"Fixed problems" forum

guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

I'm not sure if this idea has been brought up before, but I've been wracking my brain trying to think of a little less ad-hoc support scheme for us here on the forums. What if each question, once successfully supported and answered, were moved to such an area? We'd have the start of a central troubleshooting doc, and it'd make searching and offering help so much easier!

There are holes in the theory, but I think they can be filled. It'd be kinda nice for people searching for help to say, "I know that if it's in this section, it's been solved one way or another."

The main problem would be deciding when a post has been answered in a satisfactory manner -- does the requester, the moderators, the supporter (no, not atheletic)?

st. anger · Apprentice Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Posts: 273

I think that is a Brilliant idea.
is it possible? can it be implemented? mods??
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pjp · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2003 5:28 pm Post subject:

How is this different from the FAQ Forum?
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guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

The FAQ forum, as I can see it, is where you post general fixes and walkthroughs (pre-emptive fixes).

There are so many problems solved in the other forums where the result is just dropped 'way off down the list, sometimes never to be seen again. I know it could put a great deal of extra load on the mods, but it would make searching for answers so much easier. So often, a problem has been solved, but when searched for, it's hidden by all the new postings for it on top. If the solutions were all in a forum of their own, you could reliably say, "what's in this forum has worked".

Of course, the best way to do this would be to start from the ground up, first posts and such, and try to establish the base. I'm not sure even I would want to do that.

Then again, if it did fly, what would stop us from adding an "Enigmas" or "Unsolved Mysteries" forum as well? For those of us who would really like to break our teeth on something hard.

masseya · Posted: Sat Apr 12, 2003 7:59 pm Post subject:

One of the real problems as I see it are those issues where the original poster doesn't respond saying that it's working now. I like the thought, but for the most part I'm not sure the potential benefit would justify the amount of work involved. Plus, now people with a new problem would have to browse two separate forums to find out if their issues have been mentioned before.
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st. anger · Apprentice Joined: 30 Oct 2002 Posts: 273

i dont know how the forums work, but would it be possible to let a user who posted a problem then it got rersolved, be able to lock the thread themselves and mark it as solved. then the search could be set up to search the "solved" threads?

of course this would depend on the users actually following up on thier thread and declaring it solved, but perhaps if this was a feature more people would do it?
that is, IF its possible?
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guero61 · l33t Joined: 14 Oct 2002 Posts: 811 Location: Behind you

The only problem with giving users "lock" capability is... exploitable, even if it is a thread they started, they may just want to lock it when it gets out of their control range. I'd say leave locking to mods

Another problem I see is that we tend to address several problems at once in one thread. I will continue to ponder solutions to make our support system a little more streamlined. Does phpBB support auto-moving posts, say after a certain day limit or after a certain amount of inactivity? Just make it one forum -- completed requests. A poster would have to request moving a thread back to active support if it hadn't been solved...

About the users having to browse two different forums -- don't they already browse at least three? (FAQ, specific forum, and OTG)

dma · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 3:11 am Post subject:

The user can simply edit the first post and change the subject, adding "[SOLVED]" or something.

insanecanuck · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 3:39 am Post subject:

dma, that's exactly what I do btw.

Everytime a problem I have is solved I add a [solved] in the subject and edit the first post to indicate the solution.

I think that more users should do this for the community :wink:

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masseya · Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2003 5:33 pm Post subject: