Why honest answers are expensive
"How are you?" sounds like a question with a free answer. It isn't. To say "not great" somebody has to put it into words, say it to a particular person, watch that person's face change, and then deal with what comes next. "Fine" skips all four. Most people are not lying when they say it. They are declining the bill.
The price goes up with the audience. An answer in a group chat is an answer in front of everyone, kept on the record under your name. An answer to a boss is weighed against what it might cost. A post on social media is measured by how it performs. So the answers we collect are mostly the ones that are safe to give, and the ones we need are the ones that are not. We go through this at more length in why everyone says "fine".
What makes answers honest in weathr
A reaction, not a composition. You pick one of five symbols (sun, sun and cloud, cloud, rain, storm) at one of four levels. There is no sentence to get right and no tone to manage. A tap is quicker to give truthfully than to think about.
No audience to perform to. Nobody replies to a cast. There are no likes, no comments on it and no follower count. What the group looks at is its weather, not a thread of individual answers.
Blind by default. Every cast can hide who it was, and the cast bar starts on blind. Blind hides the name and never the mood, so a storm still counts even when nobody knows whose it is.
One voice each. A group's weather is the proportion of its members' moods. Nobody's tap weighs more, including an owner's, and there is no private version of the reading that shows anybody more than the group sees.
No score and no follow-up. Nothing you cast is rated, ranked or kept against you. Your mood stands until you replace it, so you don't have to answer again tomorrow to stay honest today.
What it can't do
weathr can make an honest answer cheap. It cannot make somebody give one. A person who wants to show sun on a bad day can still tap sun.
Blind is not a promise of anonymity in a small group. Among two or three people, a storm is easy to place, and weathr does not pretend otherwise. It works best where there are enough people for a name to disappear into.
And it tells you that a group is stormy, not why. The reading is where a conversation starts. If you want the reasons, somebody still has to ask, and now you know who to ask and when.
Compared with the usual ways of asking
| Asking in person | Asking in a group chat | An anonymous form | weathr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Effort to answer | A conversation | A message | A form | One tap |
| Who sees your answer | The person asking | Everyone, with your name | Whoever reads the results | The group, blind by default |
| How long it stays true | A moment | Until it scrolls away | Until the next form | Until you change it |
| Anyone sees more than the rest | Yes | No | Yes | No |
Questions
Why do people always say they are fine?
Because a true answer costs more than a false one. It has to be put into words, it is said in front of somebody, and it invites a follow-up the person may not want. "Fine" is the answer that ends the exchange, so it is the cheap one.
How do you get honest answers from people?
Make the honest answer as cheap as the polite one. In weathr saying how you are is one tap on one of five weather symbols, blind by default, with no likes, no score and no conversation attached. What people see is the group's weather, not a list of replies.
Is there an anonymous way to say how you feel?
In weathr a cast can be blind, and blind is the default. It hides who it was and never the mood, so the group's weather stays true. In a group of two or three, blind hides little, and weathr says so rather than promising anonymity it cannot give.
Can I see who answered what?
Only for people who chose to cast publicly. A blind cast shows its mood without a name. There is no private view that reveals more, for an owner or anybody else.