What's the deal... with New York City questions?
March 28, 2008 10:17 AM Subscribe
NosyParkerFilter: Why are there so many AskMe questions about New York City in comparison to other large cities (say, Los Angeles or London)?
I've been lurking on AskMe for lo these many years, so I couldn't help but notice the frequency with which NYC-centric questions occur. I suppose I'm mostly puzzled by questions about where to find X type of business, X type of product, X type of restaurant, etc.
I'm wondering...
- Whether Google an insufficient resource for finding particular stuff/places in NYC, and if so, why.
- Whether New Yorkers unwilling to try places without a specific personal recommendation, and if so why.
- Whether there are just simply more MeFites there than in other large cities.
For comparison, a sampling of AskMe tags:
nyc (734); newyorkcity (188); newyork (381)
london (315)
losangeles (189); la (109); l.a.(4)
toronto (238)
sanfrancisco (280)
chicago (384)
philadelphia (71); philly (18)
Background: I currently live in Pittsburgh. I lived in London for a while. I would consider myself well-traveled but I have never been to New York City.
I apologize if this is a stupid question. I don't know why it's bugging me.
I've been lurking on AskMe for lo these many years, so I couldn't help but notice the frequency with which NYC-centric questions occur. I suppose I'm mostly puzzled by questions about where to find X type of business, X type of product, X type of restaurant, etc.
I'm wondering...
- Whether Google an insufficient resource for finding particular stuff/places in NYC, and if so, why.
- Whether New Yorkers unwilling to try places without a specific personal recommendation, and if so why.
- Whether there are just simply more MeFites there than in other large cities.
For comparison, a sampling of AskMe tags:
nyc (734); newyorkcity (188); newyork (381)
london (315)
losangeles (189); la (109); l.a.(4)
toronto (238)
sanfrancisco (280)
chicago (384)
philadelphia (71); philly (18)
Background: I currently live in Pittsburgh. I lived in London for a while. I would consider myself well-traveled but I have never been to New York City.
I apologize if this is a stupid question. I don't know why it's bugging me.
This post was deleted for the following reason: When your question is really a metaquestion about the site itself, you should post it in Metatalk, not AskMe. For what its worth, I reckon there are just a hell of a lot of mefites in and around NYC. -- cortex
Well there's the obvious snark that NYC is the capital of the whole planet, and the bestest city around, and all other cities are weak-sauce in comparison.
And then there's the fact that if you were to go out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, (and even a midnight snack) every day, you could still never go to every restaurant in just Manhattan alone. No matter how long you did this for. The turnover is ridiculous, and I guess it's easiest to have some personal recommendations for places instead of trying them all out for yourself (which is impossible). I'm sure this might be the case for some other places as well, it's just one of many reasons, I suppose.
Also, I think most New Yorkers know their own borough better than the others, so if you're venturing to a different borough it's good to do so with some local information.
Another potential reason is that a whole lot of tourists come here, and they all know Mefites have some knowledge about the place, so they figure it's a good place to ask.
Ask.metafilter might also come up in google searches a lot, so people think of this as a NYC resource of sorts?
I don't know the numbers of members that are from NYC in comparison to other cities....I suppose a mod would have to answer that one.
posted by Grither at 10:24 AM on March 28, 2008
And then there's the fact that if you were to go out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, (and even a midnight snack) every day, you could still never go to every restaurant in just Manhattan alone. No matter how long you did this for. The turnover is ridiculous, and I guess it's easiest to have some personal recommendations for places instead of trying them all out for yourself (which is impossible). I'm sure this might be the case for some other places as well, it's just one of many reasons, I suppose.
Also, I think most New Yorkers know their own borough better than the others, so if you're venturing to a different borough it's good to do so with some local information.
Another potential reason is that a whole lot of tourists come here, and they all know Mefites have some knowledge about the place, so they figure it's a good place to ask.
Ask.metafilter might also come up in google searches a lot, so people think of this as a NYC resource of sorts?
I don't know the numbers of members that are from NYC in comparison to other cities....I suppose a mod would have to answer that one.
posted by Grither at 10:24 AM on March 28, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
- There are lots of people in this tiny area, making a lot of problems that aren't necessarily applicable to other cities.
- There are a ton of choices for things like food and events, so people want the best. Other cities may not be as diversified, or have anywhere close to the sheer number of options.
- Many mefites live in NYC.
- NYC is a major vacation spot, especially for those goddamn Europeans with their silly money thats worth more than ours, and their BLOCKING ME ON THE FUCKING SIDEWALK. MOVE IT.
- As far as your google question, theres just too much in NYC to be filtered by google, and theirs lots of shady places you'll want to avoid, that Google wouldn't know.
posted by Mach5 at 10:24 AM on March 28, 2008