in reply to unanswered questions

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

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Re^2: unanswered questions
by samizdat (Vicar) on Aug 01, 2005 at 17:14 UTC
    Hi, Dave -

    Thanks for the links to other discussions. Perhaps my need would be better served -- as I just scribbled to merlyn -- by a distinct section of the Monestary for questions of a more arcane nature.

    You pinpointed the flaws in my original idea, and you are indeed wise in doing so.

    Again, my humble thanks for your attention! :D
[reply]

      The problem with a distinct section is that it adds ambiguity as to where to post questions, and it is entirely subjective as to what constitutes an arcane question. Mapping the human genome with Perl is arcane to me, and an everyday project for a lot of others. Name your module is an arcane module to one person and common to another.

      No question is simple to the person asking it, so the only person who could decide where to place a question is the person least likely to know where to place it.

      I don't have a solution for that (and thus your question goes unanswered. *grin*).


      Dave

[reply]
        You could always keep the posting options the same and just age any question that remains unanswered or unresponded to for 30 days into a different section - 'Arcana'. Anything that remains unanswered/unresponded to for 90+ days gets aged into 'Deep Mysteries'. Once a monk responds to an item of Arcana or a Deep Mystery, that item is moved back to SoPW.

        Jack

[reply]
Re^2: unanswered questions
by demerphq (Chancellor) on Aug 02, 2005 at 10:33 UTC

    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...

    You can also view a long past thread by using the temporal navigation links at the top (the arrows) or by using something like [href://?node_id=397425;for_nodes=479965|this] which produces this, of course this wont bring it to anyone elses attention, but it might be a neat hack for peoples Free Nodelet

    ---
    $world=~s/war/peace/g

[reply]
[d/l]

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