AMA's: Getting the Most from your Post

"Dusty Ventures" (dustyventures)
10/10/2014 at 16:15 • Filed to: Oppositelock, Moderation, Oppo tools, Rules of the road, Owner's Manual, Handbook

As many of you may recall, a flood of AMA posts a while back (more than 20 AMA's in a single evening) resulted in us mods asking that you fellow members of Oppo temporarily suspend posting AMAs while we discussed the best way to handle them. The secret brotherhood of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! Oppo mods conferred, and at the end I offered to write up a piece on our suggested policy for future AMAs. Then... I got distracted by work, conflicts in Oppo, bad music, and other such business, and ultimately I forgot. That's on me and I apologize. Fortunately a new crop of AMA posts has kicked my ass into gear. So here we go.

AMAs can be awesome. We have an interesting cross-section of members here on Oppo, from all different ages, nations, and walks of life. There's stories to be told, questions to be answered, and advice to be given. That said, too many AMAs in too short of a time span can hurt everyone involved. If a large number of people post AMAs in a narrow time span the result is fewer questions asked of each Oppo with an AMA post up, because few people are going to go into every single post and ask questions, and those people who are only going to ask questions in one or two of the AMA posts are going to be divided among the ten (or however many) AMAs that have been created.

Here are some tips to help get the most out of AMAs on Oppo:

• If you see someone else has posted an AMA recently (say, within the last few hours) hold off on posting one of your own. Posting shortly after someone else has will just mean fewer questions for the both of you.

• To make it easier to keep track of how recently an AMA has been posted, and to help people find your AMA, I suggest using a common tag. Perhaps something like !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (I know that's an insane and outlandish tag suggestion, just go with me on this).

• If you want to post an AMA, be courteous and use the tag and/or search to see when the last post was, don't just go posting without checking.

• When writing your AMA post be sure to provide some introductory info about yourself. Mentioning things like your home state/country, your age, your hobbies, and/or your area of work provides a good starting point for those who know little about you but are interested in asking questions. Just posting a photo and saying something like "I'm bored, AMA" is !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! weak AMA-writing.

• The "don't be a dick" rule definitely applies when asking questions (or responding to questions) in an AMA. Friendly ribbing and shenanigans are ok. Using it as an opportunity to harass someone you don't get along with is not.

• For now we intend to let you self-police regarding the timing and frequency of AMA posts. We've explained the benefits of stretching them out, and it's our opinion that two or three per day is the ideal number, but we will not actively police this unless it looks like they're getting completely out of control again.

Beyond that we only ask that you have fun and be reasonable. If you have any questions feel free to let me or any of the other mods know.

DISCUSSION (39)

Kanaric > Dusty Ventures
10/09/2014 at 22:42

AMAs by regular people here shouldn't be a thing. Want to talk about yourself? Make a post about yourself.

Bandit > Dusty Ventures
10/09/2014 at 22:44

Sorry Dusty. I did the first one to be an ass and then everyone jumped on the band wagon.

Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius > Dusty Ventures
10/09/2014 at 22:46

Don't be a dick? But this is the internet!!

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Kanaric
10/09/2014 at 22:49

For some people, it's difficult to write about themselves, so just answering questions is much easier. And not everyone is regular.

thebigbossyboss > Dusty Ventures
10/09/2014 at 22:50

Have fun and be reasonable??!? What kind rules are those for going through life!?!?!? (intense sarcasm implied)

Dusty Ventures > Kanaric
10/09/2014 at 22:50

But what qualifies as "regular people" and who is going to decide whether a person is worthy of having an AMA? We've got aerospace engineers building awesome planes, rally drivers and co-drivers competing on multiple continents, expert overlanders and off-roaders, scientists, writers, lawyers, artists, people who have climbed mountains, people who have driven the cars we dream about in the places we wish we could go, people who have brought rare classics back from death, and people who have participated in revolutions. We mods aren't about to sit here and go "yes, you're worthy/no, you're not worthy" on a case-by-case basis, that isn't fair and we have no right to judge the individual worth of people. The general consensus is that people want to do/have AMAs, so as long as they don't get out of control we're going to have AMAs.

Dusty Ventures > Bandit
10/09/2014 at 22:51

No worries. Without you and the bandwagon I would have just continued to be a slacker.

macanamera > Dusty Ventures
10/09/2014 at 22:57

You forgot "awesome people being awesome"

Like me.

Dusty Ventures > thebigbossyboss
10/09/2014 at 22:57

Fine. Don't have fun ;)

HammerheadFistpunch > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
10/09/2014 at 23:00

theres a cream for that.

macanamera > Dusty Ventures
10/09/2014 at 23:01

Here is my question to anyone doing an AMA:

Pretend I put a belt around the equator, snugly. If I made that belt 6 (six) meters longer, how much slack would be created between the Earth and the belt? (Assuming it was equidistant all the way around.)

????

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Kanaric
10/09/2014 at 23:03

But, My Mommy says I'm Special

Kinja'd!!!

Dusty Ventures > macanamera
10/09/2014 at 23:07

According to my math it the belt would be 0.95 meters above the ground. But that's a little fuzzy since the most precise measurement I found for the circumference of the equator was in kilometers.

macanamera > HammerheadFistpunch
10/09/2014 at 23:08

^take it from someone who knows

macanamera > Dusty Ventures
10/09/2014 at 23:10

Isn't that crazy???? 40,000 km in circumference, and if you add 18 feet, it creates a full meter of slack worldwide!

Btw you da man. Math ftw.

Kanaric > Dusty Ventures
10/09/2014 at 23:11

They could at least make an article about what they do, then if people have questions they ask them.

Rather than just stating their regular guy job posting a picture of a E30 and saying AMA.

The AMA spam a while back was ridiculous. There needs to be more content in their initial post at the very least otherwise everyone is just going to post their car and say AMA like they did.

Jcarr > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
10/09/2014 at 23:12

More fiber will help.

Dusty Ventures > Kanaric
10/09/2014 at 23:13

I agree AMAs should have a proper intro. I'll add that into the tips.

macanamera > Dusty Ventures
10/09/2014 at 23:13

Keep Oppo Math

Tohru > Dusty Ventures
10/09/2014 at 23:19

I sell Internet service now. So I'm not really worthy of an AMA.

Dusty Ventures > macanamera
10/09/2014 at 23:19

Good to know I've still managed to hold onto at least a little bit of my middle school geometry lessons.

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius
10/09/2014 at 23:23

Well, we cant be dicks but I wonder if we can still be dickbutts.

Kinja'd!!!

macanamera > Dusty Ventures
10/09/2014 at 23:25

Chlorophyll?

More like Borophyll.

Gamecat235 > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
10/09/2014 at 23:29

I'm regular. A couple times a... Oh... That's not what you meant.

#TMI

Eli's Got 2 > macanamera
10/09/2014 at 23:31

I love that movie!

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Gamecat235
10/09/2014 at 23:33

It's not?

Gamecat235 > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
10/09/2014 at 23:34

Oh, well then... Uh is this Opoopositelock?

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Gamecat235
10/09/2014 at 23:35

Opoopositeplop.

Gamecat235 > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire
10/09/2014 at 23:36

That's winning. And a future tagline.

wallaby13 > Dusty Ventures
10/10/2014 at 00:08

So how do we go about verifying the validity of an AMA claim? Say someone says they work for and F1 race team? I personally wouldn't want to post my proof publicly, many times companies wish you to leave their names out of the social media. On Reddit usually the person will send some proof to the mods, and they can vouch for the claim rather than publicly posting the proof.

Dusty Ventures > wallaby13
10/10/2014 at 00:23

For the most part we go by the honor system here on Oppo, but if you do find yourself dubious you're more than welcome to ask someone to send proof to the mods (oppomoderator@gmail.com) for verification. That said, the person is allowed to deny your request if they choose to, we're not going to force anyone to verify themselves.

wallaby13 > Dusty Ventures
10/10/2014 at 02:13

I don't think I would request it from someone, but on more than 1 anonymous social media site I've heard "everyone's and engineer on the internet". If I'm able to refute these claims without posting public information that's better for me.

I am a young engineer in the automotive industry so once the AMA's die down I hope to post something up.

I'm glad to learn OPPO is more lenient and generally trusting.