I will rate this question.... Did you know you should rate your questions on LinkedIn when they close? Its real easy to do in "My questions". Thank yo

Alison's Contribution:

Whilst it is nice to get a rating for an answer given, it is not a prerequisite for people supplying the benefit of their experience.

There are many who don't agree with the principle that one needs to rate answers in the first place.

Add to this the fact that many Askers may not have the knowledge to understand which is the Best Answer - particularly for technical questions.....

Does not rating answers lead to poorer answers? Not in my experience... so don't even try to hold that one as a reason to rate.

You might try asking a different question - perhaps something like

"What would motivate you to rate your question?" or
"Is there some reason why you feel unable to rate the answers given to you?"

Perhaps they don't want to appear to be "playing favourites". Perhaps they don't want to give a rating to the sole answerer. There may be many reasons.

One "solution" is to simply have the option of selecting NO Answers as a Good or Best Answer - I haven't tried this yet, but it would be a way of closing the perceived "gap" between Askers and "Those that Rate".

So back to first principles.

The ultimate test - So What?

Why does it matter so much if Askers don't rate questions?

If you are looking for self validation, then clutching at LinkedIn for a definition of self worth is not the kind of action you need to take.

Does the Ask & Answer function need to do something to retain quality participants - apparently not. With 40 million users, even if only 1% of them participated on Answers, that would be 400k resources.

So let it be like water off a duck's back and let's focus on something which really would make the world a better place.... like eliminating packaging from food.

(I don't expect this be award best answer. In my experience, when one asks a biased question, then one tends to only reward those who agree with the point of view of the Asker - which of course leads to more interesting questions like

- Does the way you ask a question affect the quality of responses you receive?).

All the best,

Alison

(and if you search my answers really well you'll spot that I recommended at least 3 years ago award for different kinds of thinking using the deBono thinking hats as a reward mechanism alternative - which at least would have enabled many more to think about their thinking as they answered questions).
posted 11 hours ago