Users/Questions "Level/Expertise" icon/indicator

[X.]

I have been recently wasting the time of NI employees (and mine) posting questions about events and object properties I was afraid I had missed and was offered some quite silly workarounds (here and there). I understand this is all well intentioned, but clearly there is problem with identifying the type of question asked or answer sought (at least in the LabVIEW forum where I posted my questions). In the particular cases mentioned above, I am partly to blame for that, as I now realize that my short, to-the-point questions may have sounded like those of complete ignoramus randomly shooting questions about the first problem he/she encountered using LV. But also, the level of the "solutions" offered either indicate a very elaborate internal NI policy to offer solutions with staggered sophistication level (starting at VERY INEFFICIENT), or they just reflect the relative "greeness" of a new flock of engineers (encouraged to participate in forums with bonuses? or bored to death in their offices? 🙂 I'd rather avoid that in the future (I am starting to dread asking simple questions if I have to endure such "solutions" again...:-))))

Would there be a way of indicating the experience level of a forum user or rate the type of answers expected to a question posted in a forum? I am not quite sure what I would be looking for (certainly not any kind of elitism) and I'd be interested to hear about the unreleased features of this forum tool that could help with this, as well as suggestions from others.

[johnsold]

The bars beside your UserName give an indication of your level of activity on the Forums, but I do not know how to make people look at them.  I try to do that in context of the questions, but given that many responders do not even read the question thoroughly, it is obvious that many others do not.

When I get into something which is new to me, I often will use a paragraph to describe what I have tried in order to establish a background level for the question.  Sometimes it works.  Sometimes it does not.

It is a point worth discussing.

Lynn

[Ben]

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@X. wrote:

I have been recently wasting the time of NI employees (and mine) posting questions about events and object properties I was afraid I had missed and was offered some quite silly workarounds (here and there). I understand this is all well intentioned, but clearly there is problem with identifying the type of question asked or answer sought (at least in the LabVIEW forum where I posted my questions). In the particular cases mentioned above, I am partly to blame for that, as I now realize that my short, to-the-point questions may have sounded like those of complete ignoramus randomly shooting questions about the first problem he/she encountered using LV. But also, the level of the "solutions" offered either indicate a very elaborate internal NI policy to offer solutions with staggered sophistication level (starting at VERY INEFFICIENT), or they just reflect the relative "greeness" of a new flock of engineers (encouraged to participate in forums with bonuses? or bored to death in their offices? 🙂 I'd rather avoid that in the future (I am starting to dread asking simple questions if I have to endure such "solutions" again...:-))))

Would there be a way of indicating the experience level of a forum user or rate the type of answers expected to a question posted in a forum? I am not quite sure what I would be looking for (certainly not any kind of elitism) and I'd be interested to hear about the unreleased features of this forum tool that could help with this, as well as suggestions from others.

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Keeping an eye on the Blue bars was one of my old hobbies (before my granddaughter took over Sundays).

Yes, many of them are very green with only an intense NI internal training seperating them from graduation and the forums.

You can't even rely on the bars as a hint since they appear to use each others accounts so you have no idea who is really there. I have often felt is was a very poor way of representing NI put all of those noob's on the front lines.

So let me suggest...

You word your questions so as to tempt the frequent flyers (the real users) to look at your posting and try to do your best to communicate that you know what you are doing and show them.

Beyond that...

With time and more involvement the frequent flyers will come to recognize your posts. There seems to be an unwritten rule that frequent contributors to the forum try to help each other out.

Ben 

[smercurio_fc]

I've noticed there's been an uptick in blur bar participation over the past month. Not sure if that really means anything. Just an observation.

As to the post: I'm not sure how you would judge "experience". What metrics would be used? The only ones we have available are post count, kudos, and solutions. Any of these could be misleading as there are some extremely superb forum contributors who have low post count, low kudos count, and a low solution count. Frankly, I sometimes feel embarrased to be in the same thread as them as I feel completely like a noob next to them. On the flip side, as far as the questioner is concerned (which is what you're asking about), the situation is very similar. Often even the most experience people can ask questions in a subjective or misleading way. It may be perfectly clear to them, but they are not able to fully convey what they are trying to do. So, don't feel so bad about the questions you are asking. I have found your questions to be quite clear. Your question about the Annotation Changed event was pretty darn clear to me. I have noticed that it often takes several attempts to get NI to admit that yes, there's a deficiency/bug/whatever that exists. The sooner you own up to it, the sooner we can fix it. Of course, this is not limited to NI - it's pretty much a standard response. But then, that's how humans work, right? We hate to admit we're wrong.

[X.]

Notice that I refrained to refer to the "green" "smurfs". Ooops, sorry, I could not resist... 🙂

I must say I loved the idea of creating an indicator (hidden at that!) to copy the annotations and check when the value is changed! And double it with using the "NewVal" property of the event structure! So charmingly refreshing.... :-))))

[smercurio_fc]

Sometimes, I get so frustrated that I have to call people out: http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/How-LabView-searches-for-NET-assemblies/m-p/1722612#M606505

[johnsold]

Maybe we should ask NI to pay us for training their new AEs?

Lynn

[archana]

Hi X,

Thank you for your feedback on the forums. As has been mentioned previously, NI Engineers do answer posts in the support forums. While our applications engineers do indeed have varying tenures, they have all been provided ample training and have a solid network of peers assisting them with their support. Additionally, they have immediate access to R&D when issues warrant escalation. We apologize that you have had a couple of disappointing experiences lately and appreciate the feedback. We will actively work to address it.

As Lynn and Ben mentioned, one way to keep an eye on the amount of forum experience a user has had is to look at the blue bars next to his/her alias (the middle bar especially).  The darker these bars are, the more the user has posted on the forums. You can also click on the alias name to check out more specific statistics, such as when the user registered, how many messages he/she has posted, how many kudos have been received, and how many solutions he/she has authored.  That should also give some insight into the responder's level of experience.

Again, thank you for your feedback.  Stephanie and I will look into ways to more effectively promote how to estimate a user's experience level or make one's own experience level known to the community.

Best Regards
Archana Shrotriya
Web Support Manager
National Instruments

[yenknip]

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johnsold wrote:

When I get into something which is new to me, I often will use a paragraph to describe what I have tried in order to establish a background level for the question.

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I guess that's all part and parcel of asking good questions

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@smercurio_fc wrote:

What metrics would be used? The only ones we have available are post count, kudos, and solutions

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Implicit metrics that I can think of include;

- Amount of time registered on the forums; if a user has been registered for a while, and still posts occasionally, it can be assumed that they are keeping up to speed on their LabVIEW skills

- Some users have their level of certification in their user signature

[X.]

Archana,

you probably noticed the playful tone in my post. I was not disappointed, I was simply noticing that some helpful souls jumped to my rescue without necessarily being better swimmers than I am. I was just trying to figure out whether we could come up with a way of categorizing the type of questions we are asking and possibly screening the type of answers we are expecting.

In this particular cases, I noticed the clarity of the bars and after a simple check on the meaning of the answers I got, I just decided to move on. Unfortunately, I do not have that much time to explain why the answers were not exactly helpful. I am certainly not blaming anybody... Been there, done that. And as a disclaimer, I am here to learn and will always have to learn, considering the massive R&D effort invested by NI in LabVIEW and my amateurish (if long lasting) way of using LV.