Making happy nodes

[artist]

We ask questions here, we get replies and we still look for something better. It might be a good idea to raise a flag about worthwhile questions which have not satisfactory answers yet. There might sure be some maintainence work, but overall it will increase the value of this place and we all can benefit out of it. Flag raising can be requested and approved etc.. Listing such nodes and replies to them can help in flowing perl knowledge much deeper. It could be in the similar repsect that math evolved a lot, in search of proof for fermat's last theorem.

[dragonchild]

Define "satisfactory" and one of pmdev can code something to do this automatically.

If you cannot define "satisfactory" to that level, it's going to be really difficult for even humans to do much with this ... "satisfactory" for me is a lot different than "satisfactory" for most Initiates ...

[jbrugger]

On the former EE there used to be an 'accepted answer' that the OP could set.
It's an idea if the OP can set a flag on the answer that helped him, or set a flag "not yet solved". Then a search on older nodes can be better as well (show me all not solved nodes).

[davido]

Ultimately, a large number of people will never remember to flag a node they wrote as "resolved". Nobody else besides the author can accurately state whether the OP's question was resolved. And thus, the flag will end up being meaningless. Compliance will never be compulsory, so results will always be mixed.

[cbrandtbuffalo]

I think that would be the way to do it. Leave everything as-is by default, but add a way to flag your older post as "Not Yet Solved" to get it to pop to the top of the stack again. Maybe a condition would be an 'Update' to explain why the answers had not solved the problem.

For most nodes this would not be used at all. It would also avoid any issues with a post where the author never comes back. These would just fall off the 'newest nodes' and front page as normal.

But someone actively watching the replies and looking for an answer would be able to raise their hand again to get some attention.

I know people sometimes go for a few days without checking PerlMonks and a question they could answer can go by the wayside without them seeing it. Plus, some of the more knowledgeable monks could cruise the 'not yet solved' nodes as a sort of challenge.

[Tanktalus]

Yeah, I like the idea (although implementation details are a bit fuzzy to me), too. I've gots me one of those that needs this feature, too. :-)

[davido]

I would say that somewhere just shy of 100% (maybe 95%) of all questions that don't get satisfactory answers fail to get properly answered because they were not properly asked, or lack sufficient info to make good answers possible.

In that case, simply flagging a lousy / unanswerable question as "unanswered" won't solve that problem. For that last 5% that were good but for some reason didn't get answered (5% is being generous), jingling in the CB asking for additional opinions a day or two after the thread seems to have died down is usually a more than adequate way of rekindling the thread. In fact, I would consider that perferable even for lousy questions (again, assuming sufficient time has passed), because chances are, someone in the CB will be able to explain to the OP why his question hasn't gotten a good answer yet.

On second thought, maybe the "unanswered" flag is a good idea. It will help me to filter out the lousy questions that didn't generate good answers, when I'm Super Searching for a particular topic. ;)

[jacques]

My nodes are my children and I serenade them with the Indian sitar whenever I visit the monastery. I find this makes them happier and increases my upvote total, although my coworkers in the surrounding cubicles think I am a little weird...

[Anonymous Monk]

Unanswered post search?

a bit more about unanswered nodes.

How to know whether question in SOPW is entirely answered or not?

[NateTut]

Many of the questions here receive many correct answers due to TMTOWTDI. Which one would deserve the honor of being the "right answer"?

[husker]

The flag on the root node would indicate "At least one satisfactory answer was provided". There could be more than one such answer, of course.

[NateTut]

My point is though sometimes it is tough to say which is the best answer. Many times it's almost a matter of style. Why should only one answer get all the glory?

The current ++ or -- system rewards all good answers (and punishes all bad ones too!)

[castaway]

My preferred solution at the moment, would be a view that shows nodes sorted by "last update", so that unanswered nodes that have been updated with more info, or an extra plea, reappear at the top of the list.

Unfortunately this is currently not possible, because times of updates are not saved..

C.

[ww]

A simpler process to write and institute might be one which flags nodes that have drawn NO or only ONE replies.

Does not approach artist's goal, but a list of (semi-)unanswered nodes might well be a way to spot those which newbies presented in an unintelligible fashion ...but in which they subsequently responded positively to suggestions re formating, info, snippets, etc

JAT ww, ex-schodckwm

[ysth]

If sufficient time has passed and you notice a question is still unanswered, post a reply noting it with "(Q not yet answered)" or some such added to the title (and then remove it from the title if an answer does come). I don't see any infrastructure changes being needed.

[Anonymous Monk]

So, if the question is "I need a regex to parse email to find email addresses, but not inside nested HTML tables", then the chances are good that either the flag will never be lowered, or, worse, it will be lowered because of an incorrect answer, but that will be unsatisfying for the next person wanting to ask this question.

What's wrong with asking for clearification or further details?