Why do questions asked 1 year ago show up in my "Just asked" feed?
First of all it's kinda sad to see questions asked 1 year ago which have never been answered.
However, there are plenty of questions being asked every minute on Socratic, and answering the questions from years ago is probably just talking to nobody, since the asker has probably given up hope of someone answering the question, or no longer needs it answered. Is there any way I can fix this? I would rather help solve new problems than respond to old ones which probably don't exist anymore.
First of all it's kinda sad to see questions asked 1 year ago which have never been answered.
However, there are plenty of questions being asked every minute on Socratic, and answering the questions from years ago is probably just talking to nobody, since the asker has probably given up hope of someone answering the question, or no longer needs it answered. Is there any way I can fix this? I would rather help solve new problems than respond to old ones which probably don't exist anymore.
1 Answer
Because we build for the future.
Explanation:
First of all, I definitely agree that seeing questions that go unanswered for months or even years on end is a bit sad, but that's just the way the cookie crumbles.
Socratic is based exclusively on volunteer work, which implies that we don't always have enough firepower, so to speak, to tackle the bulk of the questions that are being asked by students.
However, the main point to keep in mind here is Socratic is not just about the student who is asking the question.
Sure, we would like to be able to answer every question as fast as possible, but that is just not possible, especially if we consider the rate at which questions are coming in.
So instead of focusing exclusively on the questioner, we want to focus on future students as well, i.e. on students who will get to read the answers in the future.
For every student who asks a question on Socratic, a couple of hundred students read answers. In other words, every answer that you post on Socratic will be viewed by hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of students in the future.
Our goal is to look beyond the questioner--the tip of the iceberg--and build with all the students that will ever read our content in mind.
This is why every question matters. Nothing is being wasted here, including questions that go unanswered for months or years on end. We recycle everything.
Of course, you can always choose to answer more recent questions, but it's important to keep in mind that even if you choose to answer older questions, you will not be wasting your time.
Long story short, Socratic is for the future, which is why every question, new or old, matters.
