The adopt an unanswered post initiative

BiggJ · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 12:45 am Post subject:

I often look at unanswered post, but not until seeing this thread, did I start looking the older ones first ... I started at:

https://forums.gentoo.org/search.php?search_id=839288108&start=4100

... which is page 83 or so, where the posts actually start (every page after that came up blank). And after answering a half dozen or so I am noticing that alot of them are duplicates posts. By duplicate, I mean, same author and exact same content. Perhapse we should get some of these deleted?

An example:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=84145&highlight=
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=84139&highlight=
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=84136&highlight=

All are by the same author: "trajedi"
All have the same title: "stupied error's why do i keep getting them.?"
And all have the exact same post in them:

Andersson · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 1:17 am Post subject:

Perhaps posts like that should be left deep down in the database instead of being dragged up into the light. They are not bothering anyone anymore and it's a lot of job to find them and remove them all...

Also, is there a point in answering posts that are more than a couple of months old? The original author is probably not interested anymore and the software in question has probably had several new versions since then.

I think your time is better spent on the newer questions where somebody is waiting for an answer.

BiggJ · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 3:23 am Post subject:

shash · Apprentice Joined: 18 Apr 2003 Posts: 220 Location: India

Joe: 2^15 comes to 32768!

supenguin · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Jul 2002 Posts: 95

I noticed a while back whenever I posted, the post would show up twice or more... Don't suppose there's an easy way for non-moderators to flag a message as a dup?

Also, while answering the older posts is not a good use of time, I'm not convinced answering the absolute latest posts is a good idea either. You'd never see anything older than a couple minutes if you just answer the latest! Maybe start a couple pages into the unanswered posts?
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plate · Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 5:36 pm Post subject:

Report obvious duplicates, stuff answered elsewhere or whatever you think could be safely deleted to this thread. That's one location all the moderators watch, much better than sending PMs to one or several of us.

Great initiative, by the way. Particularly gratifying since we didn't have much of a reaction to this earlier attempt at starting the same thing...

Tazmanian · Apprentice Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Posts: 222

Avoiding unintelligible unanswered posts

Pre-emptive thread split. :mrgreen:

Koon · Retired Dev Joined: 10 Dec 2002 Posts: 518

I see a problem in this initiative : helpful people will concentrate on new topics (with 0 reply count) rather than on fat old topics (with >0 reply count). If someone wants his question answered and sees a thread that somewhat talk about his problem, does this initiative push him into creating a new topic (bad) to attract this initiative's members or to participate in the old topic (good) ?

What would be better is to include a [SOLVED] subject system to easily spot unsolved problems. It can be included in the forum system as a rule of usage (with a very high risk of people not using it or using it with the wrong syntax) or as a forum mod (with a high risk of not being done, since it requires system modification).

-K

wolvenwraith · Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 11:55 pm Post subject:

ectospasm · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2004 7:30 am Post subject:

adaptr · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2004 3:26 am Post subject:

I don't understand why you say that last bit - to my mind the problem (and its solution) are quite simple:

- Yes, I also think it a very good idea to try to reduce the unanswered posts to a minimum, if only because people trying to answer them will have an easier time of it (i.e. not having to wade their way through hundreds of posts that aren't worth answering, for any of the reasons mentioned earlier).

Getting rid of the very old unanswered posts should be quite easy, too:
- reply, this alone will make the problem go away ;-)

But don't just reply with a "unanswered for a long time, so there" message, since that will accomplish nothing.

I propose answering those with a question to the OP on whether he still wants an answer, thus letting nature take its proper course:
- if he does, he will reply, and the post will show up in "last 24 hours".
(or re-post it if he's smart)

If not, he won't reply, and the post is off the unanswered list ;-)

I'm totally not worried about sage advice vanishing off the forum in this way, since the fact that the OP does not want an answer can mean one of two things:
1. He got an answer elsewhere, and so can anybody else; if he was feeling social he would have posted this info in response to his own thread and might even have tagged it SOLVED;
or
2. he doesn't care, so why should we ?

Votes, please?

I think I might start on this anyway - answering the insanely easy ones, but asking the Question for any that are left orphaned for a looong time.

My response would look something like this:
" Dear Gentoo user,
Your post to the Gentoo forums has not been answered in [1/3/6 months' time, a long time];
I am hereby asking you whether you want to pursue this matter further, or, if you have found an answer since then, whether you would care to close this topic, optionally posting the solution or information that you found.

If you still seek an answer to your questions, consider simply re-posting a new one.

Regards,
The adopt an unanswered post effort"

adaptr · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2004 4:28 am Post subject:

Okay this is real weird - now only the actual first page of "unanswered" contains any posts, the rest are ALL empty!
Either that or my Firebird is b0rking somewhere...

Tazmanian · Apprentice Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Posts: 222

adaptr · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2004 5:17 am Post subject:

Yes, that's roughly the same as others in this thread have said.
I mean really only ONE page of unanswereds, then - nothing.

SPW · Guru Joined: 22 Jul 2003 Posts: 318 Location: Lëtzebuerg

I like this initiative to reply to unanswered posts. But I already tried to do this since I began using the forums. The problem is that I'm sort of a n00b too and cannot answer most of these questions because I simply do not know the answers. That's why I have no problem with people asking easy questions. A lot of you criticised people for posting "n00b questions" but I have a solution:
advanced users answer "advanced questions" and beginners answer "beginner questions"

aerotux · n00b Joined: 22 Jan 2004 Posts: 20 Location: Argentina

This is a great idea.

But a lot of times posts get answered but the problem is not solved. Wouldn't be better to add a keyword on posts that are not resolved (from now on)? something like "unresolved" somewhere in the post.
Then, when someone solved the problem, he could add another keyword like "gentooresolved". This way we can actually search for unresolved posts, no matter how many answered the posts have.

Then the new search will be: "+unanswered -gentoosolved"

We could make this an standard if some administrator put a messege on the forum index like this:

Andersson · Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2004 12:19 am Post subject:

aerotux · n00b Joined: 22 Jan 2004 Posts: 20 Location: Argentina

Yes, you are right about that. Does anyone know if it exists a hack for phpBB forum that mark a thread with two status flags? That could really answer our ideas. I'm sure there is one for vBulletin forum, maybe there's one for phpBB too.
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gareth · Apprentice Joined: 15 Nov 2003 Posts: 234 Location: UK

tomk · Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2004 11:50 pm Post subject:

Well it seems to be having an effect, there was 9911, then 8571 and we've currently got 8109 unanswered posts.

Keep up the good work
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deepthought · Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2004 2:41 pm Post subject:

And where, please, can I (after adopting a whole mass of unanswered posts) register to increase my personal AdoptiCount (tm) value?

Regards,
Alexander
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ectospasm · Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2004 7:45 pm Post subject:

deepthought · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2004 8:57 am Post subject:

I can't answer this question, but I'll tell you who can.

"I speak of none but the computer that is to come after me. [...] A computer whose merest operational parameters I am not worthy to calculate -- and yet I will design it for you. A computer which can calculate the Question to the Ultimate Answer, a computer of such infinite and subtle complexity that organic life itself shall form part of its operational matrix. And you yourselves shall take on new forms and go down into the computer to navigate its ten-million-year program! Yes! I shall design this computer for you. And I shall name it also unto you. And it shall be called... " -- well, I assume you know the rest.

Regards,
Alexander

<log>maybe introduce irony/sarcasm/joke flag. should bug the forum ops about it.</log>
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ectospasm · Posted: Fri Jan 30, 2004 5:10 pm Post subject: