Show: Answered | Unanswered Filter

[Laura F.]

As you may have heard, we are working with Lithium to upgrade our forum software to their latest version.  I need some feedback concerning the Answered | Unanswered filter that displays either answered or unanswered threads. 

Do you use this filter in your daily forum browsing?  If not daily, how often do you use it, if at all?

We are not considering taking it away, but there is a possibility that it would not work for a few weeks after the upgrade.  I would like some feedback before we proceed. 

Thanks in advance,
Laura
Web Support & Operations
National Instruments

[tst]

I usually don't notice it. I use it very rarely if I'm bored, looking for a few minutes to kill and don't see anything interesting in the first page.

[altenbach]

I think it is of limited use, except for NI staff that needs to make sure everything is answered. 😉

Typically, the filter is meaningless because even if there are a few answers already, the question might not have been answered at all, or may have received only an incorrect answer, or a request for clarification, or ..... 🙂

I would prefer to filter the list of my threads in the tracker such that all threads with new activity (bold) are on top.

[tst]

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@altenbach wrote:

I would prefer to filter the list of my threads in the tracker such that all threads with new activity (bold) are on top.

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Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

The most useful feature for us would be to see threads we replied to which have new activity. And as I've said before, it would be preferable if we didn't have to go into the tracker to see this. It should be in a sidebar in the main page of the forums (or maybe in an easily accessible popup?).

[smercurio_fc]

For the original question: I used to use this filter, but don't anymore because I usually just scan the message titles and view the ones that look interesting to see if I can learn something new or to provide some help, if possible. As altenbach mentioned, just because it was answered, it doesn't mean it was answered.

[Ben]

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@altenbach wrote:

I would prefer to filter the list of my threads in the tracker such that all threads with new activity (bold) are on top.

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Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Count me in that group.

Once the threads drops off the first page of the traker I never see updates.

I'd rather see the traker sorted on any activity and not the date of my last post.

Ben

[Laura F.]

Thanks everyone for your replies.  I have received the feedback about making the tracker more useful and passed it on to Lithium previously.  I will remind them when I send in my next set of product suggestions.

What I have gathered from this thread so far is that no one is using the filter while browsing the forum.  Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks!
Laura

[Ben]

OK.

I use it sometimes. Not very often.

I used to use it to find unanswered Q's but I have changed modes and now focus on helping with the Q's that aren't getting anywhere. So now I just watch the reply count.

New contributors may use it as i described above.

How about a Poll posted as an anouncement to get more feedback?

Ben

[altenbach]

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@Ben wrote:

New contributors may use it as i described above.

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New contributors have little use to find unanswered questions.

1. They typically ask questions themselves, looking for answers.
2. Questions that remain unanswered are typically hard. New contributors should focus on the simple questions first.

🙂

[Ben]

By "New contributors " I was refering to Grand-Wizrd-wanabees.

I have read noobies saying that they have a hard time finding Q's they can answer.

I can not speak for any of them. I was just speculating that they may have a use for that filter.

Ben