Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Your question

Best answer issue

Tags:
  • Tom's Hardware
Last response: in Forum Feedback
Share
April 8, 2013 3:20:01 AM

Hi,
This thread is meant as a follow on from the Look Moderators unfair activity thread which was closed as per the Op's request.

I have opened this thread to suggest a possible solution to what I see as a confusion, maybe on my part or possibly others.

In the old days best answers did seem to be what the OP selected and technical merit seemed to have little to do with it. During the last thread it became obvious that some felt that this was fine and others felt that the best technically correct answer should get the BA instead if the OP had selected wrong(possibly dangerously so which would cause an issue to others searching the forum for the answer to the same or similar issue) or a better answer came along at a later date.

I have noticed that the Best answer is no longer promoted to the top of the forum as it used to be, so my suggestion is that OP based best answers remain but if an answer is changed which should only be due to technical merit and being a better answer, then that answer would be promoted to the first answer of the thread with a gold/yellow banner and be labeled reviewed best answer or most technically correct answer. Not sure on the name but that can be tweaked.

I'm not suggesting any change in how the BA's are awarded, I just feel that some indication of what is actually happening would be beneficial. As it stands anyone who is qualified could potentially troll threads and change answers based on their own preferences and beliefs.

I know from my many years on these forums that there is a huge potential for an issue here with several members in the past who had huge knowledge and experience basically boiling down to being huge pains in the rear, lord alone knows what sort of a mess this ability would have caused.

On this basis I feel that if it was obvious to all that answers had been changed then the community could assist moderation with spotting any manipulation and it would make it clearer to moderation as well.

Mac :) 

More about : answer issue

April 8, 2013 7:09:01 AM

Quote:
I have noticed that the Best answer is no longer promoted to the top of the forum as it used to be


How do you mean? Best Answers and solved threads are still displayed prominently, with threads that contain Best Answers indicated as such. How do you feel we should indicate Best Answers better? Would be happy to pass along any feedback to the dev team on this.

In terms of moderation and abuse controls, we have not seen this yet, but are exploring changing the thresholds to limit the potential for misuse.
April 8, 2013 7:39:34 AM

jpishgar said:
Quote:
I have noticed that the Best answer is no longer promoted to the top of the forum as it used to be


How do you mean? Best Answers and solved threads are still displayed prominently, with threads that contain Best Answers indicated as such. How do you feel we should indicate Best Answers better? Would be happy to pass along any feedback to the dev team on this.

In terms of moderation and abuse controls, we have not seen this yet, but are exploring changing the thresholds to limit the potential for misuse.


I have looked for an example but have come up blank. The new forum seems to have over written the old pages. We used to get the question and then the best answer was underneath the question, this meant you didn't have to scroll down possibly pages to find out what the best answer actually was.

I know you guys do a good job and appreciate it, I realize moderation have abilities we mortals don't, I just feel that if the best answer has been changed it should be obvious to all.
The forum used to give us this information but now to the best of my understanding it does not do so anymore.
"Best answer selected by(Insert who)" used to be displayed and now appears not to be.

Mac :) 
Related resources
April 8, 2013 10:40:38 AM

Hi :) 

I see Macs point....

BA always used to rise automatically to be the SECOND post in the thread so it was easy to see the BA without scrolling down the whole thread to find it....

It would be a good idea to put that back as a minimum....

At the moment the BA ...could, as an example be the thirty third post.... on the second page....

All the best Brett :) 

April 8, 2013 12:18:41 PM

Or give a "Go to Best Answer" option perhaps?
April 8, 2013 7:23:07 PM

Potentially a good feature request. Will consider it. ;) 
Currently it shows up as a status message in the changelog for the thread, a little gray area underneath the original post area.
!