The outcome of a thread

[Ghitulescu]

I suggest to consider this issue:

Someone asks a particular question. The forum colleagues answer that question as good as they can, maybe the problem is solved.

There is one problem: the OP usually replies with: Ok, I'll try this or that... but in very rare cases s/he comes back and says yes, guys, that was the solution.

Why is this an issue? Because a third party has no idea of the outcome (what solved the problem). A fourth party may either bumps into forum or starts a new thread for the same question (assuming s/he used :search:). And so on...

Nice day,
Ghitulescu

[Guest]

What is your suggestion?

[Ghitulescu]

Well, I don't know exactly, but a hint or something should be given to the thread starter that a confirmation of the working solution should be made (I assume that a non-working solution would be mentioned). I don't know which tools have the admins to implement this - hint, automatic pop-up, sticky

I think, my pure opinion, that this would reduce the number of threads, I mean all the threads would became more relevant as they are, an answer to a problem can be easily found. I am used to search, but when I see a forum with 5000 entries, I kinda give up browsing and if no relevant items (or too many) appear I'll ask the question. It might be that this question has been already asked and solved. Someone would give me the solution or point me to that topic. But the thread number would be now 5001. And counting ...

[DarkZell666]

I like the idea pretty much, but threads can be of different natures :
- Problem / Solution (working/almost working/not working)
- Bug / Bugfix
- Question / Answer (right/partially right/wrong).
... and then we have :
- Open discussion
- Developpement progress
- Polls
- A poll thread that becomes an open discussion, that in turn diggs up problems and solutions (though this shouldn't happen per forum rules imho ...).
- ... many more in fact.

I can see a youtube-like post-rating feature being handy, and a "problem solved" flag on each thread. You can already do this by editing the topic title but nobody uses this practice here ... so maybe a button that auto-completes the thread title/flag ?

What d'ya think ? ;)

[setarip_old]

If I'm involved in a thread where the OP is seeking a solution and I've proposed one, I usually add something to the effect of, "Please post back here to let us know how it worked out ;>}".

More often than not, the OP is courteous enough to do so...

[Ghitulescu]

If I'm involved in a thread where the OP is seeking a solution and I've proposed one, I usually add something to the effect of, "Please post back here to let us know how it worked out ;>}".

More often than not, the OP is courteous enough to do so...

Exactly, I've seen that and I appreciate this; I post myself such requests for the problems/issues/solutions that I'm particularly interested in.

I also consider necessary or at least desirable, that the forum colleagues mention the exact hint or solution. I've seen a thread wherein the OP was given 3 alternatives and he simply replied, thanx guys it worked, without mentioning which alternative was the solution.

On the other hand, splitting the hair in 4 does not help much. I think that's enough when the OPs or the "helping hands" simply post the solution, without forgetting to mention the conditions that need to be fulfilled.

Another good thing I've noticed at this forum is that the admins request that the title should contain the relevant info, you won't see here titles like Help, I've got a problem or Please help a newbie.