http://qs1969.pair.com?node_id=101377


in reply to RFC: flagging solutions...

I'd really like having a "this worked" flag on nodes. It's probably only relevant in SOPW, though I don't know if that makes it easier or harder to implement.

As for the extra XP, I'm not so sure. I think people put way too much emphasis on XP as it is. If you really wanted to give the writer more credit, you could just find some of their old nodes and upvote them....

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Re: RFC: flagging solutions...
by suaveant (Parson) on Aug 01, 2001 at 18:31 UTC
    Like I said... it might be nice... but the real emphasis is on letting the node author mark the nodes that made a difference. It would help the people searching at the very least, and let people know that the problem was solved...

                    - Ant

I'ma getting crotchety in my old age
by boo_radley (Parson) on Aug 01, 2001 at 19:52 UTC
    I'd really like having a "this worked" flag on nodes. It's probably only relevant in SOPW, though I don't know if that makes it easier or harder to implement.
    How is this different that replying to a node with "this worked!" ?

      It's different in that

      • it's faster
      • you won't be treading the line of danger with the people who hate "thank-you nodes".

      For all that, I tend to agree that a responding node is more appropriate. For one thing, there are frequently several solutions that work; for another, threads often have a fair amount of cross-talk between answers, which will tell you if something's either incredibly brilliant or mind-bogglingly stupid (somebody will presumably have replied to that effect).

      And I'm somewhat leery of marking a node as The Answer--if somebody else comes by with the exact same question, they benefit slightly, but somebody with a subtly different problem may read the thread, jump straight to "The Answer", and miss the node down below which warns them about the limitations of this approach (disaster ensues). Granted, that's very hypothetical, but I don't know that it's that far off.

      So on the balance, I think this idea sounds good but would have at best a small positive impact--besides, do we want another kind of voting for people to get annoyed about?



      If God had meant us to fly, he would *never* have given us the railroads.
          --Michael Flanders

      My thought was to have the node color coded or gold starred or moved to the top, so that it would stand out for people searching nodes. And prevents the clutter of a thank you message... which some node get very cluttered... most nodes aren't that bad... but something like this would really help in places like Dereference an array reference

                      - Ant

Re: Re: RFC: flagging solutions...
by mr_mischief (Monsignor) on Aug 02, 2001 at 05:13 UTC
    Personally, I don't upvote or downvote based on a person. I upvote or downvote based on the content of an individual node, and sometimes I'll upvote and downvote the same person in the same day.

    My main fear in upvoting as a favor or out of admiration/respect/love/fear/whatever is that I don't want to lend that little bit of extra credibility to a node I find detrimental. If I see marginal advice, I'm going to comment on it. If I see bad advice, I'm going to downvote it. If I see really bad advice, I'll probably do both.

    I have at times wanted to upvote the same node twice for a really good, comprehensive reply to a question that someone has asked. I can imagine that this wouldn't be an outrageous thing to allow to the person who posted the original question.

    Chris