Solution Marking is not Understood - Remove?

[RavensFan]

I think that is a good compromise.  I think the reason the button gets misused is because it is right there in front of them.  And when you ask them to correct it, they don't seem to realize the Options menu exists at all.

[Laura F.]

Unfortunately at the moment there is no good way to discourage the thread originator from marking his or her own reply as the solution. I will submit this as a feature suggestion.

I would like to hear more about your thoughts of allowing a few trusted community members (frequent-flyers I think Ben called them) to do solution unmarking/marking. Would it confuse new forum members asking their first question if their solution marking was removed?  I think the frequent-flyer solution unmarker would still have to post to explain what had happened, much as they do today to explain why the marking was incorrect in the first place so perhaps it would not save any work.

Thanks,

Laura
Web Support & Operations
National Instruments

[smercurio_fc]

I suspect that it will confuse new folks if they find their solution unmarked. That assumes, of course, that they stick around long enough to care. Most of the time they're "in"frequent fliers here. Still, if this cadre is formed then some form of explanation would need to be provided.

I think the only issue that may be a little tricky is the situation mentioned earlier when a thread has several solutions, all of which are perfectly valid. Then it becomes more of a subjective decision as to which is marked as the solution, but I don't think it's worth splitting hairs over it. 

Just out of curiosity, how does Expert Exchange's system work? I'm not a member (I learned how to use Google), so I don't know how their "Accepted Solution" works. 

[Ben]

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Laura F. wrote:

Unfortunately at the moment there is no good way to discourage the thread originator from marking his or her own reply as the solution. I will submit this as a feature suggestion.

I would like to hear more about your thoughts of allowing a few trusted community members (frequent-flyers I think Ben called them) to do solution unmarking/marking. Would it confuse new forum members asking their first question if their solution marking was removed?  I think the frequent-flyer solution unmarker would still have to post to explain what had happened, much as they do today to explain why the marking was incorrect in the first place so perhaps it would not save any work.

Thanks,

Laura
Web Support & Operations
National Instruments

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If you have htat hammer, let use it.

At the worst, it would prompt furhter discusion of the topic.

At the best it would gt the right posts marked.

Maybe its time for an out of the box Q;

Ignoring the EULA for the time being "who owns the contents of teh forum?"

I say it belongs to the community and if the community wan tthe best answer marked as the solution then lets do it!

We have won a Groundswell Award based on our direction this far. Lets keep settin the standard.

Ben

[Laura F.]

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smercurio_fc wrote:

I suspect that it will confuse new folks if they find their solution unmarked. That assumes, of course, that they stick around long enough to care. Most of the time they're "in"frequent fliers here. Still, if this cadre is formed then some form of explanation would need to be provided.

I think the only issue that may be a little tricky is the situation mentioned earlier when a thread has several solutions, all of which are perfectly valid. Then it becomes more of a subjective decision as to which is marked as the solution, but I don't think it's worth splitting hairs over it. 

Just out of curiosity, how does Expert Exchange's system work? I'm not a member (I learned how to use Google), so I don't know how their "Accepted Solution" works. 

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Yeah, I think the value is more in having the solution unmarked by a frequent forum user so that the thread originator can quickly mark the correct reply.  If there are multiple possible answers, I would not want anyone other than the thread originator to mark the solution.

Thanks,

Laura

[altenbach]

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Laura F. wrote:

 If there are multiple possible answers, I would not want anyone other than the thread originator to mark the solution.

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Well, this can backfire too. As an example, let's look at this thread.

The second post contains the correct and full answer, but the OP could not look at the attached VI because of the LabVIEW version and then he did not copy the image correctly because he miscoded. (How to make the mistake of a defaulted output tunnel is beyond me, because he would need to manually set the tunnel to "use default if unwired", so you would think he knows the difference between a shaded or solid output tunnel. ;))

Instead, he marked Jim's answer as solution who simply pointed out the obvious coding mistake and posted a picture of the incorrect and broken code. Now we have the problem that people look at the solution and think the broken code is the right code. In addition, the marked solution post does not actually contain a solution to the problem, just a solution to the mistake in the post above it. 😉

Often, beginners don't have the knowledge to  pick the best among multiple solutions and might pick something that contains very poor coding practices or can lead to serious performance problems with larger inputs, for example.

[Ben]

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altenbach wrote:

...

Often, beginners don't have the knowledge to  pick the best among multiple solutions and might pick something that contains very poor coding practices or can lead to serious performance problems with larger inputs, for example.

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Then how about not exposing the "solution" option to in-frequent flyers and only expose it for for the more experienced?

Ben

[jcarmody]

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altenbach wrote:

Instead, he marked Jim's answer as solution who simply pointed out the obvious coding mistake and posted a picture of the incorrect and broken code. 

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You could have knocked me over with a feather! 

[Ray.R]

From reading this thread and not particcipating in the debate, it seems that the solution would be to have the "frequent-flyers" be the ones to identify the correct solution.  That obviously adds to the task of supporting the forum, because otherwise, the marking of the solution will never be solved.

I agree with Ray F & Ben's comments that the user may actually post the solution, so it should be identified as such.

Personally, I tend to think like tst.  WHo cares if they mark it as solved or not, and if they mark the wrong one.  As long as they got the solution... that's what is important.

R

[Ben]

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Ray.R wrote:

...

Personally, I tend to think like tst.  WHo cares if they mark it as solved or not, and if they mark the wrong one.  As long as they got the solution... that's what is important.

R

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The "Solution" mark meaning depends on how it is used. (eg "Scr#@ you!" is usually derogatory and is not understood to have anything to do with mending broken bones.)

If we do not take action to establish the meaning now (or soon) it is/will mean "this question no longer requires a reply."

What I would prefer is the meaning be "This is the answer to the question".

By woring toward this meaning we will be picking more information that will help others wade through the piles of information and focus on the solution.

Ben