Meta-review of the BA system

[Karsten75]

Imagine my surprise this morning when I woke up to a plethora of Best Answer notifications in my private message queue.

It seems our industrious Best Answer person has in fact been busy improving the quality of Toms by indicating which answers were best. (is there some redundancy or tautology in this sentence?)

Anyway, I'm a firm believer that some questions (threads) remain in limbo without a "best" or definitive answer - that begs the question then if a merely "good" or "off-topic" answer can be best of all the answers on a thread, or if "best" should refer to the incontrovertibly "best" that solves the OP's question. A true meta-discussion in itself.

To bring this long-winded narrative to a conclusion, I present here a list of threads that received a BA appelation where I suspect review and guidance might ultimately improve the process.

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2185041/sysatem-clock-long-seconds.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2196465/maximum-safe-temperature-processor.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2199562/intel-4670k-amd-8350-folding-home.html (here it seems to me that the answer following mine is in fact better than mine)
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2200963/4130-bottleneck-xfx-280x.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2174359/marvel-capcom-game-power-supply-peter-chou-usp-150x-greatly-appr.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2197539/quiet-cpu-coolers.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2198046/computer-start-pin-cpu-power-cable.html

Note: I'm specifically NOT saying that my answer in all cases are the best, I'm pointing out that in my opinion the answer selected was not the best or might not have answered the question.

 

[Titillating]

We have a few paid contractors who sweep through old posts and select a BA from the available information. Admittedly, they are not always the "best" answer, but they are usually a passable answer that at will at least provide something for inquisitive minds to start from.

The thing is, people often come to the forums, ask their question, and then leave when they get an answer. They frequently do not even respond to the thread, let alone select a BA. It's the unfortunate nature of what we do here, with the whole Question/Answer format. We could leave this questions in limbo, so to speak, but doing so would have repercussions.

It's all about metrics these days; if the majority of threads end up without a BA, the metrics will make it look like people are not getting adequate help, that the forums are not serving a purpose that would justify the cost of maintaining them. It would make it seem like the community is going downhill, resulting in sponsors and ad partners pulling out, leading to a lack of funding, layoffs, reduced amount of content as a result of less manpower. It's a slippery slope.

So, our contractors go around and set a BA for threads that are a few months old and are no longer active. A BA is not always the correct answer, it's simply the best one available, providing the most information/help for the given situation. They might make some mistakes, but for the most part I don't believe it is a widespread problem.

 

[Ijack]

Wow! It may not be what you meant to say, but that sounds like you are paying people to select "Best Answers" to make the situation appear to backers other than it really is.

If that is really what you mean then, to my mind, it is positively unethical and is bordering on fraud. You may want to reconsider your answer as official policy of Tom's Hardware.

 

[Titillating]

Yeah, outside contractors are hired to select a BA in old threads. We'd do it ourselves, but I'd like to think the moderation team and the community team have some mildly more important things to do with their time. Besides, whenever the odd mistake is made by our contractors, we are more than happy to step in and rectify the situation by unselecting the answer whenever we are alerted to these mistakes.

The contractors don't just go around selecting them willy-nilly. These are inactive threads, where assistance has been provided and the OP has either gotten the help they wanted and left or they have forgotten about the thread altogether. A good many of these posters probably don't even know about the BA system. The BA selected in these instances are not just random posts or off topic discussions, they've provided some kind of advice or help. Whether it provided the actual solution is up in the air, because the OP hasn't checked in, but a valid suggestion is usually selected. Take a look through the forums and see how many threads don't have a BA. If we were really trying to fool our backers, as you're suggesting, do you really think we'd let them all sit like that?

These one-off posters aren't interested in learning the forum system. They have a problem, they need a solution, and they've heard that this was a good place to get some. If they want to leave immediately afterwards, that's entirely their right to do so, although we do try to retain as many as we can. If they stop responding to their threads, it usually means they've gotten what they needed, or they've gotten enough information to move forward on a decision. In these instances, I see no harm in having a BA selected for them.

 

[Ijack]

Well, that answer sounds to be a direct contradiction of your statement

It's all about metrics these days; if the majority of threads end up without a BA, the metrics will make it look like people are not getting adequate help, that the forums are not serving a purpose that would justify the cost of maintaining them. It would make it seem like the community is going downhill, resulting in sponsors and ad partners pulling out, leading to a lack of funding, layoffs, reduced amount of content as a result of less manpower. It's a slippery slope.

Now you are saying it's nothing to do with your backers.

As you say, it's a slippery slope.

 

[Titillating]

I was addressing your accusation that we are trying to "fool" people. I made no claims that what we do is not related to our partners and investors. You just seem to want to cherry-pick things to start arguments. I have no interest in that. Ample explanations have been provided, what you choose to take away from it is up to you.