Beefy Boxes and Bandwidth Generously Provided by pair Networks
Perl: the Markov chain saw
 
PerlMonks  

comment on

( [id://3333]=superdoc: print w/replies, xml ) Need Help??

Here's the problem with that idea:

What constitutes an answered question, and how will we ensure that all answered questions get marked as such?

First I'll address the first point, "What constitutes an answered question?" Obviously a question may have responses without being adequately answered. Other times a question may have good answers that aren't sufficiently understood by the inquisitor. Other times a question may have no responses at all, but the person answering the question may update his node appending a note saying (s)he solved the problem. And of course, there are those questions that do actually get answered (the majority).

But how do we automate the process of marking such questions as answered? We don't; it can't be done. This is something that only the OP can decide. And sometimes the OP is just clueless enough as to never even realize his question has been answered. ...and that leads me to my next point...

"...how will we ensure that all answered questions get marked as such?" Again, we can't. Many questions get asked anonymously. Many get asked by one-hit-wonders (people who ask a question and are never heard from again). And then there are us normal (or abnormal) people who do come back again and again, but who probably (if normal is like me) will forget to mark questions as being answered. Some people will get good answers but not realize it. Others will forget to check it off. Others won't even come back. And others won't care. And yet it cannot be the job of anyone other than the OP to check off a node as answered.

So there we have two insurmountable problems: First, we cannot automate the process of knowing when a node has been adequately answered, and second, we cannot rely on people marking their questions as being answered. So we're dead in the water on that idea.

To some degree Recently Active Threads can help to see which recent threads at least have no responses. That's a far cry from determing which long-ago posts didn't get proper answers. But it's a start. Aside from that, you're going to probably have to rely on tickling people in the CB if you feel one of your posts has been forgotton.

By the way, I don't know that I would encourage this, but you can drag a long-passed thread back into Recently Active Threads by posting another followup to it... something along the lines of "Following up to my original question, I'm still seeking an answer. Here is some additional info that may help..." People who use Recently Active Threads will see it again that way.

By the way, this has been discussed a number of times in the past. Here are a few of those instances:


Dave


In reply to Re: unanswered questions by davido
in thread unanswered questions by samizdat

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post; it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:
    <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>
  • Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
  • Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.
Log In?
Username:
Password:

What's my password?
Create A New User
Domain Nodelet?
Chatterbox?
and the web crawler heard nothing...

How do I use this?Last hourOther CB clients
Other Users?
Others studying the Monastery: (6)
As of 2024-03-28 11:50 GMT
Sections?
Information?
Find Nodes?
Leftovers?
    Voting Booth?

    No recent polls found