Ask MetaFilter

ask.metafilter.com

Whose tag line is "querying the hive mind". Ask Metafilter (or AskMeFi) is a subset of MetaFilter, a weblog where members post short sentences hyperlinking to one or more websites in order to share what they have found on the Internet, express an opinion, and to facilitate discussion. AskMeFi is a site where members of MetaFilter post questions in hopes of answers and where the search engine is the "hive mind" instead of an algorithm.

Intended audience:
The site is open to everyone with limitations placed on posting ability in order to keep the questions to a manageable amount. The audience tends to be in their 20s and above ranging from college students to professionals. Whether or not this is the site's intention of audience is speculative, but from time spent reading the site, the majority of contributors are in this range.

Usefulness of content:
The content is driven by contributors both by posting questions and commenting. The content's usefulness in some cases is speculative. I for one do not care to know "where's the right place to go out and watch the NFL season opener in SF tomorrow?". But for the poster and for others interested in that information it would be. The site's front page is continually updated as new questions are submitted, making every refreshing of the page a new collection of information.

Consistency of design:
In my opinion the design of this site is well suited for its purpose. Because AskMeFi is a subset of MeFi it follows the same pattern as the main page but in a different combination of colors. Longer questions are truncated into short sentences to save space, once clicked it opens to a new page where the discussion is located. The site is supported by user's contribution and also is organized by such with tags and categories.

Ease of navigation:
AskMeFi is pretty simple to navigate, users scroll through questions and open the ones that appeal to them to read or to comment on. Users can access questions by popular tags and/or categories on the right hand side of the page. Questions are also separated into answered and unanswered groups and can be accessed as thus. A few things that I find a bit uneasy is where exactly to click when trying to open a question. Attached to each question is either 3 or 4 click-able links. The fourth is dependent on whether or not the question was truncated and in that case it reads "[more inside]". Another issue with this style of commenting has always bothered me. It stacks vertically instead of breaking into "conversations" and threading out. It confuses me as a reader and does not allow for a flow of conversation.