Any good info services other than Metafilter?

May 16, 2008 9:25 AM

Any good info services other than Metafilter?

Do you know of any good info services like Metafilter and Yahoo answers?

I only know of about 3: Metafilter, Askville and Yahoo answers.

Does anyone know of any more?

posted by Jack Alucard to computers & internet (11 comments total)

Wikipedia Reference Desk
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:49 AM on May 16

Internet Public Library's Ask-A-Question.
posted by box at 9:51 AM on May 16

I wouldn't say Yahoo was a good service. In fact, it's an endless source of bad advice and false information.

If I need to ask the internets a question, I'll often go to a respected specialist forum and ask there. For example, bikeforums.net is a good place to get bike questions answered.
posted by popcassady at 10:48 AM on May 16

http://groups.google.com/
http://wiki.answers.com/
There are also quite a few fantastic library resources, where you email a librarian and they'll do a lot of research legwork for free. Don't abuse the poor librarians though!
posted by lubujackson at 10:59 AM on May 16

Seconding that Yahoo Answers is worse than useless. I think specialist forums are often the way to go - for example, ilounge.com for iPod questions, and bimmerforums.com for BMW questions. Of course, you may not want to register at 20 different sites.
posted by desjardins at 11:04 AM on May 16

It's not really a good measure of quality, but by popularity the top 5 sites (as of March 2008) are:

Yahoo! Answers (74%)
WikiAnswers (18%)
Answerbag (5%)
Ask MetaFilter (2%)
Askville (1%)

(from MetaTalk)
posted by burnmp3s at 11:05 AM on May 16

yahoo answers tends to be a bunch of rather dumb teens who ask questions like "is she pregnant" and stuff. (no, I'm not saying all teens are stupid/dumb.)

metafilter tends to be the most intelligent of all the ones that I've seen, probably because (at least now) you have to pay to get in. I actually feel compelled to spell check before posting.
posted by majikstreet at 11:53 AM on May 16

I'm going to echo desjardins sentiment that searching out experts/enthusiasts in your area of study is your best bet. For example... I have a HTC Apache windows mobile phone. I could ask a question about it here, or some of the other broader question sites, but I'm best served using Google to search for a focused sub group of users such as this phone specific sub forum at PPCGeeks.com. You can find focused forums like this on nearly everything.

I'm also going to echo the general sentiment that Yahoo! Answers is crap. If you want to get advice from giddy high school girls go down to the local mall and conduct a survey.
posted by JFitzpatrick at 11:56 AM on May 16

There's also Amazon's Askville and Linkedin Answers.

Both are much better than Yahoo Answers, but I don't think you'll find better than Ask MeFi for general topics. I also agree with the earlier advice to seek out specialist communities for your topic -- online forums or mailing lists.
posted by snarfois at 3:07 PM on May 16

The Straight Dope
posted by lunchbox at 5:18 PM on May 16

Nthing Yahoo Answers as `AVOID'. Maybe you'll get some good info there, but a lot of it is (real example) `What happens if I eat a lot of oranges' `The acid will burn a hole in your stomach and you could die'.

WikiAnswers - Q:`Does frozen water cause cancer?' A: `Yes'.

The $5 AskMe membership was the best $5 I have ever spent, and it helps keep away people who know nothing and are eager to share it with you.
posted by tomble at 6:08 PM on May 16