The adopt an unanswered post initiative

Message

HogRider · Post by **HogRider** » Sun Feb 01, 2004 12:33 pm

One unworthy note:
While I'm all for answering these unanswered posts (my regular routine since the last initiative, or was it the one before, time permitting), I'm against just responding to get it off the list. Reply if you can provide constructive direction, but if the post leaves the unanswered list (without assistance) it's then lost to the rest of the forum. It'll be buried beneath the other posts and forgotten, which will lead to the original poster submitting a duplicate or going unserved or elsewhere.

There are often posts that go unanswered but are still needed/wanted months later. I've answered them.

lunarg · Post by **lunarg** » Sun Feb 15, 2004 10:47 pm

Excellent idea.
I'm already working on answering where I can help

.

orionrobots · Post by **orionrobots** » Tue Feb 17, 2004 8:20 pm

For those who have new questions. I think the title initiative - for admins is a great one, as I have searched for stuff - and once or twice found thread titles misleading.

There will definately be some dupes - but a helpful pointer in the right direction, and to a post(surely there is one) on effective searching/finding answers - and avoiding using the acronyms STFW/STFF or RTFM may also keep goodwill.

Anyway - for those complaining about it filling up the forum - they might think about not filling up the forum with their complaints

.

And with that- I am going to go and hunt down a few posts to answer.

By the way - having searched for searching, lurking, posting, forum etc - I have not found a searchable post on effective use of resources.

DecoR · Post by **DecoR** » Fri Feb 20, 2004 4:24 pm

Yeah... this was a good idea.

I will check dayly, and help if I manage

Henrik.

bigsmoke · Post by **bigsmoke** » Mon Feb 23, 2004 5:40 pm

I've been hunting down unanswered posts since yesterday and it's quitte fun. Also, it's an excellent way to educate myself in problem-solving techniques.

Mindstab · Post by **Mindstab** » Thu Feb 26, 2004 5:46 pm

I think it's great to see this working. Not only has the number of unanswered posts stopped growing, but it's shriking. 150-200 less ~ then when started. This is pretty neat. And really really improves the forums as a useful tool.

wescott · Post by **wescott** » Tue Mar 02, 2004 5:09 pm

This sounds like a good idea....even if the post is something like:

* That was asked < here > ...this should answer your question
* You should be able to find that answer easily by searching that topic with google or AllTheWeb.com
* There is a warning in the official Gentoo documentation not to do that...you may need to start back from step so-and-so

If the topic is just a newbee question, as many of you have talked about, then (even though after a while it gets anoying) we should be polite in our responce.

Think about it- Other industries have spoon-fed services to them in order to get them to buy there product. Some people, I guess, expect the linux community to do the same for them.

Don't get me wrong, we shouldn't encourage this in our community, but we should discreetly teach them the culture of our community so they can get pointed in the right direction-- looking for info in the right places...not putting themselves in a likely spot for flamming.

uglyb0b · Post by **uglyb0b** » Sat Mar 13, 2004 11:40 pm

Will do. Nice idea, too.

snerfu · Post by **snerfu** » Thu Mar 18, 2004 6:38 pm

It seems alot like the unanswered posts have too little information in the original statement of the issue. I think this could be helped by adding more detailed information to the original statement of the problem or question.

knefas · Post by **knefas** » Fri Mar 19, 2004 6:55 pm

That's a usefull feature. I'll do...

Pseud · Post by **Pseud** » Sun Apr 04, 2004 7:58 pm

Great initiative.
And, Eureka!, Joe

neenee · Post by **neenee** » Sun Apr 04, 2004 9:01 pm

i'll try to answer some as well

nixnut · Post by **nixnut** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 9:00 pm

How can I help?

Each time you visit the forums have a look at the unanswered posts and try an answer at least one of them, the more the better.

Good initiative. Bookmarked it too

ectospasm · Post by **ectospasm** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 7:12 am

Some questions do not dignify a response. Like this one. If you respond to this, you're just feeding the monster. It's obvious that some people don't read the guidelines before posting....

I could be wrong, and maybe we need to educate these people. Any thoughts? Should we answer these types of posts in order to do so?

tomk · Post by **tomk** » Sun Apr 25, 2004 7:50 am

ectospasm wrote:Any thoughts? Should we answer these types of posts in order to do so?

I think this specific case is different. Having a look at that user's post history, it looks like he accidentally clicked on 'new topic' instead of 'post reply'. I've moved it off to dupes with a link to the intended topic.

On a more general note, I think that posts along these lines should be answered, even if it's asking the user to post more info. or to politely remind them to read the guidelines.

That's what I think.

dberkholz · Post by **dberkholz** » Mon Apr 26, 2004 5:48 am

I've been doing this since the beginning, but I'm glad the initiative is getting more of you involved. =)

iplayfast · Post by **iplayfast** » Thu Apr 29, 2004 4:28 am

I'm in.

John2583 · Post by **John2583** » Sat May 08, 2004 6:55 am

good idea. I just did my part and answered this post: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php? ... highlight=

This type of stuff is what makes the Gentoo community so strong. Keep up the good ideas and friendly atmosphere everyone!

BlinkEye · Post by **BlinkEye** » Fri May 21, 2004 11:20 am

great initiative. i'm in too

jmk · Post by **jmk** » Fri May 28, 2004 9:39 am

I'll join in and do what I can.
I'm also taking the opportunity to finally give myself a signature.

k2laz · Post by **k2laz** » Thu Jun 03, 2004 4:34 pm

dj_choco wrote:
Clete2 wrote:
afraner wrote:It shows currently 8191 unanswered post, but the last one shown is 4149 on page 83. Behind there are only empty pages. I wondered if this is an error with the forum or my browser, but I guess it's the forum.
Joe wrote:I bet its far more, since the search function of phpBB caps at (2^15)+1 (aka 8193).
That's interesting, but sometimes there are even 8194 unanswered topics.
[edit]
I counted ones again, not 4149 but 4120 unanswered.
[/edit]
This would mean that the counter up there is accurate, but it will not go past those 80 or so pages. We don't need to answer the older posts.
or the ones labled very clearly [SOLVED]!

Maybe the remaining 4073 (=8193-4120) are unanswered questions but are also un-asked questions.

Remeber that the answer to ultimate question in the universe is 41.

Raoul_Duke · Post by **Raoul_Duke** » Mon Jun 07, 2004 2:20 pm

Sounds good, i'm in

anyNiXwilldo · Post by **anyNiXwilldo** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 4:59 pm

OK, I have done my part. I have been through all 150 pages and answered all unanswered posts that I could (which wasn't that many as I am not guru.)

KShots · Post by **KShots** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 2:32 pm

Cool, awesome idea!... just wish I hadn't replied in this post that it hadn't been answered in 1 1/2 months (thereby increasing the replies to '1')

However, just yesterday ( 8 months later), I decided that I was going to have to try something other than gentoo on my server due to many, many, many other problems. Note that even though 8 months passed by, I was still looking for an answer... Anyways, unless someone else is having that problem, nobody needs answer that one

.

Note I still use Gentoo on my desktop...

motub · Post by **motub** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 9:46 pm

This is a really good thing; may I add another suggestion to it?

On LinuxQuestions.org, they send me an email every day with the last 25 posts with 0 replies (naturally, this is set in your profile, and I requested it).

It won't help much with the backlog, but it might help with keeping the backlog from getting bigger if these forums could institute something similar.

Heck, you could send me the most recent 25 and 15 random old ones, and it would be fine with me. I check such posts while I drink my morning tea, and do my part with the things I do know, and subscribe to the things I don't know but want to learn about.

To be honest, I would really prefer that LQ sent me about 3 mails day, rather than just the one, since obviously during the course of the day new stuff comes in, and old stuff remains unanswered, and I have to trawl around to find it.

But yeah, I'll help insofar as I can. I can definitely change my sig, so I'll do that in a minute (or right now

).

The adopt an unanswered post initiative

This is a good idea

This is good

Good initiative

Sounds good!

Re: The adopt an unanswered post initiative

Some questions...

Re: Some questions...

Re: don't forget to skip [SOLVED]