Mark topic as solved?

[pjotr123]

It would be useful, if one could mark one's topic as solved. Easier for people who afterwards seek help for the same problem.

[srschifano]

I second this. It would be very helpful for people who search the forums for answers and instead find a 6-page long topic but they don't feel like weeding through to find the solution. So instead they just start a new topic about something thats already been answered 100 times before.

Being able to mark a post as a solution to the problem, and then being able to go to that solution would be a great addition to the forums.

We must also keep in mind that the forum software might not support this functionality. If that is the case, disregard my response.

[hendersj]

On Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:26:01 +0000, srschifano wrote:

> I second this. It would be very helpful for people who search the
> forums for answers and instead find a 6-page long topic but they don't
> feel like weeding through to find the solution. So instead they just
> start a new topic about something thats already been answered 100 times
> before.
>
> Being able to mark a post as a solution to the problem, and then being
> able to go to that solution would be a great addition to the forums.
>
> We must also keep in mind that the forum software might not support this
> functionality. If that is the case, disregard my response.

This suggestion comes up about once every month - the problem is that not
everyone is going to mark their threads as solved, so then the
functionality becomes useless.

Further, sometimes you get an additional side discussion that isn't
resolved (or is), so at what point does the thread get marked solved?
When the original issue is resolved? What if the secondary issue becomes
the main point of discussion?

The only way to have it done consistently is for the moderation staff to
ensure threads are properly marked "solved" when the thread is solved.
Do the mods want to do this? If I was a mod, I might not be willing to
do this (though mostly because I access via NNTP and any functionality to
"mark as solved" is likely to be only in the web interface, which I
dislike using because it's not as fast as using NNTP).

Please search the earlier discussions on this topic for other opinions
about it. As I said, this "idea" comes up about monthly, if not more
frequently. :-)

Jim

[consused]

Originally Posted by hendersj

This suggestion comes up about once every month - the problem is that not everyone is going to mark their threads as solved, so then the functionality becomes useless...

That's a bit OTT (IMO). It's come up before, but hardly monthly. The problem of not marking has already been made i.e. the party line. It ignores the fact that other functionality for marking stuff is not used frequently or effectively, but is included for the benefit of those who do enjoy using it. Again I pointed this out in an earlier post. If you read the thread, you must have noticed some posts discussing the benefit enjoyed by other forums using it, and how their members remind each other to mark posts as solved. Why should it fall upon the Mods to do it?

NNTP users are already excused from using other forum techniques. Maybe this one would escape you as well.

Further, sometimes you get an additional side discussion that isn't
resolved (or is), so at what point does the thread get marked solved?
When the original issue is resolved? What if the secondary issue becomes
the main point of discussion?

It's called "going off topic" or "hijacking a thread" It doesn't matter because the OP would decide when it is solved. The secondary issue becoming the main point is the definition of a perfect hi-jack! Apparently it's not very good forum etiquette.

[deano_ferrari]

It's called "going off topic" or "hijacking a thread" It doesn't matter because the OP would decide when it is solved. The secondary issue becoming the main point is the definition of a perfect hi-jack! Apparently it's not very good forum etiquette.

Haven't thought much about this before, but maybe if threads were able to be marked solved by OP, it might encourage others to start their own threads. They could still add a link to the old thread if they thought it was relevant.

[hendersj]

On Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:26:01 +0000, consused wrote:

> hendersj;2020934 Wrote:
>> This suggestion comes up about once every month - the problem is that
>> not everyone is going to mark their threads as solved, so then the
>> functionality becomes useless...
> That's a bit OTT (IMO). It's come up before, but hardly monthly.

Exaggeration for effect. It comes up periodically, then. :-)

> The
> problem of not marking has already been made i.e. the party line. It
> ignores the fact that other functionality for marking stuff is not used
> frequently or effectively, but is included for the benefit of those who
> do enjoy using it. Again I pointed this out in an earlier post. If you
> read the thread, you must have noticed some posts discussing the benefit
> enjoyed by other forums using it, and how their members remind each
> other to mark posts as solved. Why should it fall upon the Mods to do
> it?

Because the benefit is not for the user for whom the problem is resolved,
but for people looking for solutions.

But in order for the "mark as solved" idea to be beneficial, every thread
that is solved has to be marked solved, otherwise how does one actually
use it to find solutions? Is a thread that's not marked "solved"
considered "unsolved" if the OP never comes back and says "great, that
fixed it for me, thanks!" and marks it as solved? What if they come back
and mark it as "solved" but don't comment - did the actual advise given
help solve the problem, or did they find some other way to solve it that
the given solutions pointed them in the direction of?

And even more to the point, how many users actually search before posting
a question to see if the answer is already there? In an ideal world,
they would, but in my rather long experience in using forums of all
sorts, it's not common practice because it's "hard" to search and "easy"
to just ask the question again. Those who search are the minority use
case.

> NNTP users are already excused from using other forum techniques.
> Maybe this one would escape you as well.

I'm not sure what's *funny* about that per se - but here again, if the
benefit is for people searching for answers, then it's got to be
consistently done or the value simply isn't there.

>> Further, sometimes you get an additional side discussion that isn't
>> resolved (or is), so at what point does the thread get marked solved?
>> When the original issue is resolved? What if the secondary issue
>> becomes
>> the main point of discussion?
> It's called "going off topic" or "hijacking a thread"

Welcome to the wonderful world of forums. Sometimes the "side" topic is
actually related to the original. Say for example, the OP starts a
discussion about problems with sound and it turns out it's Pulseaudio
that's messed things up for them. So then they switch to using ALSA and
have a related issue that turns out to be related to the sound hardware
rather than either sound daemon, and the discussion turns to ALSA-related
matters or HW related matters.

Now as a user coming into the discussion (as a result of a search on a
problem I'm having), I see the recommend to use ALSA so I try that and
run into a problem - is it "hijacking" the thread to say "well, I tried
switching to ALSA as suggested but it did something weird - here's the
detail". IMHO, no, because it's related to the suggested solution and
applied to the 1st person's original issue and proposed solution.

> It doesn't
> matter because the OP would decide when it is solved. The secondary
> issue becoming the main point is the definition of a perfect hi-jack!
> Apparently it's not very good forum etiquette.

Depends on the forum. There are places where "thread drift" is perfectly
acceptable and a standard practice. Discussions evolve.

Jim

[hendersj]

On Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:26:01 +0000, deano ferrari wrote:

>> It's called "going off topic" or "hijacking a thread" It doesn't matter
>> because the OP would decide when it is solved. The secondary issue
>> becoming the main point is the definition of a perfect hi-jack!
>> Apparently it's not very good forum etiquette.
>
> Haven't thought much about this before, but maybe if threads were able
> to be marked solved by OP, it might encourage others to start their own
> threads. They could still add a link to the old thread if they thought
> it was relevant.

I don't think "marking as solved" has the same connotation as "closing
the thread". Closing threads that are marked solved seems a bad idea,
for one thing, as an NNTP user, how am I to know a thread is "closed"?
Today, I keep an eye out for the mods participating in a thread and if I
see one of them, I'll check to see if they've posted that a thread is
closed before posting. If any user can close a thread as a part of
marking it solved, there has to be a standard way to KNOW that the thread
is closed that doesn't involve reading the whole thing - a tag in the
subject line saying [Solved] would be sufficient. But that's not a
standard part of vBulletin, so it would require custom coding, and custom
coding comes at a price of manageability when upgrades are done to the
system.

Jim

[hendersj]

On Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:26:01 +0000, consused wrote:

> That's a bit OTT (IMO). It's come up before, but hardly monthly.

8 threads in the past year. OK, not monthly, but it has come up
periodically (as I said). Kinda makes my point that people come to the
forum and don't search ahead of time to see if a topic has been discussed
previously or not, though.

Jim

> 8 threads in the past year. OK, not monthly, but

uh, that is eight threads _initiated_

but i _guess_ if you check you will find that someone unwilling to
read a 6-page long existing thread on the 'solved' topic to SEE if
there is a policy decision already made, and will post another support
for change....well, i'd guess if you count those you could say it
comes up TWICE a month...or more.

lets face it: most (many?) people will NOT search the forums for
existing forum policy decisions *or* solutions..

it is part of the instant gratification malady..

--
goldie

[pjotr123]

It would make the forum more efficient. The quicker you can find a good solution for your problem, the better. :-)