Expert: Katie - 9/3/2006

Question
Hello...

In the past several days I have received a series of questions that I consider to be in the nature of a nuisance.  There have been four questions, from (supposedly) four different people, containing almost exactly the same message word-for-word.  The same words are misspelled, the same bad grammar, as I said almost a word-for-word repeat.  I answered two of them, and the questions keep coming.  

I have tried replying to the effect that I recognize the questions as coming from the same person, and yet they keep coming.  Is there any way of dealing with a nuisance such as this?

Your guidance is appreciated.

Answer
These questions are coming from various email addresses.  They may be from a kid who has nothing better to do (poor kid) or else someone has posted a link to your category on a foot-fetish newsgroup composed of non-native English speakers. ;)

Currently, we can only block a questioner from using the entire site. Because other volunteers in your category have answered these questions, I can not enable the blocking feature just yet. In fact, some of the other experts seem to be having a bit of fun humoring these people.

Come to think of it, we should modify our blocking program so that we can block questioners from asking <i>specific</i> experts. Thanks for the idea! I have put that change on our long To Do list for future releases.

In the mean time, you can use the "I can't help with that" option to remove these questions from your pending queue. Using this option does not affect your average ratings or your prestige points.

If you continue to receive the same question for another week or if another volunteer complains, I will enable the blocking program, so please keep me posted.

Thanks,
Katie
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