This place is a tremendous idea - a vast sea of easily accessible
knowledge for all curious minds to trawl through, archived, forever.

And even though no-one answered my first ($60) question [this is my
2nd], I've found so much on here from all 3 factions - researchers,
commenters and questioners alike - that has enlightened, inspired,
stimulated further curiosity, and even touched me.

Oh, and had me nearly falling out of my seat and injuring myself with
laughter at humour both intentional, and otherwise.

I think this site is as important as the search engine itself whose
name is synonymous with that process.

One thing that both amuses and annoys, is the often insultingly low
prices I see attached to enquiries that would clearly require hours
upon hours of eye-watering detective work; many people obviously try
to take full advantage of the absolute minimum price tag, and hope
their spectacular tight-fistedness will be read as grindingly tragic
poverty; that some kind-hearted GR will accordingly take pity and
answer solely for the love of helping, as - let's be candid - 2 lousy
dollars will barely buy a cheap loaf of bread.

So perhaps I have sort of answered my own question up there, but
anyway, I want to be entertained, and pay someone decently for the
trouble!

[4 dollars for the answer. Another 4 will be automatically gained in tippage]

Here are my speculations on the matter of underpriced questions.

1.  I suspect that some of the customers who offer very small fees are
not from the United States, and do not have a good grasp on the
spending power of the U.S. Dollar for the typical Google Answers
Researcher.

2.  Some customers may not know that Google Answers Researchers are
not Google employees; we don't receive a regular salary and benefits,
plus our GA earnings. The 75% of the question fee that goes into the
Researcher's account is all we get.

3.  Many underpriced questions appear to come from people who hope
that we will do their homework. I don't mean to be unkind, but if a
person is dimwitted enough to be unable to do his or her own
schoolwork, it is not surprising that such a person may have
difficulty assigning an appropriate price to a question.

4.  There is a common notion that easily-located prefabricated lists
are available for everything. When a customer asks for a list of 100
crenellated widget gadget manufacturers in Timbuktu, it is possible
that the customer thinks that such a list can be called up in a couple
of minutes, rather than painstakingly compiled over a period of days.

5.  Some low-priced questions may be posted by people who believe that
all information should be free. By and large, these are probably the
same kinds of folks who don't think they should have to pay for their
music, their software, or their movies.

6.  Customers may be aware that There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free
Lunch, but hope that if they order a $2.00 appetizer, the waiter or
waitress may take pity on them and serve up a banquet. Occasionally,
this works. Some Google Answers Researchers are willing to accept
lower wages when a question is genuinely fascinating, or is related to
our personal interests. I once spent about two hours answering a
question about the Rubaiyat. I earned $1.50 for my time. Never got a
rating, so I don't know whether or not the customer was satisfied.

Okay, those were the serious speculations. Here are the frivolous ones:

7.  Customers who offer a $2.00 fee really meant to price their
questions at $200, but thought that the decimal point was a fly-speck
on the monitor.

8.  Chickenfee customers are actually spies, and the questions are
coded messages. "I need a 3-page essay on the subjugation of women in
18th Century English literature" actually means "We found Osama. He's
in the third cave from the right, and he's wearing a Tony Blair mask."

9. Customers who price their GA questions at two clams are big fans of
Johnny Hart's comic strip "BC."

10. All the cheapskate questions have been posted by a guy who is
writing a book called "Google Answers Punk'd." Boy, will I be
embarrassed when the book becomes a bestseller and everybody is
laughing at me about that Rubaiyat thing.

Very best regards,
pinkfreud

---

Request for Answer Clarification by seek_to_find-ga on 23 Jun 2005 06:55 PDT

That's very good pinkfreud. Now could you provide another 50 points for me..?

Just kidding - my response coming up..;)

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 23 Jun 2005 10:36 PDT

Wow, thanks for the five stars and the ten-clam tip! Of course, now
that you know about the spy code, you'll have to go into hiding... :-D

~Pink

Hello pinkfreud,

I had a feeling you were on this case, and I'm glad you were :)

1) I think people trying that one on are being disingenuous - sites
like XE.com are all over the net! [I'm a Brit]

2) Yes, well that's what I assumed at first too. I think 10-15% for
Google would be fairer. Though this can be worked around with tipping
- hence what you can see at the foot of this page :)

3) Yes, there's a lot of naughty schoolboys and girls out there. They
iz goin to get learned the hard way...

4) "...a list of 100 crenellated widget gadget manufacturers in
Timbuktu." Hmm, that sounds like a potential future question...

5) Yes, the kind that would pay the minimum even if their lucky
numbers came up. Twice.

6) My heartfelt sympathy for such rough treatment. I hope you got the
value out in other ways.

7) You'd think that's happened looking at some of the work expected for 200 cents!

8) Ahah :)

9) Not familiar with that (probably coz I'm a Limey). 'Before Cash'..?

10) Nay - I think you should be garlanded for such heroism in the face
of such abject miserliness.

Thanks a lot - exactly the kind of answer I wanted. Good job.

Pass 'Go' pinkfreud, and grab your booty :)

Although I could never live up to the wit and charm and delightfully
entertaining yet educational answers of PinkFreud, I must add as a
financial guy that supply and demand is always the answer (almost
always that is) when it comes to prices.

What is the answer worth to the customer and what is it worth to the
answerer?  Sometimes these prices overlap and the questioner will
offer enough to make it worthwhile and ... sometimes they don't
overlap and the question never gets answered.
One function I'd like to see added to this site is a $$ increaser. 
The questioner should be able to increase the $$ offered at any time
in order to intice a bigger response from the researchers.

pinkfreud : Well I had to set a good example after asking a question
like that didn't I?  Should be enough to get you a good few loaves
anyway :) PS Now, if anyone asks, you haven't seen me...

jack : Hmm, there must be too few researchers chasing too few
questions going by how many 2 buck enquiries get sorted with a smile.
Or maybe the GRs are just kinder than your average Joe/Jill...

Jack:

The questioner can easily increase (or decrease) the fee at any time,
unless the question is locked or is already answered. There is a
button that says "Change Question Parameters" on the customer's
screen. The price of the question is one of the things that can be
changed.

Of course, I meant 'too MANY researchers' in that sentence. I know I'm
not a researcher and don't have to live up to any standards, but
anyway - GRRR.

I think some people post a $2 questoin and hope someone will answer it
with a free comment.

Yes they do, and I've sometimes been amazed at the quality of some of
the commenters' answers. I think maybe some people are angling for a
job here...;)

Wow, I was unaware that the price could be changed... I've watched
many of these questions over time and have never seen a price change
without the question actually being reposted.

Seek_to_Find, You're analysis is kinda right in that there are too
many researchers going after too few questions... but it's not like
the researchers are locked in a cage and forced to answer 500
questions before they get fed.  These researchers enjoy their job here
and do it for the joy as well as for the money.  Of course any job is
made better by a bigger paycheck, but there are also other reasons to
do work.  As you mentioned, even commenters here do a phenomenal job
without getting a dime for it.

Yes, I was mostly just being flippant there - only people with a
genuine interest in the subject would bother with something that would
only cover the price of a cup of coffee. That's certainly to be
applauded - I'd just like to see less of the Scrooge-like price
setting (even if it does make me laugh).