, and active moderation. If you take away the ability of the community to help police itself, it becomes MUCH more dangerous for users and a less positive place.

There was a study recently that showed that the more pressure a user feels from the online community the better behaved they'll be. When GaG takes away that visibility, they're taking away accountability.

[Laura_Marx]

omg belle tear them to shreds

[Chief16]

First of all nice job with the interface, its become zippier as someone who use G@G on the phone, I appreciate it. But come on...
1) Closed Questions,
Ok so we select MHO, what's to say that someone else might have had an entirely better opinion? Closing questions within 48 hours or selecting One MHO seems so pointless.
2) Private Opinions,
Why? I mean seriously Why? Have you seen the rise and rise on trollers here? Or even worse some people who can do actual harm? Isn't PM already there? What I agree with is that sometimes this can be genuine from what I've noticed, nope, Open Opinions are the way to go.
3) Downvotes... I don't really care now. But you should've never removed it in the first place.
4) Answers displayed according to Xper levels, much appreciated.
Now can we address the real issues?
1) I didn't see a Featured Friday this week. Not even a notification about that.
2) Please find us a way to blacklist those users who spam here, delete their accounts, make new ones, repeat cycle. They're becoming a menace.
3) CONTENT, It didn't just have to an improvement on the interface. We meant quality content too, perhaps a separate section among the Masters/ Gurus/ Xper 9s/ Editors who've contribute here the most anyway.
That and the inclusion of a few more categories, like I mentioned such Psychology or Gaming and so many more.
4) We need more Experts. I've seen only one.

[Yumix]

I don't like the following at all:

"Starting today, all questions will be closed when you select at least one Most Helpful Opinion (you'll be able to select the second one later) or when they are inactive for 48 hours (no new opinions, replies or poll votes).
This will allow us and the community to focus on the open questions that still need attention and those helpful answers you generously provide. Closed Questions can't receive new opinions or poll votes, but you'll still be able to like or reply to an opinion.
To guarantee that we'll have opinions on every question, we also decided to change how the limits of asking questions work. Now you will have a limit of open questions according to your XPER level. Once you reach that limit, you'll need to close a question selecting MHO or wait until we close it for you."

Questions will be even more repetitive with that. This will increase the activity/clicks on the site a lot without making it more useful for the users. Seems more like a way to increase the downgoing activity/clicks...

[Yumix]

also, I think if you do it like this the inactivity should be longer than 48 hours and question updates should reset that counter too or remove the inactivity

[Yumix]

I had the last 2 days no time because of exams and now I can't answer anymore on many questions of my friends and other people I follow -_-

make that thing a week or so if you really need it... but 48 hours is ridiculously short. not everyone is a 24h/7 GAG junkie

[YourFutureEx]

Anyone noticed that we don't need filler to post photo replies anymore?

"When less is more"
Personally, I get the best opinions days after I post my question. I have some stalkers. They know me so well and post the best opinions.

Increase it to 5-7 days. And highlight "questions with no opinions" more to solve the problem.

I liked that question cap. Now users cannot annoy us asking perpetual how do I look and repetitive questions.

"Talk (just) to me"
Good. Just let UberMods to see the content and increase their monthly quota.

"Goodbye, ghosts... hello, people!"
New notification system is annoying. Yeah we'd manage it in settings, but I don't think many users will use your update in which you put a lot of hard work.

Plus, this won't clear the "ghost notification", this will clear that "@mention notification" which is genuine but just isn't visible. So, I don't recommend to use it to get rid of that. You may lose an important reply (@mention).
_________________________

I think you should make a team of users or real life experts to beta test new features before implementation, because it is not good to "test" new things to all of the community. It just annoys them. Some of them are considering leaving. So please take care.

PS: I loved the way you ended your myTake. It's not because I'm a fan of downvotes or something, but the way you represented your scheme in just two short lines was marvellous.

[DiogoRibeiro]

Thanks a lot, man.

We're gathering a lot of feedback to start tweaking these new features.

And we'll definitely have a Beta Tester program real soon. ;)

[YourFutureEx]

The pleasure is all mine :)

[Anonymous]

Closed questions still keep appearing in my news feed so in fact it makes the content worse. It means I have to keep clicking in and out of questions just to find a question that I can answer or see the opinions to.

You shouldn't close it after someone chooses MHO. Not everyone answers opinions just to get MHO and I've found opinions on the MHO much more helpful.

I don't really mind the private option but then again it basically just become a private messaging for two people and means that others who'd also like to know people's opinion on a certain situation then have to ask the question again and you get a load of repeated questions in your newsfeed.

The notifications seem overly complicated and just full with irrelevant information.

THANK GOD THE DISLIKE IS COMING BACK.

Just stop changing unnecessary things or show us your solutions to our problems before you update.

https://media.makeameme.org/created/its-a-.jpg

[gotc147]

Lots of negative responses here...

GAG, you need to realize that there is no way to please everybody on this website, especially in today's PC culture. The "content" issue didn't have anything to do with making questions or opinions private or anything like that, it had everything to do with hyper - sensitive millenials who have problems with people named "Lynch" because they see it as an allusion to slavery.

There is no pleasing these people, they actively search for things to be offended by, even if you deleted every reported post on the site they would not be satisfied because they'll expect you to not allow offensive (to them) posts to be on the website for any length of time, meaning you'll have to learn to predict what people are going to say and stop them before they actually post it, and even then it might not be enough because these people don't even want others having THOUGHTS that are offensive to them.

Stop trying to cater to these people, it's a fools errand.

Other than that, I am completely indifferent to all the changes made lately.

[JuicyBrain]

" sensitive millenials who have problems with people named "Lynch" because they see it as an allusion to slavery."

This is soooooooo true !
People seem to think they have a right to not be offended nowadays. I miss the 80's and 90's when you could say whatever you wanted and people would take it with a grain of salt. Nowadays, some people are actively looking for reasons to be offended and seem to think that everything should be done to put them to rest.

[Wizbit]

I don't like the question closing. I can accept it closing after MHO is selected as that implies the Asker has received a helpful response, but 48hours of inactivity? How does that even work? If I post a question in the evening, people in America won't see it until the following day (middle of the night). By the time my 48hours is up Americans will have had one chance to view. I get that it's 48hours inactivity but bearing in mind people on here have to go to school and work and don't check the feed every day. I know I've sat down to view some questions (which I don't do every day because of other commitments) and every question I'm interested in or have a response for is already closed, even if I only saw it the day before and saved it to respond to later. Won't this just encourage a lot of people to keep replying "bump" to their own posts, or getting their friends (for those with lots of followers) to keep bumping their post leaving the lower ranked members without a hope of getting seen? If questions must close through inactivity at least give it a full 7 days. A month would be better, and then remove it so only people who've posted in it can access it (for MHO etc.)

The privacy feature sounds scary too. It really does seem to be opening the door for abuse. If an Asker/commenter want to discuss privately they have messaging for that. If this isn't possible because the Asker is anonymous it probably means the Asker doesn't want private messages anyway.

Please fix these. I'm finding there's no point in posting as I'm closed before I get a helpful answer, and there's no point reading other people's posts as they're closed before I get there. If the questions don't at least get a week of inactivity before they are closed I won't be using the site any more as it doesn't work. I certainly won't be allowing private comments on my posts.

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

and still no dislike button :/... the 1 thing everyone wanted. besides that, the only the mho closing thing is kinda annoying. some people select them about 5 minutes upon asking the question. sometimes i like answering for the sake of answering and don't mind if people give opinions after i select mho. i personally think if it is possible, that there are no notifications for new answers if the person selects mho. also, a lot of sections don't get enough traffic so for some sections, like men's behavior (random example) would get killed...

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

i agree with @Zendrya. why not let op close their own question?

[hazoplmeught]

EXACTLY

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

@hazoplmeught not to mention the fact that this implies that the question will get a good answered in about 48 hours... what if i get 20 trolls? so now, i get no adequate answer and i probably have to wait to ask another question and pray to allah i get a good answer

[hazoplmeught]

LOL exactly, i hate these updates. Less content? you could only post 2 or 3 questions a day in the first place. All i asked for was downvotes smh

[Zendrya]

I'm thinking the same thing

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

@hazoplmeught these dudes really drop the ball. if they wanted less content, they should limit the amount of:

how do i look?
is my dick big?
my boyfriend thinks my boobs look small?
is peanut butter real?
can i pick my nose and eat the boogers?

type questions. most of it is straight up spam. instead, they're just taking it out on us.

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

*those

@zendaya or once the time stamp (the min/h/d/w/mo) thing on the top right of each question/take/answer goes away, the question is automatically closed then. cause that means it's been like 4+ months

[Zendrya]

I agree to that as well

[hazoplmeught]

LOL but sometimes those questions are funny and i want to see those opinions

[DiogoRibeiro]

@Zendrya @Other_Tommy_Wiseau The original poster can close it by selecting MHO. We'll look into giving askers another way of closing a question.

[Zendrya]

To the mytake maker... the problem is we just don't want our questions closed

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

@hazoplmeught yeah, but people take them seriously and i'm just like
teensleuth.com/.../...s-wept-iii-ricky-barnard.jpg

and they ask them like every hour on the hour. every once in a while is fine, but after that, just no.

[hazoplmeught]

true

[JuicyBrain]

Hmm... I mostly agree with what you said, but the thing that keeps popping into my mind is... Is peanut butter real? I mean... Is it?

[Other_Tommy_Wiseau]

@JuicyBrain it's actually debatable.

[BeeNee]

I think you guys are obviously trying to make GaG a better site and community and I have appreciated the open dialog and getting to vote on changes. I'm at peace with everything here... except, 48 hours to close down a question with inactivity. This I believe should be optional or at least the time extended. We as askers are asking for opinions because we want them. That shouldn't be closed off so swiftly. I think also the byproduct of this will be that MHO's will now be discouraged because people will know that that will shut down their ability to receive opinions from those who have not already left their own.

[ClariceOwen23]

Well I dislike that questions get closed now. I can't think of a single benefit to it. Even if you do impement the feature, the asker should have the option to manually do it. Sometimes I like receiving opinions on really old questions, even if I've already selected an MHO. Also, 48 doesn't seem like enough time. Maybe a month would be better.

I'm personally indifferent to the private opinions. But in addition to the "Allow only private opinions." feature, I think there should be one for "Don't allow private opinions", just like the options to not allow anonymous opinions.

[NearlyNapping]

So let me get this straight. It wasn't long ago that GaG made a change to encourage more answers after MH is selected. That got a positive response. So now GaG turns around and does just the opposite?

The easiest way to focus on unanswered questions is to only list the question one time in the feed, not a listing for every answer. That will nearly doubling the number of question displayed in the feed. That wouldn't completely solve the problem, but it's a very simple and easy start.

Want better quality? Stop giving points for spam. This site encourages quantity not quality.

[YourFutureEx]

This site encourages quantity not quality.

This ^

[poopedmypantsagain]

I have been on this site for a while now.. and like it very much.. as I like to give my opinions to many questions that are asked.. not all though because some are just so dumb they are not worth even the time of day.. but this new update where closing questions after a short time, in my view has changed this site a lot with that one up I went to give an opinion on something I had never gave one on before.. and to my surprise.. it was closed.. so I went to another and low and behold it was closed as well, If you really want to put on a great update that I think people would like.

Is first of all take the closing thingy of questions.. off.. and put it back the way it was, then second take off some of the very and I mean very stupid questions that get asked on here.. most are sex questions.. that are common sense to start with.. but to me sound like they are put there by little kids that just lied to get on this site to start with and hoping to get some response.. but they really know nothing about the stupid question they even asked.. anyone can make an account.. it does not matter if you 9 years old.. you just lie.. and as we all know there are many many liars on the net

[JuicyBrain]

I think that closing questions soon is a good idea, but it could be much better, like making sure nobody can leave opinions at all ! I mean, obviously, if I ask a question, I want as less people to answer it as possible. Also, who would want to have all those notifications? We all know notifications are for stuff like knowing that someone is now following you or that you've been awarded MHO. THOSE are important stuff ! Knowing someone is interested in what you have to say and actually took time to write an opinion? Who wants that ! That's why questions should be closed early ! Cause the last thing you want is for people to actually participate.

[funny_strange_man]

@JuicyBrain You go against what this site is about. You can not get any less comments and any less participation than zero. Why are you even on here.

[JuicyBrain]

@funny_strange_man
As soon as I have some time, I will explain the concept of sarcasm to you...

[funny_strange_man]

I know exactly what sarcasm is because I use it a lot myself.

[Mesonfielde]

I have two major gripes with this

1.) You intend to make the place a safer environment, but now Private opinions that ONLY the QA can see are the perfect way to troll and antagonize someone with the mods having no ability to see them.

It's like repeat offenders with Private profiles, just worse.

2.) Just because people don't answer my question for 2 days doesn't mean I gave up on it. What if I would like to feature it? Oh, by the time it gets featured it's closed and nobody can answer. Sounds fun, lol.

[Mesonfielde]

Really, updates are limited to 2 per WEEK

Who cares about the update if you can't even post on it anymore

[Mesonfielde]

You could close questions that are 3 months old or more, but I received opinions on year old questions that I have replied to, so eh.

I think closing a question only makes sense if the QA explicitly chooses to, it should be undoable, or if the system selects the MHO for you (and even then it should be undoable).

I think autoclosing makes sense on questions where the QA terminated their account.

[funny_strange_man]

A featured question gets reopen for only 24 hours

[Mesonfielde]

@funny_strange_man... lol, that is a sad question lifespan I would feel ripped off of 750 xper