I think “run-on” questions that have a lot of sub-questions under one post may be okay so long as they are all closely related/relevant.

I’ve never seen someone allowed to ask more than three. Maybe don’t ask your third until you know you don’t have a more important question to ask. I think I ask less than three a month.

You will regret asking the one dumb question for 24 hours. There is no reprieve. The point of the limit is to make sure questions are thoughtful.

A problem only the collective can solve? Really? Flattering, but…

Ask your folks or friends or another website.

Wait.

Maybe don’t use your third question on this question.

Go to people in your life for advice or use other sites like Facebook.

Just wait for midnight!

Ask another jelly to ask it for you. I’ve done that for someone before, not because they’d asked their three but it was too personal for them.

So wait, if someone asks a question at 11, 11.30 and 11.55pm, will they be able to ask another 3 after midnight?

Open another account under a different name.

@YARNLADY But that’s illegal !!!

We don’t allow using an alternate account to circumvent the limit, @YARNLADY.

Mods actually can’t change the limit. Having another member ask it for you would be acceptable, in an emergency.

@rosehips PM me and I’ll ask it for you. I hardly ever ask questions.

@augustlan I forgot the ~, sorry.

Run down to the grocery store, get your box of ding-dongs or ho-hos, and simply ask the person behind you in line. That’s what they’re there for LOL.

Yet another rule that serves no useful purpose except to kill traffic on what should be the best Q&A site on the planet.

But if you absolutely must ask it now, create a second user login to do so. Otherwise, you can be like me, and forget your question. But no one misses my questions. In fact, most people are probably dancing in the aisles when I don’t ask another question. I don’t even know why I bother. Half my questions get no answers at all! ;-)

@wundayatta :: The rule wasn’t coded into the site for fun. Imagine Randy if he could get unlimited questions. People abused it and went nuts. The limit was the best compromise.

@wundayatta I’ve finally figured out who you really are. Eeyore!

@johnpowell Well, they could have used a higher limit. All I’m saying is they have reaped what they sowed. Look how few questions we get these days. The limit should be at least six. I don’t think I ever had six questions in a day. But I did have four or five. I’m not saying that I have good questions, but I know we have lost good questions because of this limit, and that sucks.

Randy is a special problem, and I’m sure that creative minds could find a way to deal with that.

@janbb You’re just plain wrong. I am trying to make this place better. I am not being a sad sack. You may want to look in the mirror about that one.

Either have someone else ask it for you if it is really important that you have an answer right away, or wait to ask it the next day.

“All I’m saying is they have reaped what they sowed. Look how few questions we get these days.”

Ahem. I’m going to say something here, in all honesty because I truly care about what happens to Fluther, and not because I’m trying to be a flaming bitch. One of the reasons we have so few questions these days is not because of the question limit, but because of long-time jellies who simply won’t give up on bullying, bashing, and bitching.

Almost every question regarding religion of any sort ends up being a bash fest. Almost every question regarding politics ends up being a bash fest. Almost every question regarding Fluther or the Fluther mods ends up having multiple bashing comments… from the same handful of people every time.

You, @wundayatta, are especially guilty of turning many a meta question into a mod bashing thread. You want to talk about “looking in the mirror”? Go ahead and complain about why we have so few questions these days, then think about how many jellies have left because they got sick of all the bashing and shitty, superior attitudes here….... then rethink that mirror comment. And don’t you dare fling poo at the penguin. At least she’s capable of expressing her opinion without causing people to bail. Sadly, I can’t say the same for a handful of others.

We have lost good questions because we have lost good members, and because we don’t keep a lot of new members after they experience the overabundance of bashing and douchebaggery firsthand.

You’re not the only one who has the, “I am a Fluther God” mentality, so don’t think I’m blaming it all on you. I can think of several specific jellies who are personally responsible for the current state of Fluther, and if this behavior doesn’t stop or at least drastically decrease, Fluther will die a sad death before too much longer. That makes me sad. You want to keep Fluther alive? Then prove it.

@bhec10

So wait, if someone asks a question at 11, 11.30 and 11.55pm, will they be able to ask another 3 after midnight?

Perhaps, or it could be 3 questions within 24 hours, regardless of what time the first one was asked.

@Brian1946 Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, those are the only two possibilities I guess.
Either 3 question per day or 3 questions per 24 hours.

I always thought that when you ask the first question (first of three) that’s how the clock starts. Then it’s 24 hours from that first question that you can ask the fourth.

I tend to agree with @jca, but because I’m not sure, I’ve asked a question about that here.

Pssssst, y’all! A darling person just shared this with me.

@WillWorkForChocolate I think there’s a difference between bashing people and arguing for things you truly believe in. I think that when you start saying that if you go against what other people think over and over, that you are a troll or nag or whiner or whatever you want to call it, and therefore you should shut up since no one agrees with you—that’s what kills a website. If we can not have disagreement; then we must all conform. Then we have to decide who to conform to. And if we have to conform to your ideas, then this place will be filled with exactly one kind of person. You won’t need a mirror. You’ll be seeing one wherever you look.

That’s not the way to go.

Now whenever I talk about how the rules here are not working, I get opposition from pretty much the same five people all the time. They are all remarkably consistent, demographically speaking. Except when sometimes joined by one man. I think this indicates that there is a particular taste or culture that is currently being catered to. I think that if things keep on going in this way, you may lose other demographic groups.

We may agree about one thing and that is that the reason we are losing people is that this place isn’t friendly. However, we probably disagree on what it means to be friendly, and the kind of unfriendliness that is going on. I think your efforts for enforce a certain kind of niceness are quite unfriendly. You think my efforts to make sure this place remains free for diversity of opinions and argument is also quite unfriendly. You appear to think that any disagreement is unfriendly.

I have a suspicion that this is a gender difference to a degree. The political questions and religious questions that you think are so unfriendly are largely joined by men. There are women, and the women do engage in strong opinions, but I think there are more men.

The kinds of things you think are friendly, I don’t even know because I don’t go there. Probably not to my taste. The danger is that you come to believe that your way is the only way of being. This is different from saying your opinion is the only correct opinion. The latter is something we can argue about and have fun stating our opinions strongly.

The former, however, is cultural totalitarianism. And that is what I’m fighting. I’m sure you will laugh and scoff and tell my I’m stupid and have my head up my ass. I know what you think of me. And I don’t mind that you think that. Frankly, I don’t mind when you say it out loud, either. At least I know what you really think.

But I don’t want to see this place become what your vision of it is, because I think that would be deadly. I think we need more freedom. More freedom to be creative. More freedom for humor. More freedom for argument. And I won’t stop trying to make this point until they ban me.

There is a difference between bashing people and arguing for things you believe in. But several people here prefer to bash and belittle.

Ex: Your Christian beliefs are a delusional fantasy. You need to be highly medicated and locked in a padded room for the safety of normal humans in society. Furthermore, anyone who believes the same as you is a fucking idiot.

Ex: I don’t agree with your beliefs, because <insert blah blah blah>. I also wonder if you’ve actually sat down and questioned your religious foundations, or if you just accept them because that’s what you grew up with.

The differences between the two examples should be painfully obvious. The first example is not arguing for what you believe in; it’s bashing the other person. You and several other jellies always use that first example as your favorite method of “disagreement.” Whether you choose to disregard many of your comments on this website and remain in denial about that is up to you.

And if you think being friendly involves being condescending and blatantly offensive toward people who believe differently than you (which you and a few other people constantly do), then you’re failing to understand that you all are part of the main problem. I do not think any disagreement is unfriendly. I know that the frequent, disgusting disrespect of different minded folks is unfriendly. I find it interesting that you are once again employing the “you just like to whine when people disagree with you” to remove all blame from yourself and the others who act the same way. The hilarious thing about that is that you apparently have not been properly introduced to the kettle.

This is not a gender difference, it’s a plain fact. The behavior I see here is often abhorrent and quite frankly, disturbing. It is nothing short of a massive sociopathic god complex.

It really makes me laugh to read that you think my “vision” of the ideal Fluther would be deadly. Seriously? That’s your rebuttal? A Fluther where people are free to voice their opinions without fear of being attacked, demeaned, and insulted would be deadly? Now you really are in denial, simply because you refuse to accept the fact that you are in the wrong.

Freedom is all fine and dandy. But your behavior, and that of the others involved, does not promote freedom, but rather the absence of freedom. When one avoids a question because they fear the attack that is sure to come, that is not freedom.

And banning you temporarily would actually be a step in the right direction, to be perfectly blunt. It would greatly reduce the amount of “Christians are fucking idiots,” “Republicans are fucking idiots,” and “Whaa whaa those fucking mods have it in for me” comments that have gotten quite tired.

I accept that you see things the way you do. And I reluctantly must conclude that you are sincere, but you have no clue how you come across to me. You act smug and condescending. You call names right and left. You smear me all over the playground, and you only need look above to see you doing that.

I don’t remember what discussion it was that I first said something that made you feel like you were being condescended to, but since then, you’ve never really seemed to pay attention to what I actually say. You have an idea in your head about what I mean, and that’s that.

You don’t even know how your vision of conformism to your particular ideas would screen out just about everything that is interesting here. You simply can’t see it. You are so focused in on your own way of seeing things that you are completely oblivious to the idea that there is any other way of seeing things. Which is probably why people come down on your so hard. Like trying to get through your thick skull to get you to see anything other than what you already think.

Hah! There. I’ve done exactly what you think I do. I’m trying to get you to see things from my point of view, and of course, you simply can’t because you are so busy defending your own point of view. And then I do the same thing.

Let me try something different then.

How is it that you feel misunderstood by me? What is freedom to you? Tell me about yourself, please. I tell you what. You don’t tell me who I am, and I won’t tell you who you are. That kind of talk just makes me feel defensive and want to pick you up the way a puppy picks up a rag doll and shakes it around.

<bangs head on desk> All right. I can see you’ve chosen denial and more scapegoating, as usual. Instead of beating the poor dead horse again, I will simply deny you the attention you so obviously crave, and calmly walk away.

I actually thought this would be a fun question.

Oh well just goes to show there is no predicting humans or Flutherites.

Thanks for bashing your head on a desk @WillWorkForChocolate It may scramble your brains or cause a concussion as well as worry those around you. But it certainly does provide comic relief.

Not that I have any ill thoughts toward you. Perhaps you should have from Fluther you trust contact you after these self inflicted head bashings and evaluate your condition.

Perhaps @wundayatta can become a mod, but he can only mod spam. We can check in on him in a few months and see if he still thinks it’s a bad idea to limit the amount of questions we are all allowed to ask.

(I’m going to sit under an orange tree and wait. or not)

@rosehips Ha! You’re welcome. I aim to please. And I think I’m safe. My brains are already so scrambled, that I doubt a few head to desk smackings will hurt me.

^^^ If the shoe fits,...

You must acquit? If that was meant to be an insult, you’re off your game.

ask.metafilter is one question per week. The questions tend to be better. You know, they try to make sure the questions there actually solve a problem.

@rosehips What was the actual question that you needed/wanted to ask? Who did you finally ask? Or did you just wait 12 hours to ask it on Fluther?

@Kardamom I think I had multiple ideas for questions which instead of writing down I simply tried to remember. I know I remembered a few.

@rosehips, you should make yourself a little Fluther file in Word, and whenever you come up with a bunch of Q’s at one time, just write them down : ) Wouldn’t want you to miss out on asking great Q’s.

@Kardamom good idea. I know not all my q’s are wonders but sometimes they are actually worth considering. : )

@rosehips: But knowing the limit, you get to prioritize.

@gailcalled Very true