The GAG community feels less and less like a community and just "a bunch of GAGers", and here's why

[Mesonfielde]

You might have noticed that a bunch of people have left. Most of them GURUs, Level 9s and MASTERs.

• NateInAk


• watashiwahanadesu


• misscoffeehead


• GalaxyHotChoc


• Your_boss960


• Chick180


• mistninja314


• ButtHoleSandwich


• CommieDearest


• harakiri


• kheserthorpe


• smokahontas


• sammy_31

There's a reason for that. Most people choose to leave, I personally think it's better to discuss the problem. Although that's wishful thinking: the lack of discussions is part of the problem in the first place.

BEFORE WE GO ON, let's discuss what GAG used to be worth sticking around for

Everyone has thought about "hey, I spend way too much time on this site! I should probably do something else". But back then, people thought this was still a better way to spend the time. Why is that? What was what kept people here?

If you ask me, it's the discussions, the debates, the "popular" questions where someone asked an odd question, and got 20 detailed answers from each sex! But not just "what is your favorite color" type of deals.

For example, this question Why don't Islamic women realize they are being oppressed and stripped of their freedom, and instead run away and become atheists?

It got 54 opinions, but not only that, look at the lengthy discussions in opinion comments!

It's a legitimate discussion. It's a debate. People actually seemed like they cared.

Nowadays, it feels like they don't.

1. Gender-based restriction limiting the content available

I'm not sure if this needs any additional explanation, but I literally screencapped these questions next to each other on the feed, it's not photoshop or anything.

I already had a take on this, and I still think it was a terrible idea.

2. Ability to add opinions directly from the feed

3. The fade-out effect on opinions that are longer than FOUR LINES (or, God forbid, uses paragraphs), essentially punishing anyone who makes a lengthy, detailed answer

4. Filters and other feed changes that have made it difficult to see questions that the community finds interesting

Let's list the problems here, shall we?

• The age and sex filters are somewhat arbitrary, I hope people don't overuse it


• Changing it to QUESTIONS makes you be able to see only "Asked" events, but you cannot see "commented on" and "updated" events


• Changing it to ALL POSTS makes you be able to see "commented on" events as well, but it's available only on the My Feed, and it's pretty obscure and unintuitive (I had to check that just for this take to make sure, heh)


• People who set it so they only see the questions of those they follow are going to talk to a tiny minority of people


• If you set a filter, it doesn't actually get you any more pages, I literally had only 3 results on this page after I set these filters you see on the image (I think that's a bug.)

Mostly, the biggest problem is that the filters are not customizable. The Site Feed is not notified on "commented" events anymore and cannot be set to be that way, and also doesn't show updates! Essentially questions are dead the moment they are asked.

5. Low XPER rewards facilitate short low-effort answers, often one-sentence answers; quantity over quality (hand in hand with the fade-out effect)

This is the biggest problem, people gather XPER for the sense of progression - but the only way that's possible is by making MANY answers. It doesn't matter whether that's a 2000 character answer or just a ~100 character tweet.

We are basically not answering each other, we're just writing tweets!!!

Solution:

I believe the solution would be, instead of coming up with new ways how to block people from having a discussion and answering in general (anonymous people can just halt debates by blocking EVERY comment on a given opinion); we should instead try to facilitate opinion comments, discussion, communication between people.

I think OPINION COMMENTS should be rewarded by 1 XPER each.

I also think OPINIONS should be rewarded with +2 XPER if the character count is over 1000.

I think we should also remove this fade thing because it honestly makes it tedious to read anything that's longer than a three-line answer, or has paragraphs in it.

I think there should be a way to see what's been selected as Trending.

I think questions that are updated should appear on the Site Feed.

I think the customizability of the previous search conditions (ability to see where someone selected an MHO, commented, updated, etc.) was a lot better, and it should be definitely brought back.

I think GAG should facilitate asking both sexes instead of just one (+1 XPER for asking a question that's asked at both sexes).

I think GAG should focus on building the community that provides multiple points of view and engages in mature discussion, rather than facilitate creating your own little personal space where everyone's patting your back and nobody ever disagrees with you. If we stick to the same beliefs throughout our lives and rely on "that's what I've been told" rather than through actual facts, we will never improve as people.

We should just... discuss things in general. Rather than tweet at the question asker, then carry on - never bothering to read the opinions of others. Talk to each other. Discuss things.

Like in the good old days.

[Klara-Hitler]

You forgot MrScTi.

all that you said is true. but to be honest meson de fielde I feel disconnected from the community since nearly a year ago. never felt that connected either.

I come here in short times mostly before going to sleep to help people, teenagers etc. and I don't need to communicate with anyone for that.

and there are tons of websites for just answering two questions to fill your time but here the design is prettier and you can relate with questions easily.

so in the whole I can say I could care less. I am going to be absent for 3-4 months myself because of my summer semester and compressed schedule in Canada. I'm already not very present.

So I hope they improve the site for the community but personally I can't care about it that much.

the only funny thing I see on this thread is some people claiming they wanna leave because there is no discussion when they always were the discussion poopers themselves with their assumptions and name callings and over sarcastic behaviour without being able to provide any explanation for what they claim is the truth. These people killed and kill the discussions and now they want to leave because nobody has time to discuss anything. better this way if you ask me.

that is it.

[I_am_repulsive]

You're going to Canada? Wow

[Mesonfielde]

I didn't know @MrScTi as well. >.>
Well, make sure you have fun, and keep your profile on not-private so if you ever deactivate, people can still read the insight you shared! It'd be a shame to let your detailed answers go to waste.

[Klara-Hitler]

@I_am_repulsive well, I was in Canada until February this year. I came to Germany to have a little free time with my boyfriend. I have to go back there for my university. though I'm not Canadian I go there for studying. living there for the two past years.

[I_am_repulsive]

Which province?

[Klara-Hitler]

@I_am_repulsive Ontario

- mesonfielde and here another reason I don't care about the site. I was trying to reply for 30 minutes now. It is so down that you can't even reply.

and thanks meson. I appreciate the words they mean a lot. same for you. I hope I find the time to have some discussions with you again.

[I_am_repulsive]

I've never been in Ontario, but I do live in two provinces; BC and Alberta

[Klara-Hitler]

@I_am_repulsive and I never been anywhere else but the city I live in in Ontario, Ottawa and Quebec.

[RedThread]

Dude I was gonna write a take like this before I left but now I don't think I have to. I don't feel connected to people on here anymore.. My opinions no longer matter and I felt it was just because I use the site less but that's not it at all.. People don't take part in discussions anymore and people up vote and down vote less too. I also dislike the trend of the site to push us towards writing takes and I'm not even into this shit lol

It all adds up to something I can't support and get myself behind anymore which is why I won't be here much longer. Everything I do feels like a drop in the ocean now not just because the community is larger.

[Klaatu51]

r u gonna leave as well? :/

[Watermelonoma]

I feel you dude. I've felt the same way. I'd love to stay in touch with you though

[Prof_Don]

Don't leave us, bro! We need to bring back the spice to this site!

But I do know how you feel. The newer users here are either not sociable or have bad social skills.

The females come off as very stand-offish and disengaged, and the males don't seem receptive to talking to another male user at all (probably because they're horny).

[hypno-trip]

Wow I remember you too from long back sad to see you go

[RedThread]

@watermelonoma I'll leave you and some others contact info before I leave.

[Watermelonoma]

Sweet,

[RedThread]

But yeah to elaborate on my answer.. G@G needs to include things that encourage discussion and some social interactions. I mean if I just wanted to write I could keep a journal lol

Encourage us to comment and take part. That was the beauty of the this site that kept me always coming back for more. I felt like people valued my input and I values theirs. Now it's just a random assortment of comments and answers that don't really come together or mean anything.

Also the sit is pushing us more toward takes and I'm not feeling that stuff at all. I think it takes away from the questions where we interact more. I also think the administrations tendency to promote all controversial subjects for click bait is kind of lame too.

[vishna]

You're honestly one of the people on this site that instantly struck me. I think you have a wonderful mind, and I admire the way you view life. Phew, had to get that off my shoulder before you left @RedThread

[RedThread]

@vishna thank you very much. That means a lot. I always valued what you have to say too.

[Mesonfielde]

It's just a shame all the cool people never bothered to share contacts for any other platform.
People don't take part in discussions because they don't read other opinions. They also don't read opinions because they are all just one-liners. It feels like every opinion is devoid of soul, but mine included. It just feels like there is no point to putting effort into what you say, because nobody will read it. I guess you know exactly what I mean.

[Political_dude]

I agree masters

[mooky06]

I am unsure who those people are, but I assume they were active users before I began my Gag journey. I'm not quite sure how things worked back then, but I can see there is a lot of people not liking the system. Maybe the people who run the site can see this and stop making changes.

[Mesonfielde]

They will always be making changes, that is certain, it is just a question of what the effects of said changes are. The people I mentioned are mostly level 9 and above, some were also moderators, or even super moderators for a long time who have been here for more than 3 years ( @kheserthorpe for example ). All of them leaving at the same time wasn't just a coincidence... Although after I disabled the fade effect on the desktop, it got a lot better.

[mooky06]

Oh that's understandable. Users who were on here for 3 years? wow. I can see what you mean when they will always be making changes. It's like a ripple effect. It kind of affects every user on GaG doesn't it?

[Mesonfielde]

Yeah. Some changes are great (I like the mention system for example), some are tolerable (you can get used to how male and female opinions are not side by side since a kinda long time ago), some are pretty bad (increasing the Amazon gift card priced ticked off many people) and some are just site concept changing for the worse (point 2 and 3 in the take). I kinda like 2, but I also hate it for what it created. And even jackkerouac77 and RedThread are leaving. Red thread has been here for as long as I can remember.

[mooky06]

Oh I can see. I would assume if Gag does more drastic changes the more active/high levelled/long-term users will start to leave. Which is a great petty.

[Pink2000]

I never took gag that serious. Maybe cause I haven't been here for long.

[DessieDoo]

I agree with you 100%. I was directed to this site back two months ago upon asking a question in my googles search bar. I scrolled through this site and found it as appealing as ever. However, much has changed in these past two months. I see more questions about dick size or younger children's sex life than I do anything else. I have tried to change my settings but have gotten no where. It seems like as the days pass, more and more questions are becoming sexual and just plain unappealing to me. And it seems as though the more younger people utilize this site, the more older people we lose. This is now becoming more of a "Facebook" than a site to get actual advice on.
At first I loved it on here. I am in school for psychology to become a social worker and part of my work is to view others problems and give lengthy advice to them. How am I supposed to give lengthy advice on dick sizes or a young 13 year old girl who thinks she is in love with a man whom gave her an STD? To me, that does not require advice. Those are more common sense questions that (I feel) people put out there for attention. Needless to say, this site has gone down hill fast and I'm not sure if I will even stay on here much longer.
Also, I have noticed that more so than not, people aren't really giving out advice. Their answers are short and for the most part, rather hostile. People take their bad day out on some individuals within this site and I don't believe that was why this site was created. I myself have not posted much within this side aside from me giving advice to the individuals who actually need it. I have posted maybe 4 things, I believe, in my time being here. To which I got an extreme amount of negativity because people, for God only knows what reason, take offense to things that should not bother them.
I tend to stay away from the questions that I feel people don't really need advice on. Other people lack the self control that some of us possess. Which definitely makes it all the more hard to even be a member of such a site. I for one can not deal with negativity. And that seems to be what this site is becoming.

[Mesonfielde]

I'm pretty sure it came about with the ability to post an opinion from the feed, which I covered in 2). Questions that are interesting are drowned by all the questions that hold no intellectual value. Even sexual questions can be asked in such a way that they are interesting, but the problem really here is that opinions just aren't written to be read. And opinions aren't read, so it's true.

[Red_Arrow]

I agree with most of what your Take is saying. And I respect your opinion of things that I do not agree with. But on many things I feel like we are looking at two different G@Gs. For example, your point 2 is that people can add from the feed without reading other answers. That part does not bother me terribly. The part that bothers me is that the feed may show the question and one or two sentences of explanation. Or it may show several lines of explanation. But in either case being able to answer from there means that you probably have not read the whole question, and you have not read the updates. The picture you included showed the question with all of the explanation below it. I have never seen that in the Feed. It is always truncated. And answering a question when you really haven't read the whole question is crazy.
For Filters, you state that ALL POSTS is available only on My Feed. That did not sound right so I checked and ALL POSTS shows for both My Feed and for Site Feed. And if people only want to look at certain things, then why force them to read others. Let them have the filters.
#5 I totally disagree with. Not so long ago with more points being awarded I saw people on here posting anything on one question after another just because they quickly added big points. Questions like "What would you recommend I do about..." were being answered by "I don't know" and you would see about the same answer by the same person on question after question. I see less of that with the lower points now. But I agree with your ideas for more points for longer answers.
One thing that I see as a part of the demise of G@G is that it used to be a site to ask or answer questions. Then it became a community (something you are touting) and that community would respond to a question with an answer, a comment would be added, then the "community" would start joking and talking about other things, and the question itself and the opinion of the person whose opinion they hijacked were buried. That was definitely not in line with the purpose of G@G. And many of the people you mentioned were deeply involved in that behavior. they were nice people, but they wanted G@G to be a playground for banter, and created such important threads as "Post a picture of yourself in your pajamas." "Who is the prettiest?" "Who should marry who?" That is the kind of stuff I saw really killing the purpose of G@G.

[Mesonfielde]

I am not taking about the banter when I refer to comments, although it is a valid point. I used to make comments that were relevant to the discussion at hand, sometimes disagreeing with the opinion owner. And we all discussed things. Now, you make a comment, and nobody responds. Why would they? There is no reward.

And the problem with the filters is that you cannot customize the event types you see. If you look only at questions, you only see "asked question" event. If you look at all posts, you see takes and questions, and THEN you see "shared opinion" events as well, but you still no longer see commented on, nor do you have the option.

[Red_Arrow]

I have not experimented to be sure of one thing you are mentioning, Are you sure that "All Posts" does not show comments? Because "All Posts" by definition means ALL things that get POSTed, and that would include comments.

[Mesonfielde]

I'm pretty sure it's "asked, got Most Helpful Award, shared an opinion on".
If you search "Questions", then it's exclusively "asked".

[Red_Arrow]

Just check and see the following immediately:

Klaatu51 commented on opinion
6min
Nicest g@ger who is never mean and gets along with everyone?

So the comments do show up there.

[Mesonfielde]

... wait, how did you achieve that?

[Red_Arrow]

I am on My Feed with no age selected and All Posts selected. And Klaatu is again listed for a comment only a minute ago.

[JackKerouac77]

You're right on all these accounts, Meson. Since you've been here far longer than I have, there is also a certain credibility to your recollection of "the good old days" (which is a term I don't really like to use, because nostalgia is relative). I fear that since the site has gotten more popular, it has become less and less of a discussion board and more of a personalized cash cow to Tolga and other investors. Otherwise it would be completely catered toward the users, correct?

And the fact that you and other bright guys like @YourFutureEx sit around and constantly suggest improvements to the site that never receive some sort of recognition from the owners baffles me. They're not even paying you! The least they could do is put up a freakin' MyTake that says "Thank so-and-so for working to make this site all it can be."

But I'll also agree with @RedThread on his points. I'm departing in a few days and that's that. GaG has been a great learning experience in many things and I am glad to have made your acquaintance along with others, but it's time to go.

[Mesonfielde]

You should at least throw me your Skype account or something. You were once the soul of the site, it's just that with all questions being dead as soon as they are posted, it's difficult to keep life inside it.

[JackKerouac77]

Dawg I ain't got no Skype account. I'll make one last question where you can PM me for email address if necessary.

[YourFutureEx]

We give suggestions just because we like to ameliorate the place we love but yeah, it hurts when they ignore it completely just because it's not good for business.

I want to participate in your last question but I don't know if I can. I'm having exams so I am not that active nowadays. But I hope I'll catch it on time.

Thanks for everything :)

[Prof_Don]

Everybdy must move on sometimes. Kick ass in life, bro !

[JackKerouac77]

@Prof_Don
Thanks, brother! Stay fly.

@YourFutureEx
Yes, I know you do it because you care. I'll put up a last question tonight and hopefully you can see it.

[YourFutureEx]

Tryin' my best to stay awake for the last night of cornbread cult 😢

[Kris85]

Jackie you better message me and leave me your contact info!!! 😢

[JackKerouac77]

@Kris85
Send me the word "lemon" and you'll get my email!

[Illusive_Man]

The matter of fact is this.
GaG in the end is merely a platform.
It was built from the grounds up where male and female are segregated and set lose on each other and traditionally that is all it took for a spark to be produced.

The conflict of the male/female perspective but as the time moved on , the perspective at least as far as I've seen... is starting to converge.

The male/female are starting to reach a consensus , or at least on most issues excluding the outlier to the case.

Now what we have here is a case where entropy tends towards infinity.
A sort of soup of agreeing opinions where 99% of the time , people agree with each other and it becomes a sort of reaffirming cycle.

www.doomsteaddiner.net/.../entropy.jpg

The stars are extinguishing.
That is a given end to the order of things. However, what makes GaG different from the universe is..."new matter" is created constantly.

Stars that were previously overshadowed by the MASSIVE RED GIANTS that blotted out the sky , they are now starting to appear now that the red giant is gone.

Perhaps we'll see how these new stars develop.
You do have to remember, many of the users above have gone through multiple hiatuses , they are by no means young stars in the eco-system of GaG.

[Dandeus]

I think xper should be done away with entirely. It adds nothing meaningful. It only ever served a measure of posting frequency, not quality. Its existence inevitably leads to people being here and posting either for the rewards themselves or for the status xper levels imply (and that was true of some of the names you listed as well).

Make posting its own reward, not a tool for other rewards, and you'll have people engaging only in discussions that matter.

From the technical standpoint, I agree with your criticisms of the changes to this site. The changes they make are mostly done on a whim, never beta tested, and for the most part wind up making the site less usable. This site is a designers nightmare.

[Mesonfielde]

On the design standpoint, as you can see, all my screenshots are inverted in color because the default layout on desktop makes my eyes hurt. :P

I like the idea of getting Amazon giftcards though, and people like having a sense of progression. But I do admit it's more of an indicator of activity, and not how valuable you are as a member of the site in terms of question/opinion quality.

[Starrk]

I agree. I must admit it does get irritating to see someone with a huge dilemma write out a detailed description of their problem in hopes of getting good advice, but instead of getting any meaningful advice, most of the opinions are short one-liners that probably took the opinion owner 10 seconds to write.

Too many people on this site (especially some of these so called Masters/Gurus) are more concerned with reaching the next Xper or obtaining a shitty Amazon gift card then to actually help people who are in real need of advice.

Maybe it's just me, but Quantity should never be rewarded at the expense of Quality.

[Mesonfielde]

What sucks is that I can't really blame them for not bothering with a more detailed answer. What if the QA doesn't even read it? What if pretty much nobody reads it? The moment it's over 4 lines, it gets faded out now, too. Writing that javascript that removes the fade effect on the desktop was the best thing I could do since sliced bread, hah. ( www.girlsaskguys.com/.../q1526942-do-you-hate-the-fading-effect-of-4-line-opinions-so-much-that-you-d )

[Prof_Don]

Damn that fade feature! On mobile it is such a pain because the tap to expand it doesn't always register, ruining my site experience! :-/

[Watermelonoma]

a good number of those users you listed left because they had online relationships with other gag'ers that turned sour. Some left because the guys were just too harassing, while others just simply outgrew the site. I do think the kind of questions are of lower quality these days, but I honestly believe that people are taking these recent departures way too seriously. I mean i hear so much talk about the end of gag because a few popular users left. They were generally cool people, but as long as the site continues to grow (which seems to be happening), those people will be replaced by new bloods

[Prof_Don]

Such is the circle of life, bro! At one point the two of us were both newbies! :-P

[Watermelonoma]

@Prof_Don

A VERY long time ago, yes.. hah

[DivaMonae]

Thank You... Thank You... Thank You... Thank You... Thank You! It's really irritating the crap out of me there's so many members that honestly don't give a crap about helping others and only about getting xper points to get their level up or get free prizes.

1. There's a lot of people that just write a quick sentence or two of that.

2. Most of the questions are random and has nothing to do with giving advice/helping others and the ones that does people pay no mind to.

GAG is really going down hill 😕

[Prof_Don]

I will definitely say Ms. Monae... GaG has definitely gone corporate and its soul is dying. :-/

[RedThread]

@Prof_Don This is another thing.. It HAS gone very corporate.. They clearly have good marketing guys/girls now maximizing revenue but I feel it's at the expense of the quality of the site..

[Prof_Don]

I know! I need to be more active to revive the soul of this place! :-D

[springocelot]

@Prof_Don - that go me thinking, maybe i should actually ask questions. haven't asked one since i joined two years ago. but i'm supposed to be studying for something very important right now...

[Prof_Don]

I was quite the kick ass question asker when I started here! Then I got more busy in the work / career world and I became more of an advice answerer than a thoughtful question asker!

[springocelot]

This is a great Take!

Before commiedearest left she wrote a post how she was thinking of leaving partly because the moderation sucked now. I agree with this. I've seen so many questions on here with lively discussion taken down just because it doesn't fit with GaGs politically-correct agenda.

Case in point was a question from a french dude shortly after the Charlie Hebdo attacks. He lived in a neighborhood with a bunch of muslims and was sharing his experiences and warning us so to speak. It got so many comments but was taken down. Shame.

[Mesonfielde]

I had nothing to do with that, although yes, it's difficult to tread along the line what is not considered "offensive" according to the guidelines.

[springocelot]

Just curious too, why did you italicize kheserthorpe and commiedearest?

[Mesonfielde]

Because I feel really bad about them leaving!

[Creole_Flavor]

I agree that the change in the UI/UX is a bit annoying. I think the features were meant to help because a lot of people complain about not wanting to see certain questions and age groups. What bothers me is that nobody seems to use the damn search feature its the same thing every day, the trolling is rampant and not enough is being done about it. When people complain, others defense is to deal with because this is the internet but if this is a community where there are people that can control the situation then it needs to be done. When I log on I have to do a lot of scrolling to find an interesting question, something that has not been asked a million times, a question worth answering, a question where my advice will be well received ( though lately its been better), and question that is not just plain dumb.

[Mesonfielde]

The search feature sucks, because it defaults to searching "by relevancy", but the only way it actually works well is "by date". You can supposedly unfollow sexual behavior and sexual health topics then use the my feed, but I don't think that would fix the actual problem here.

[Creole_Flavor]

No it won't fix anything lol

[apexalpha]

I think you should get rewarded more xper points depending on how long your opinion is in terms of words not characters its not fair that a several paragraph long opinion is worth the same as a one line opinion and also the upvotes you get could be counted towards xper points

[Mesonfielde]

I actually agree with the upvotes too, I thought about it but I had already posted the myTake by then. Back in the day a long long time ago, that's how it used to be.

[BaileyisDarcy]

I hate the fade out thing!

My computer hates me at times and will stuff up on me, meaning every now and then it won't let me open the comment boxes to let me read the comment in full.

I almost always write long comments, unless it's just an idiot who I'm calling out on their shit. So when my computer doesn't let me read my own comment, I just. . . grgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgaehgdugfsfuagrouahrgru3igjlaebgaerlbjrgblaejkkraeb. jvhgvhgfgvmhjbkhfxbnvmhbjcgvmnbfghtfjhvgfgsersfawrtyi7yfjhkhvnchftjhvncf.

[BaileyisDarcy]

I also hate the way the site decides that once you've posted an opinion you no longer care.
I want to read the other responses dammit, I'll click out of the page when I damn well want to.

[Mesonfielde]

Just use this https://pastebin.com/kHii7nYd with some extension that allows you to run custom javascript after you load the page (I use CUSTOM JAVASCRIPT FOR SITES extension in Chrome)

[Mesonfielde]

It works on desktop aka PC

[PeachSunset]

Nooo I love mistninja314 :( He's so funny and I love that pick up line he always uses when he enters a question or take, let me imitate it lol:
s3.amazonaws.com/.../...4152-8694-77e9c921d9ff.gif
You're so right and really smart though! GAG should really start reading over these opinions from people and making changes.
there's already that option to ask only guys, only girls, or both for your question, I REALLY hope they don't do an age restriction thing...
Like only asking people from ages 18 plus for example.
Although, it can be useful when it comes to inappropriate or sexual questions for kids under like 13 or something, I feel like people would use it the wrong way and use it because they think younger people aren't mature or wise enough to answer their questions.

[justbanANNAz]

this is good, and i agree with the points u made, altho i still believe all those wonderful people left primarily for their own reasons, and then because of the site.
i had contact with some of them and they did leave because of their own lives, not necessarily how the site was. it is true though that it is less of a community. i dont feel as close to users here as i used to 2 years ago when i joined. i used to want to get to know people on a level where id wanna meet up with them someday, but now i dont feel that.
i think GaG as a site just needs to get back to basics and quit trying to modernise something that was already great to begin with. we're not just internet persona here. a lot of us r real people. -.-

[Phoenix98]

You know the saying if its not broke don't try to fix it and don't mess with a good thing.

[GirlScoutsRevenge]

I think many moves have been made to increase the traffic and questions answered, during that process people have stopped answering properly. Iran, having th option to answer a question you haven't even read? What is that about? Plus I'm missing out on so many questions because they are set to guys only.

The changes recently are shit and I've commented a lot less. Plus I'll never make it to my next gift card do genuinely have lost some interest in answering with any length.

[YourFutureEx]

"We are basically not answering each other, we're just writing tweets!!!"
-Great!!!

Rewarding xper for opinion comments?
-Let's chat and earn (bad)

Character count over 1000?
-Great

Remove fade thing?
-Great

Trending?
-It is nothing, literally.

1 xper for asking from both sexes?
-Just abolish this

[Mesonfielde]

""Rewarding xper for opinion comments?
-Let's chat and earn (bad)""

What's the problem with that? I think it facilitates reading the opinions of others. You can't really comment on what you haven't read, and if mods remove your stuff for being irrelevant, you lose the reward for it anyways. With the increased prices, it honestly wouldn't be unfair either.

[YourFutureEx]

They'll get bankrupt

[DodgersGM]

I agree with a lot of your points, Mesonfielde.

I think GaG has sacrificed quality in the name of quantity, and that's what we're seeing happen here.

That, and there's also the fact that the site's demographics have changed a lot. Not that there's anything wrong with it, but the site has turned into a lot of "Pre-teens Ask Pre-teens."

Lastly, I think the site lets too much offensive material slide. That's admittedly subjective, though.

[Mesonfielde]

For the last point, it just feels wrong to hide a question after there are so many informative answers on them to disprove the question asker. Sometimes I end up wondering I should.

[DodgersGM]

Yeah, I've run into the same thing. I just try to do my best to interpret the rules, and when in doubt I don't remove.

[Pedantic]

I think they are pretty sharp and understand the effects of the changes they make. I suspect advertisers and affilliates need to be shown a certain level of activity/response to charge a certain rate.

This business of business is business.

[lanternhill]

The questions being dead thing - if accurate, that drives me nuts. I hate asking questions only to get nothing after almost an hour, along with updates. I also hate the restricted feed.

In general I agree with the idea of rewarding opinion comments and facilitating good discussion rather than simply responding to get points.

[Mesonfielde]

Exactly what I was thinking.