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RFC: flagging solutions...

by suaveant (Parson)
on Jul 31, 2001 at 23:29 UTC ( [id://101287]=monkdiscuss: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Just an idea... but it seems that it would be useful for the author of a node to be able to flag the really useful responses to their questions, to bring attention to them...

Often it seems you'll get many responses to your question, and some of them are useful, some of them aren't, sometimes you get the response you need right away, sometimes it is way at the bottom.

It seems to me it would be good to allow the author of the node to flag responses a 'Especially Helpful' or 'Solved my problem' or something like that. It might also be nice if these gave the author of the node an extra experience point. Often times I get responses of which many are useful, but one or two are either more useful, or exactly what I need. I still upvote the other useful ones, but it would be nice to point the really good ones out. At the very least by flagging them and having them color code, or move to the top, and possibly give them an extra XP.

This seems like a good idea to me, because messages flagged as a solution for the author would help others searching through nodes find their way around more quickly...

...or maybe I'm just smoking crack... either way, I know the great Monk masters are very very busy... so I understand if it never gets out there... but it never hurts to throw ideas around.

What do others think?

                - Ant

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: RFC: flagging solutions...
by tadman (Prior) on Aug 01, 2001 at 00:13 UTC
    The Everything2 site has a feature called "Cooling", which is kind of like a super-vote. You don't get them until a certain level, and even then you don't get that many. If a node gets "cooled", it goes onto their "Cool Nodes" page, and you get a big chunk-o-XP too. Of course, I could be completely wrong about some of the details, but you get the idea.

    Since Perl Monks is using the same engine, it can be done.
Re: RFC: flagging solutions...
by grinder (Bishop) on Aug 01, 2001 at 00:16 UTC
    I think this is a great idea. I would go farther, and say you have 10XP to dole out amongst the node(s) that most helped. Give them all to one, or split it between, two, three... whatever. (of course doling out that XP would not be subject to the usual voting rules).

    It would be a tremendous boost to an initiate, just noise to a saint.

    This is a good idea because the node that most helped out the seeker of wisdom is not necessarily the node with the highest rep. Having a gold star along side the reply would be make the difference.

    --
    g r i n d e r
Re: RFC: flagging solutions...
by VSarkiss (Monsignor) on Aug 01, 2001 at 18:21 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.

    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....

      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'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

      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

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