-5

Why are so few answers on askubuntu?

I don't get it, it's quite big when compared with another SE sites, but still very few answers.

Very many unanswered questions in my opinion, when compared with another SE sites?

Why is that?

Again, there are a lot of users and questions, but it seems that not so many "professionals".

Or is it something different?

Proof? Go to the main site and see yourself. enter image description here

As you can see question with 335 views and only 1 answer. And still not resolved.

Max I have seen is 3 or 4 answers. Of course there are exeptions. But on average very few answers and often without any helpful informations.

3
  • 2
    So few answers? Please illustrate your post with some numbers, comparisons and explanations.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Jun 30, 2013 at 11:15
  • I have updated my question. You can see there are plaenty of 0 or iunly 1 answer. E.g. one queston with 335 views, but only 1 answer and the question seems to be not resolved still. And no comments too. I think there is a problem on this SE site. Either very few professionals or idk. How could this be imporved? I am myself not a pro user of Ubuntu, but I am sure that there are plenty of these people. How could this be improved? Do the team behind askubuntu plan to do something with this issue? Thanks.
    – Derfder
    Commented Jun 30, 2013 at 11:51
  • 2
    This is, for instance, a question I do not want to answer. It is accusing and opiniated filled with false statistics and poor logic.
    – don.joey
    Commented Jun 30, 2013 at 20:28

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
10

If you are talking about the one that says Problem with my Lenovo laptop you need to also consider the following:

  • Of the 335 views, not all users will have a Lenovo Laptop

  • Of the 335 views, not all users will have the same Lenovo model

  • Of the 335 views, not all will know the answer

  • In forums, other NON StackExchange Q&A sites and any other site that offers help, the chances of getting a correct answer is very hard since you will get many "comments", "suggestions" and "half-answers". Of course this is not the case in a SE site since there is a lot of work on giving the correct answer and many rules to follow to give an actual answer and not just a comment.

  • The better the question is explained, the faster it will get a correct answer. The more effort the user puts on the question, the faster and better the answers will be.

  • If the question is very localized, it is much harder to offer it an answer when compared to a more general one. For example: "How do I install Ubuntu on a computer with Windows" is easier and faster to answer than "How do I use SSH to tunnel myself to a computer and access the VNC in memory to create a mapping device to eat a cookie my mom made without her knowing", it is even harder specifically if the cookie is a chocolate chip cookie".

  • Not all questions are read by all online users at any specific moment. This depends of the need of the user that is visiting and if the question is related or not to the needs of the user that is reading the AU site.

Now for some STATS:

Of the TOP 5 sites:

enter image description here

AskUbuntu has 109k questions and 140k answers, which cover the 72% of all questions.

Looking at other sites I think is safe to say that we are doing a pretty good job at it. We do need to cover that 30% which includes many outdated, abandoned or off-topic questions but still, 72% is very good. Also, statistically, there has always been more answers per day than questions, which means, depending how the question was formulated and to what audience it was intended to, it has a higher chance everyday of getting an answer.

5

The reason there is so much orange on the front page is that's where the incoming questions come in. Of course there's no answers when a question has been on the front page for just a few minutes.

  • We have a 72% answer rate, which means nearly 3 out of every 4 questions get answered (by answers with a score of at least +1)
  • Did you read the question with 335 views and no answer? What would a proper answer look like to this question? It's "my computer crashed" with no information. What would an ideal answer look like?
  • I don't understand your claim that there's no professionals here, there are plenty.

We do have a lower answer rate compared to most SE Sites, but with the new close flags the review queue seems busier than normal, but the number isn't out of control crazy.

1
  • 1
    "The reason there is so much orange on the front page is" because that is the color of Ubuntu :)
    – don.joey
    Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 12:29
1

Quite a few questions are resolved based on the comments and no formal answer is posted. Just because there is no answer doesn't mean the question is unresolved. Here is an example: Deactivated wifi drivers, now they won't activate again on a Dell Mini 10v?

Sometimes, gathering the data required to fully diagnose the problem leads the original poster to the solution.

4
  • 1
    That question is still unresolved, someone needs to either post and answer or vote to close it.
    – Jorge Castro
    Commented Jun 30, 2013 at 15:08
  • no good close reason for those types of questions now @Jorge...
    – Seth
    Commented Jul 1, 2013 at 3:27
  • It's resolved now; I upvoted Jorge's summary answer. @Seth, I am imagining, half-seriously, a somewhat expanded sense of the 'unreproducible' boilerplate tag (should the OP fade away and the Q becomes inactive). Though of course, we have latitude to create anything reasonable in the off-topic category, under "other".
    – belacqua
    Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 1:26
  • @belacqua Yes, but labelling on-topic questions "off-topic" doesn't work that well...
    – Seth
    Commented Jul 4, 2013 at 1:28

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .