Sometimes I ask questions because I need some information (hardly ever). Sometimes I ask questions because I want to know people’s opinions about something. Sometimes I ask questions because I want to hear about people’s experience with something. Sometimes I ask because I want to hear a story and get to know others better. Sometimes because there’s an issue I want to talk about and that’s a way of getting a conversation started. And sometimes because I want to do my part to keep the quality of the questions as high as possible.
I try to be a role model for others. So actually that last is mostly being selfish. I like the way I ask questions, and I am encouraged others to ask similar kinds of questions by showing how it is done. I’m not saying my questions are any better or worse than anyone else’s; just that I like what I like, and if I can encourage people to do what I like by providing an example, they I’ll do it.
Sometimes someone will write me to thank me for asking the questions I ask, or telling me they like my questions. That’s nice. It hasn’t been happening lately, so I may not be writing questions that people like as much. But that’s ok. I like what I like, and that doesn’t mean anyone else has to like it. Still, I have no idea whether there is a correlation between what I do and what other people do, but, in my opinion, it seems like the kind of questions I like are appearing more often.