Flag it as a duplicate.

Why would you want to see a date stamp when you can type in the date? Far less a time stamp. I do agree with the date stamp to make it easier, but if you are up late at night, you wouldn't want people reading to think, "Why is Jewels Vern still awake at 2 o'clock at night?" Questions come to mind.

Here is you thumbs up Jenny. 4:52am 6/12/19

Rick, with that time and date, I'm assuming you are up for work early in the morning. That's just my opinion. Perhaps others see it differently.

Many forums use a time/date stamp and if they adjust the time to fit a fixed time zone of the forum, you will certainly see late/early posting from other continents.

mushroom, the best thing we can do is provide our own timeframe if a user feels it is important. 6/15/19 at 7:06 pm for the record, so now you know.

.

I have hope. But if they start downrating I'm outa here. I don't care about the points. Wouldn't care if they did away with them entirely. But downrating is just mean.

.

.

Anyone in particular ?

Who you talking aboot, eh?

A side note: I'm not concerned with a date display feature, knowing I wrote my answer and comment on 6/12/19 or a private message feature as others have suggested. If AB'ers really wanted to receive private messages, they would provide their email address in their Answerbag profiles.

"[T]he features on this site are no better than what they were a decade ago. " Actually, far worse.

Putting your email address in a public forum is not advisable, unless it is kept hidden until you choose to share your profile with another.

bostjan64, quote: "Actually, far worse." Precisely, it doesn't get any better is the principal of the matter in my answer.

mushroom, quote: "Putting your email address in a public forum is not advisable," I don't know in what world you live in, but Answerbag is a part of social media were email addresses, blogs, advertisement links and etc are displayed by millions of users in their profiles depending on a person's popularity. I use numerous social media accounts. I display my email address in my profiles. With Answerbag, I don't see the need to add my email address, since I mostly use this site for discussions. I have been cussed out many times on this site, so providing an email address in my Answerbag profile does not work for me.

Yeah, we agree. I just wanted to point out that the features of the site are way more limited than they were ten years ago. Regarding the suggestion that publicly posting your private email address is equivalent to having a private message system on the site, I strongly disagree. For example, if someone sent you harassing emails, the AB moderators would have no authority to stop them, but if the same harassing messages were sent via PM, the AB staff would not only have record of the harassment, but could stop them at their source by banning the user. Also, not to get too dark, but it is much easier for a stalker to track someone down in real life by having an email address than it is for them to do so with a user name on a question and answer site. This is especially the case for AB, which has historically allowed users to remain displayed as "Anonymous." And, it is especially important, as the old AB had multiple instances of multiple users discussing kidnapping and/or murder. Would you want a user who asked the question "How would you get away with murdering someone?" (that was an actual question here from a person who candidly discussed kidnapping someone and torturing then murdering them) to have your email address? (Particularly if your user name here was your real full name, which I'm not assuming yours is, but it looks like that is possibly the case)

bostjan, you did more than point out most of the features we need. It looks more like your intention was to bash Answerbag. I said a bunch in my response (to focus more on one of the biggest issue no one has mentioned). Receiving a notification update so we can receive feedback in our profiles should be the first update we receive to prevent personal emails from getting flooded with all sorts of feedback. Which is why I have dedicated a certain email address to Answerbag so that I can keep track of my feedback. Quote: "Would you want a user who asked the question "How would you get away with murdering someone?"" You have been watching too many horror movies. And besides, many AB'ers like to make all sorts of lies for "entertainment purposes only." In other words, they are full of it. To further speak of private messages, it is not a big deal if we include 1 of many of our emails in our Answerbag profile - when we can always mark messages from certain users as spam. If you ignore hostile users, they will move on. Now, if we had a private message feature on Answerbag, anybody and I mean ANYBODY would be able to go outside the bag with us. I understand if Answerbag moderators were available, they would take action. But reading negative messages from hostile users should not even be tolerated on Answerbag. This is why it is as simple to mark certain users as spam. Keep in mind that when moderators on the old Answerbag placed AB'ers on the penalty box or banned them, the second option was for users to create a new AB account. Then the negative messages many of us experienced in the old Answerbag kept unfolding through our private messages.

Good points, I don't think the fact that a workaround exists and there is a lack of moderation here properly takes the place of a feature.

bostjan64, the closest moderators I can think of is Linda Joy who doesn't mind sharing her email address, and Ice man. They claim they are regular AB'ers like everyone else, but that's what they say.

If they say they are not moderators, then what gives you the idea that they are moderators?

bostjan64, simple, they are both known to restore order.

Quote: "Any features at all here would be a vast improvement." Your answer is just another answer that has been suggested by many active and inactive AB'ers. Those so-called improvements were supposed to take place 2 years ago. Quote: "3. Show the date a question was posted instead of "some time ago."" That is not important, unless a user wants to keep his or her posts in record. Quote: "4. The categories need some work and better organization." The categories are not a problem either. Whatever category a user prefers to answer, categories are easily found in the category section. Quote: "5. The profile page is nearly completely broken." What matters is that we can write about ourselves. Quote: "6. A private message system, like the old AB had might be a nice touch." A private message system is useless when we can share our email address in our Answerbag profiles to go outside of the bag. Quote: "7. Likes are also basically broken." I haven't had any problems with giving people likes. Quote: "8. I haven't seen any moderation here since it came back." I would say Answerbag is in need of moderators, but as for many of your points, they are needless. If your intention is to make Answerbag look bad, you are exaggerating with minor issues known as glitches.

Jenny Rizzo, the question was "What changes / improvements would you like to see on answerbag?" not "What changes are necessary?" But I'm going to make a case anyway. As you should be aware, the old AB was easily ten times the size it currently is. At that time, most of the features I mentioned were available. At this time, there are maybe just over a dozen users who seem to contribute to this site daily. If this site doesn't generate enough traffic, it will fail to remain viable. With so many complaints about proposed improvement #1, and no action from AB staff to address the issue, I really don't see the rest happening anyway, and there will simply be no AB site as users get frustrated and leave the site. Proposal #2 is also a common complaint and leaves the site partially broken. The fact that you mention that there are a significant number of inactive users complaining about #1 and #2 really drives home the point that the site could be much more successful with these improvements. I already stated my justification for #3, but reading comprehension is hard. #'s 4-9 are basically things that I would love to see, but the site would be good enough without them.

Quote: "the question was "What changes / improvements would you like to see on answerbag?" Of course, I am not saying the question changed in regards to your answer. I don't see why you would make Answerbag seem like it is a terrible place to participate in. Or it seems that way by your tirade. Quote: "the old AB was easily ten times the size it currently is." Point taken. The old site had mostly if not all the features we needed. You clearly said MOST of the features were still available, leaving your response known that some of the features are still available in point 4, 5 and 7. Point 4 speaks of categories. Every time I go to categories/category search which include: Arts, Business, Computers, Education, and learning, Electronics, Entertainment, Finance, Food, and Dining Games, Health and Fitness, Hobbies, Home and Garden, Kids Legal Life and Society Places, Real estate, Recreation and Sports, Science, Social sciences, Transportation Travel, including 20 more categories on Trending Categories: that's more than enough categories to search. On point 5, writing about ourselves is more important than adding HTML and HREF images to enhance our profiles. A written profile is what allows other AB'ers to know more about us. I believe you wrote on your Answerbag profile: "I got deleted." If that's how you want to express yourself to others, you at least got to express yourself. Speaking of point 6 and 7, you can create as many emails as you want and share an email address you feel comfortable with on Answerbag. As for likes, a points system would be better, but we are still able to like questions and answers. The question in this subject received 9 likes so far. It could go over 10 likes if more AB'ers took the time to give likes.

"I don't see why you would make Answerbag seem like it is a terrible place to participate in." If I felt that way, one would assume I wouldn't be here; however, it is overly apparent that there will be no improvements and we will be extremely lucky if anyone ever fixes any of these bugs. I'd propose that getting rid of the broken likes system (I've used four different browsers, and it's only worked properly with one) and the broken profile pages (I'd prefer to have a profile page, but having one with broken features and too many bugs is a source of frustration - thus my "I got deleted" in place of the other option of an unparagraphed and unformatted monolithic block of indigestible text). The category organization might work for you, but it is and has been a source of frustration for me. I used to log in and go straight to the categories that I found interesting, and then drilled down into subcategories and answered questions. Now it's just all a mess. I don't know if there is some broken AI that reassigns categories or if the users here simply love to espouse chaos, but nothing is ever in the proper category anymore. There may be a seemingly fair number of categories, but there used to be a lot more and they were structured into a hierarchy that mostly made sense to me. But now everything is a huge mess, and you just have to look at the main page.

Quote: "If I felt that way, one would assume I wouldn't be here;" Very funny. With 260 answers in your Answerbag profile, it doesn't appear like you spend a lot of time on this site. It could be that you're in and out. Various AB'ers have railed against Answerbag, and have encouraged others to join different Q&A websites. To our profile pages, you can choose to write about yourself. One interesting feature we have in our profiles is the Following list so we can see what the people we follow are up to. That's a good feature to find interesting questions we haven't answered before or for trolls who always have something to say. Quote: "The category organization might work for you, but it is and has been a source of frustration for me." If 40 categories isn't enough for you, then perhaps there is a "specific category" that should be kept in private. I am versatile, I answer most questions I see on the AB homepage. When I am in need of searching my favorite categories, the categories are there. For those who socialize less, 40 categories is more than they can handle. Despite of all the AB refugees that went elsewhere, everything on this site might seem like a huge mess, but really, it's not that bad.

I've answered way more than 260 questions. As I have said, the stuff on the profile page is broken. I don't follow your logic. If the categories were organized into hierarchy, like they used to be, why would they need to be kept private? It's like there's an important link in that logical armunent that's missing. If it seems a huge mess to a vast majority of users, but not really that bad to you, what does that even mean overall?

Hello bostjan64, I couldn't reply back during the weekend. I usually take the weekends off from AB. Quote: "I've answered way more than 260 questions." I'm just calling it how I see it. It is evident in your Answerbag profile that you have answered 260 questions and counting. You can alter your comments and say you have answered way more questions, but that doesn't change the fact of your low amount of answers on 6/17/19. There is nothing wrong with my logic. I am letting you know more than enough categories are available for the average AB'er, you can choose to write about yourself on your profile, as well as the likes have been working fine. The evidence is in the question in this subject. A little over 10 users answered Linda Joy's question, and not everyone liked her question. To my comment of implying this site "is not that bad," it is bad (due to) the updates it needs, although I have seen worst Q&A websites. Which is why AB is still the place to be.

Jenny Rizzo: "If 40 categories isn't enough for you, then perhaps there is a 'specific category' that should be kept in private." Me: "I don't follow your logic. If the categories were organized into hierarchy, like they used to be, why would they need to be kept private?" That's where you lost me, at "should be kept private." Regarding my "low amount of answers," I've been an active member here for nearly ten years, barring a lapse when the site suddenly disappeared from existence without any notice. I used to answer a dozen or more homework questions every day, as well as other questions about pawn appraisals, music, or general questions about whatever interested me. None of the old questions go toward the 260 count, as you must be well aware, and it's only maybe two or three times a month anyone bothers coming here with homework questions anymore, so I don't use the site anywhere near as much as I did, well, when it was a better site.

"although I have seen worst Q&A websites. Which is why AB is still the place to be." Hmm, I don't know what Q&A sites you've visited recently, but there are much better sites than this out there for Q&A. AB gets about 80k visits per month, which might sound like a lot, but yahoo answers gets over 120M, stackoverflow gets 360M, and Quora gets nearly 650M. While AB is gradually declining in traffic every year, those other sites are slowly expanding.

Quote: "Me: "I don't follow your logic. If the categories were organized into hierarchy," My logic makes perfect sense for the MAJORITY of AB'ers who don't go around whining, saying the there isn't enough categories. You can't change the fact that there are 40 categories on this website. All the categories I added last week were copied and pasted from the Answerbag category. Whatever specific categories you are looking are probably not supported by Answerbag. I am sure they go against AB policy and are not suitable for minors. Quote: "I've been an active member here for nearly ten years," I saw a unicorn the other time, but that doesn't mean you can take my word for it. EVERYONE, I am great.

Once again, I am just calling it how I see it. 260 answers and counting is what your profile displays. Quote: "so I don't use the site anywhere near as much as I did," Exactly. Don't worry about the old questions from years if not many years ago. The more questions you answer, the more answers you will have in your profile. To the sites I've visited, I have checked out Yahoo Answers, AOL and Blurtit, and their layouts are too plain in comparison to Answerbag. I will say answerMug is okay. I still prefer Answerbag. If popularity is what concerns you the most to make it a better Q&A site, the exit door is on the X on the upper right side of your screen. Isn't that fair enough for anyone who doesn't like Answerbag?

Jenny Rizzo, you sound like an internet troll these past few comments.

Ok, have a good day!

The old AB site had some cool features and quite a few "community leader" moderators. Things started changing rapidly toward the last couple years, though - more advertisements that often broke the site and harsh arbitrary moderation. For example: I was banned at one point for having multiple accounts (which I didn't) in order to avoid the penalty box (that I wasn't ever in prior to being banned for that very offense). When I questioned the CL's about the circular logic of this, only one ever responded (who was on the other side of the world, so communication was slow), and that CL promptly undid the ban after verifying the facts. What surprised me about all of this was that, at that time, I logged in and helped people with their homework. I didn't really participate in the social side of the site, so I was shocked that I was ever even on any of the CLs' radar as a potential target for whatever personal crap was going on. So, too many features and too much moderation is bad. No features and no moderation is bad. I feel that, as of 14 Jul 2019, the site has too many features for its size (since they are broken and have been broken now for years) and too little moderation (since moderators seem to have no outwardly detectable presence here and people can spam the site with the same question umpteen times and the mess remains sometimes days later).

One problem of repetitive questions/answers is that delays sometimes lead to itchy "trigger" finger - too many clicks sink MIPS. Most forums allow deleting questions/answers by the poster. Some forums give a fixed time period for revisions, others reject additional posting for a minute or so. Any of these would be helpful on AB.

Agreed. I've noticed a few accusations in the comments regarding other users editing comments and then claiming they never said something. If there were moderators here, they might find that sort of thing dishonest by one side or the other, but having a finite amount of time to edit a post or comment would nip that right in the bud. Seeing as how there are only 2-3 dozen people posting here, as of 2019, and there is as much bickering as there is, I could see how this place would be world war III if it got back to several hundred thousand active users with still no active moderation.

Many forums degrade into a cesspool of ad hominems. Perhaps less is more in this case.

I'd be happy with the ability to upload an image to a third party site (z.B. photobucket) and simply have it show here as an image. Image hosting is expensive and requires a lot of additional server space, which this site doesn't seem like it'd likely consider, seeing as how we can't even have certain standard keyboard characters in answers (carriage return, certain apostrophes, basic mathematics symbols, etc.).

Support of qwerty characters and carriage returns seems pretty basic and innocuous. Support of ALT characters is somewhat arbitrary. Even basic *bold* /italic/ and dare I say ? emojis ? is far from controversial these days. edit: And ellipses are being converted to question marks. (Ellipses, if you didn't know, was the Greek philosopher who never completed his thoughts. ;)