Format of Q&A Section

Having recently seen a few notes that were posted in response to answers in Categorized Questions and Answers, I had the following observation about the format of this section. If you are viewing a question let's say, for example How do I remove whitespace at the beginning or end of my string?, you can see all the answers that have been offered, but you don't see replies/comments that were made on those answers, until you click on the answer itself, to bring up that node. I personally don't think this is something that someone who is browsing the answers is very likely to do.

The problem is that people may have some valid criticism or comment on the answer, that is entirely missed by someone looking for an answer to his/her question. A newcomer or someone not logged in won't be able to see the low rep that the bad answer may/may not have, and they might think that the answer has some merit, since it appears in a somewhat more 'moderated' section of the site...

So, my point is... why can't the child nodes of the answers show up under the answers like in SOPW? To me this makes much more sense and might save some people from some mistakes.

Alternately (or additionally), perhaps the rep of the answers could be permanently visible to everyone, so at least a reader can judge between the offered answers...

--
3dan

Comment on Format of Q&A Section

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Re: Format of Q&A Section by naChoZ (Curate) on Jul 15, 2003 at 14:23 UTC
So, my point is... why can't the child nodes of the answers show up under the answers like in SOPW? To me this makes much more sense and might save some people from some mistakes. I think what would be better and simpler is to simply have it the same as SOPW where it says the number of replies. I also think that each individual answer ought to have a little bit more visual distinction. Just something minor to separate one answer from the next. It sort of runs together as it is now. Perhaps use the same section_title and post_head classes from the style sheet, Alternately (or additionally), perhaps the rep of the answers could be permanently visible to everyone, so at least a reader can judge between the offered answers... Disagree. IMO they should be reputed the same the same as normal nodes. If you think a particular answer is exceptional, upvote it and post a comment stating your opinion. Although this of course brings us back to the first suggestion of indicating that there is a reply. ~~ naChoZ	[reply]
Re^2: Format of Q&A Section (yes) by tye (Sage) on Jul 16, 2003 at 04:08 UTC
Yes, the Q+A section is less polished than most of the other sections. A reply count would be great. (Part of the point of the section is to provide "finished" answers and not discussion so the content of replies usually gets merge back into answers, which is why the replies themself aren't shown and probably never will be). It'd also be nice to show the author more often (some views don't show such). But this will probably be fixed by making Q+A nodes owned by the author since I've found a work-around for the need of having them owned by a seperate user. That will simplify code in several places. Just haven't gotten around to finishing that task yet. The section should also be renamed so people are more likely to go there to find Perl FAQ answers. Thanks for the suggestions. - tye	[reply]
Re: Re^2: Format of Q&A Section (yes) by zby (Vicar) on Jul 16, 2003 at 10:34 UTC
content of replies usually gets merge back into answers - this can be a problem with answers full of critics. There should be some pressure on the author to do that - perhaps by a written instruction.	[reply]
Re^4: Format of Q&A Section (updates) by tye (Sage) on Jul 16, 2003 at 14:18 UTC
Re: Format of Q&A Section by mojotoad (Monsignor) on Jul 15, 2003 at 14:55 UTC
Alternately (or additionally), perhaps the rep of the answers could be permanently visible to everyone, so at least a reader can judge between the offered answers... I suppose you've noticed that answers with more votes appear higher in the presentation of the answers. So, by observing the order the answers appear you can infer how popular they are relative to one another. Matt	[reply]
Re: Re: Format of Q&A Section by edan (Curate) on Jul 16, 2003 at 07:25 UTC
I suppose you've noticed that answers with more votes appear higher in the presentation of the answers. I hadn't noticed that - since I haven't voted on very many answers, I don't know how they are ranked, so I didn't see that pattern (this is part of the problem I'm pointing out here). Or is it stated somewhere that I didn't see? If that is, in fact, part of the design of the section, as a way to let the reader know which answers are more highly regarded, I think it should be plainly stated somewhere that people will see it. I think naChoZ made a good suggestion about having a reply count, as well as better visual separation between the answers... Thanks for listening! -- 3dan	[reply]