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0.5 stars
"Windows Live QnA Beta: Not what it claims to be."
Pros: Great for finding out what myths this small group of people continue to adhere to regardless of Scientific Research and easily available information.
Cons: Unlikely to receive accurate answers by experts. Unatractive to serious minds. The majority of the most active and frequent participants seems to be uneducated american females. Continuous drama between users.
Summary: Users can ask questions and have them answered in real time. Anyone with an email account can ask, answer, and comment on questions. Registered users are then responsible for voting for a best answer. Typically the best answer chosen is not the most helpful and accurate answer. Users are awarded points for answering and voting. Users can acheive stars through receiving a high ratio of best answers. Users are permited to set up as many accounts as they want as long as they don't vote on or answer their own questions. However, it is poorly moderated and little prevention is in place to keep users from doing just that.
Once a question is asked it has a matter of days where it remains open for answers. Then it moves into a voting stage. However, registered users are free to vote for a best answer as soon as there exist at least two answers. Not having to wait for the question to be in the voting stage means that often times those that answer the question later in time will never get voted on simply because the votes have already been cast. After a number of days the voting stage closes and the question is permanently closed. If there were enough votes cast (at least 3) then the best answer is the answer with the most votes. If there is a tie, the best answer goes to the tied answer that answered first.
Another feature is the 'report abuse' button. If enough users report abuse on a question, answer, or comment, then the QnA system automatically removes the content for review. The removed content then goes to randomly selected registered QnA users to decide what content is put back up and which content goes on to a paid team to evaluate. The random moderators are not all that random. They are chosen by their use of the report abuse function and by their length of time with QnA. They are not trained on the coc.
This creates a lot of dysfunction of the QnA site as these random moderators can put back up their own content that has been reported along with content of users that they favor. This system is abused often and has caused great distress. Trolls can report abuse from multiple QnA accounts and have the questions, answers, and comments of users that they dislike quickly removed by the automated system. Often times targeting good questions and the most competitive of answers.
Currently QnA seems more like a chat site and is a far fetch from being an informational database. The QnA Team is inconsistant with the enforcement of their code of conduct(coc) which causes an immense amount of confusion.
For example, the coc states that chat is not allowed in questions, answers, or comments. A team member posts continually that chat is allowed as long as it is in the comments. Seemingly, allowing chat for some users, and not for others.
It would appear that a user cannot earn a reputation higher than two stars (five is the highest) without breaking the coc.
Also, those that provide accurate answers and list their sources, are not treated kindly but are ignored by the chatterboxes of the community who are there to further their own popularity through mindless prattle rather than answers of substance.
Also, the continuing melodrama from interpersonal relationships that take place on this site becomes annoying and tireing over time. Many try out the site, become 'hooked' on it for a length of time, and then leave discusted, hurt, and feeling anger towards the preferential treatment that they feel they are seeing.
QnA's lack of supervision creates an environment where the assinine chase off the wise. Cheating is rewarded and honesty and good answers are punished. Suggestions by its members on how to improve the way points are awarded and add incinitives for honest behavior and good answers has gone ignored since the beginnings of QnA.
This is the result of a voting system that encourages voters to not vote for the best answer, but the answer that they feel is most likely to win. A user is rewarded extra points if they vote for the answer that receives the most votes. This means voting for a popular user or voting for the first answer. The first answer usually being a quick couple of words written in haste. Its a feedback loop creating users to race to be the first to submit an answer. The voting system also encourages collaboration between users (and multiple accounts) though it is strictly prohibited in the coc it is not effectively monitered.
If a true informational database is wanted, more anonymity would go a long ways when it comes to seeing who is asking the question, and who has answered, and in scrambling the order of the answers. If one is to browse through the closed questions it becomes obvious that answers are not being chosen by merit and factual accuracy but by some other means.
I would advise anyone seeking to use the Windows Live QnA Beta site to first browse its pages and not rush into something they might later regret.
Updated on Dec 18, 2008Also, after Questions close and a best answer is selected, users have the option to decide if the best answer matches up appropriatly with the question, if it was helpful. The way to do this is very misleading.
Beside the question, to the upper right, their is a little box that says "this question is closed" and asks "is it helpful" with a "yes' button and a "no" button to click on. However, ALL the answers are still there underneath the question and the best answer. And even if the best answer was wrong or totally unrelated to the question, there might be helpful information listed in one of the other answers.
The only way that I knew that "is it helpful" was refering to ONLY the best answer was because I had heard other members refering to this as though it was in fact a way to disagree with the best answer chosen, and so I asked to find out if that was true by posting on the QnA"features and support" board.
The "is it helpful" count is confusing and not helpful.
