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Is there an incentive from the real world to answer questions Apparently so - if you look at the “Customer Questions and Answers” section of Amazon product pag

Is there an incentive from the real world to answer questions Apparently so - if you look at the “Customer Questions and Answers” section of Amazon product pages, there is a remarkably high proportion of answers like, “I don’t know, I haven’t opened it yet” and “I’m not sure, I bought it as a gift”.

_underfl0w_ 6y ago
Occasionally AMZN will send out questions others have asked about products to you in the form of an email if you have previously purchased the same product. Some people mistake those for questions directly asked to them instead of realizing where their answer will be posted. StackOverflow doesn't do that AFAIK.
- ComputerGuru 6y ago
  See my other reply. It’s not fair to even say the user is making a mistake; it’s Amazon purposely manipulating users into thinking they’re being personally asked a question to game their way into getting more answers.
- wrycoder 6y ago
  Oh. I didn’t think of that. I’m too naïve. Thanks!
ComputerGuru 6y ago
No, that is sleazy as anything “growth hacking” from Amazon. If you bought product X and some months or years later “Sam” posts a question on Amazon that isn’t answered, Amazon will send you an email with a subject line that is a variation of “Sam has a question for you about Product X, can you help?” and the body would be something along the lines of “Dear foo, Sam wants to know if <insert question regarding Product X here>? Click here to respond to Sam and help her out!” In that context, you can easily see why people reply with such otherwise useless “answers.” When someone personally asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, responding with “sorry, I bought it for my husband as a gift and I don’t know,” is not just perfectly valid, it’s also the polite thing to do. But that answer is posted to the website in the genera Q&A as of you had viewed the question and then instead of passing on a question you had no answer for, you chose to reply with a useless answer.
- wrycoder 6y ago
  Very interesting. I had not considered that possibility.

_underfl0w_ 6y ago

Occasionally AMZN will send out questions others have asked about products to you in the form of an email if you have previously purchased the same product. Some people mistake those for questions directly asked to them instead of realizing where their answer will be posted. StackOverflow doesn't do that AFAIK.

ComputerGuru 6y ago
See my other reply. It’s not fair to even say the user is making a mistake; it’s Amazon purposely manipulating users into thinking they’re being personally asked a question to game their way into getting more answers.
wrycoder 6y ago
Oh. I didn’t think of that. I’m too naïve. Thanks!

ComputerGuru 6y ago

No, that is sleazy as anything “growth hacking” from Amazon. If you bought product X and some months or years later “Sam” posts a question on Amazon that isn’t answered, Amazon will send you an email with a subject line that is a variation of “Sam has a question for you about Product X, can you help?” and the body would be something along the lines of “Dear foo, Sam wants to know if <insert question regarding Product X here>? Click here to respond to Sam and help her out!” In that context, you can easily see why people reply with such otherwise useless “answers.” When someone personally asks you a question you don’t know the answer to, responding with “sorry, I bought it for my husband as a gift and I don’t know,” is not just perfectly valid, it’s also the polite thing to do. But that answer is posted to the website in the genera Q&A as of you had viewed the question and then instead of passing on a question you had no answer for, you chose to reply with a useless answer.

wrycoder 6y ago
Very interesting. I had not considered that possibility.