Points assignment
I closed an unclosed question - I know I said I wasn't ever going to do this again but it looked obvious. I selected the questioner's own reply as the best solution. Why does he get 500 points to answer his own question?
You really should think of EE as an episode of "Who's Line Is It Anyway?". Everything is made up and the points don't matter.
ASKER
I'm not sure why I bother.
I often wonder that myself.
I think in this case having a moderator close the question is better. In the new GUI you can adjust the points
ASKER
Apparently they didn't think of that. It shouldn't matter who closes the question. The question asker should never be entitled to points.
This has been in place for a while. If an Expert thinks the asker's post is point worthy, they get the points. They cannot give points to themselves.
ASKER
Then we can never close a question by selecting the poster's non specific "I found it" post. That doesn't make sense. It would appear that we need to create a new comment to accept. But how do we accept a "solution" without awarding points?
>>by selecting the poster's non specific "I found it" post
Why would you select that?
>>But how do we accept a "solution" without awarding points?
Same basic question:
Why would you?
Answered questions go to the Knowledge Base to be searched as solutions to problems.
If a question doesn't have a solution, it shouldn't be closed.
Why would you select that?
>>But how do we accept a "solution" without awarding points?
Same basic question:
Why would you?
Answered questions go to the Knowledge Base to be searched as solutions to problems.
If a question doesn't have a solution, it shouldn't be closed.
ASKER
Our objective is to close questions. The poster said he found the answer. He just didn't close the question. If he had closed the question, he would have selected his own answer and possibly marked some of the other posts as assisted. I don't think we require the asker to post his solution.
If by selecting the "i found the answer" post as the solution, we are rewarding the poster for abandoning the question, we certainly should not be doing that. In the past, we could assign points to handle this. Now the points assignment is being done for us based on some logic I don't agree with.
I'm going back to my decision to not attempt to help with closing abandoned questions. The whole thing just gets stupider with every new change.
You really need to think about what set EE on the path to change the close process. What was the objective? Have any of the changes actually moved EE closer to the goal? Don't be so quick to jump in with a magic "fix". Consider the unintended consequences. Figure out how to measure the results. If you can't measure the results, how will you know if you succeeded?
If by selecting the "i found the answer" post as the solution, we are rewarding the poster for abandoning the question, we certainly should not be doing that. In the past, we could assign points to handle this. Now the points assignment is being done for us based on some logic I don't agree with.
I'm going back to my decision to not attempt to help with closing abandoned questions. The whole thing just gets stupider with every new change.
You really need to think about what set EE on the path to change the close process. What was the objective? Have any of the changes actually moved EE closer to the goal? Don't be so quick to jump in with a magic "fix". Consider the unintended consequences. Figure out how to measure the results. If you can't measure the results, how will you know if you succeeded?
>>Our objective is to close questions
I provide solutions. Hopefully solutions are accepted.
The overall goal is to help others get answers without having to ask themselves by searching for a problem and reading the solution. That only works if the questions are properly closed.
>> I don't think we require the asker to post his solution.
I wouldn't accept their post if there wasn't a solution. I've done it many times.
If there isn't anything else in the question worthy of keeping around in the knowledge base, delete the question.
All that said: There isn't anything written that says ALL questions need to be "closed". If there isn't an actual answer, leave it open.
I provide solutions. Hopefully solutions are accepted.
The overall goal is to help others get answers without having to ask themselves by searching for a problem and reading the solution. That only works if the questions are properly closed.
>> I don't think we require the asker to post his solution.
I wouldn't accept their post if there wasn't a solution. I've done it many times.
If there isn't anything else in the question worthy of keeping around in the knowledge base, delete the question.
All that said: There isn't anything written that says ALL questions need to be "closed". If there isn't an actual answer, leave it open.
On a related note...
It seems the number of abandoned questions on here isn't trivial. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to enact some kind of punitive system that will help reduce this issue. Here are some ideas I'm spitballing...
* Prevent members from posting new questions if an existing question has been left open for X days without an author response of any kind.
* Deactivate (but do not delete) a member's account if the above question reaches X + N days.
* Obviously having a contributing member close the question will negate the above two but...
* For a finite number of questions that were closed by another member (not the author), the member's account may be suspended for a period of time or at the very least a friendly warning email should be sent.
It seems the number of abandoned questions on here isn't trivial. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to enact some kind of punitive system that will help reduce this issue. Here are some ideas I'm spitballing...
* Prevent members from posting new questions if an existing question has been left open for X days without an author response of any kind.
* Deactivate (but do not delete) a member's account if the above question reaches X + N days.
* Obviously having a contributing member close the question will negate the above two but...
* For a finite number of questions that were closed by another member (not the author), the member's account may be suspended for a period of time or at the very least a friendly warning email should be sent.
Abandoned questions has and sadly always will be an issue. There are threads and threads discussing them. Some public, some not.
In the grand scheme of things: Could I probably have another 300,000 points if I went back through and closed everything I ever participated in, maybe. Maybe even another Shirt or three for cross-over topics? Does it matter to me, not really.
New question locks have been tried. The main reason they failed: Asker's would just accept the last post to avoid the lock.
Deactivation likely doesn't go over well with a for-profit business model. Would you frequent a restaurant if you were denied service because you had a habit of not tipping enough? Give your previous server another 10% and we'll seat you now.
In the grand scheme of things: Could I probably have another 300,000 points if I went back through and closed everything I ever participated in, maybe. Maybe even another Shirt or three for cross-over topics? Does it matter to me, not really.
New question locks have been tried. The main reason they failed: Asker's would just accept the last post to avoid the lock.
Deactivation likely doesn't go over well with a for-profit business model. Would you frequent a restaurant if you were denied service because you had a habit of not tipping enough? Give your previous server another 10% and we'll seat you now.
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