Mark for solved threads

pilla · Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2002 3:10 pm Post subject: Mark for solved threads

I think it would be nice if there was a mark that owners/moderators could put in solved threads so we don't waste time reading threads that does not need help anymore.

Additionaly, a query for these threads (like the query for not answered threads) would be Good (c)

:twisted:

rac · Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2002 4:56 pm Post subject:

I see two big problems with this idea:

First, it would involve huge changes to the core internals of phpBB, and would probably make upgrading the board for security reasons practically impossible, unless we managed to get all the modifications included in the upstream phpBB source.

Second, threads often take on a life of their own. Paster A has a problem, Poster B has something similar, A gets fixed, B's problem is still outstanding. Or Poster A has a problem, it gets fixed, a few weeks later Poster B has a similar question and revives the thread.

It seems to me that the only practical way we could even try to implement this idea is to aggressively lock threads that we think are "solved". I think that would do more harm than good, though, because then people would be forced to start new threads for similar problems, and that would make the forums harder to read and search.

BTW, this is not necessarily an "official moderator opinion".
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pilla · Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2002 5:16 pm Post subject:

Well, I agree with the problem of huge changes inside phpBB.

I'm against locking the threads. Maybe a better position would be "keep it as solved until somebody else post on it". Then, if somebody still had the problem, he/she could just post a message saying that...

But if is too hard to implement, it is OK the way it is working right now. But sometimes is quite frustrating to start reading a thread which does not interest you just to try helping somebody to then discover it has been solved...

Cheers,
BB

rac · Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2002 6:08 pm Post subject:

Just a point of clarification - I was considering locking solved threads simply because it was the only solution I could think of that uses available features of phpBB.

One thing you could do is get in the habit of jumping to the bottom of the thread and seeing if it looks "solved" to you before you decide to read the whole thing.

We certainly realize that the volunteers who take the time to try to answer people's questions are the greatest asset of the forums, and want to do what we can to help you avoid wasting time with threads that don't need your input.
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pilla · Posted: Sat Sep 14, 2002 6:37 pm Post subject:

Of course, I understand your point and I'm not going to spend less time in the forums just because we don't have this feature :wink:

Anyway, I like your suggestion and I will try to implement it in my mind. Some lines of mind-bash may do the trick

klieber · Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2002 1:09 pm Post subject:

The Cold Fusion forums over at Macromedia have this feature and it is handy. While I personally think this would be a great feature, as rac pointed out, it's not a simple task to undertake. You might file a feature request for the phpBB folks to try and get it in a future version of phpBB.

--kurt
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kernelsensei

hi,

What do you think about that ?

http://www.phpbbhacks.com/viewhack.php?id=1637

It could make the forum more readable , ...
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R!tman · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 10:41 pm Post subject:

Definately a good addition.

TheRAt · Veteran Joined: 03 Jun 2002 Posts: 1580

Another vote here for the solved button...
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kallamej · Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:36 pm Post subject:

Merged https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2120752.html#2120752 to this thread.
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TheRAt · Veteran Joined: 03 Jun 2002 Posts: 1580

Bet the no vote was from a sys admin

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gentoo_lan · Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2005 12:14 am Post subject:

I think it would be a great idea. Hopefully there is an efficient way to impliment it within the future.

Omega21 · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:30 am Post subject:

masseya · Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:51 pm Post subject:

Actually, my biggest problems with this is that it can be very misleading and encourages duplicate posts. I don't like that there's the potential that a thread you're following could be marked as solved when it may actually not be solved for you. I also don't like that you might be forced to create an entire thread for a problem that's very similar to one that's already solved. There's a great number of threads where someone followed up with a slightly more complex version of a problem that someone else claimed to have solved.

The additional moderation/admin effort is a concern, but not as big as that of getting being able to handle support in an effective and effecient manner. Now, having said all that I realize that implementing some form of marking a solved thread would potentially help folks by detering people from "wasting" time reading threads that were already solved. I don't particularly think of that as wasted time though because then they can recognize when someone else posts virtually the same problem and both point out the solution as well as report the duplicate.

Does anyone know of a forum where this method is used in a clean, effecient and helpful manner?
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pilla · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:12 pm Post subject:

A thread from 2002 that has been brought from the dead!
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kimchi_sg · Advocate Joined: 26 Nov 2004 Posts: 3038

Hey pilla, that's your first post in this topic since you were made admin.

Might that help in bringing this feature into reality?

pilla · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 1:01 pm Post subject:

cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3355

i didn't know masseya was still alive........ :lol:

Back to subject. I think its an excellent idea. I think that someone should go through the duplicate posts and see which are the most common and do a "how-to" for them.
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pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20485

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firephoto · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 7:57 pm Post subject:

cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3355

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kallamej · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 8:33 am Post subject:

Usually, when there are lots of dupes of one subject, one thread will be made sticky, or someone will eventually even write an FAQ for it if it is generic enough. I wish everone took the time to at least browse the table of contents of the FAQ forum. It would save many people lots of work.

If anyone wants to write howtos and FAQs, you can have a look here as well as making an effort to keep the existing FAQs updated.
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cokey · Advocate Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 3355

I could do a few there. The Forum one sounds interesting but that could only be done after any improvemens (that we've been talking about) have been implemented
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