AAA Forum Suggestion

DanteAlighieri · #1 Sep 12, '11, 9:28 am

All,

I have been perplexed of late. While reading the AAA forum, I have several times discovered a thread answered by one of the docents in such a way as to suggest that the docents are not reading the questions carefully. I'm sure that's not the case, but I think you'll find upon reviewing the docent-answered questions, there are several for which the docent-provided links are only tangentially related to the original question.

Take, for instance, this thread. The original post asks why God rested on the 7th day, but the thread provided by the docent discusses Sunday and whether or not it is the Sabbath. Not only is this only loosely connected, it does not address any of the other implied questions in the original post.

I felt I should bring this to someone's attention, as I imagine it is terribly frustrating to the original poster if it bothers me, the reader.

Peace,
Dante

Corki · #2 Sep 12, '11, 10:22 am

Are the docents real people? I noticed the same thing you did and came to the conclusion that the docents were keyword bots. Not that there's anything wrong with that - it saves the apologists time and frees them up to answer less routine questions.

anp1215 · #3 Sep 12, '11, 10:55 am

I have noticed this as well.

**Joe 5859** · #4 Sep 12, '11, 10:59 am

Quote:

Originally Posted by Corki

Are the docents real people? I noticed the same thing you did and came to the conclusion that the docents were keyword bots. Not that there's anything wrong with that - it saves the apologists time and frees them up to answer less routine questions.

Yes, the docents are real people. They were added so that they could increase the number of AAA responses to individual queries, particularly repeat questions. The way I understand it, the docents are only answering questions that would otherwise have been ignored completely (due to their time restraints).

I have noticed at times that the linked responses don't match up so well to the question being posed. I think that's probably unavoidable. My guess is that if the docents were trained apologists, they wouldn't be docents. So it's only natural to misunderstand a question here or there.

SonCatcher · #5 Sep 12, '11, 11:09 am

The docents are real people but are limited to providing links to previous AAA threads. The question asked, however, seems to be new (with a different spin than all the prior Sabbath-related questions).