Point Obsession

Erin,
What you say makes sense. I was one of those point hungry characters - many a times if not everytime, before I read your post. One reason why I was demanding was because it becomes easy to sort out unanswered threads.
As you said, we should not scare off new forum members and be so demanding.
Cheers
Ashish


Message was edited by: ashishborkar

For me the important thing is about being able to acknowledge that it is an answered post, that's more important than the points. As the forum has become busier, I find I'm wasting more time looking at posts that have already been answered, but not acknowledged.

Many people do not as a matter of course acknowledge posts with the point system, this is a shame because it is against the spirit of the forum. It would be useful if nominated moderators were also able to mark items as answered. This would help to reduce the time required to continue contributing to the forum.

This topic surfaces so many times, but I agree with sbickle. When I search the forums on topics I'm not up to speed with, I usually skip un-answered ones. If this is fruitless for my issue, then I'm forced to wade through every duplicate question/un-answered combo that involves my search key words. I usually find what I want, but it takes added time and almost removes value from the board.

I can see how new users can be lead astray if they are unfamiliar with the process, but their is a help section, I believe the buttons are semi-intuitive as to whats happening, and a simple/friendly reminder helps some realize that a Point System Exists & is used for a reason (to note avid users and correct/value added posts)

Michael

Good points. I think there should also be a way to indicate the question is answered without rewarding points for those cases when people answer their own questions. I've done that a number of times where I'll post, eventually log a case, and then come back and update my post with what I've found. Unfortunately, those posts still appear as unanswered questions.

I agree that some way to note a question has been answered (By outside poster or thread starter) should be in order along with the solution to that distinct issue.

My thoughts revolve around answered questions, whether they equate to points or not. In the initial post, I feel that if you kindly inform new posters that the reason for the points is for VALUE (it's hard to ignore status, but I don't search to see who's top dawg so to say, I search for top Answers!) I feel most will understand how to use the forum better, as well gather the etiquette that is used.

Michael

I second eriley point as well. I think it is beneficial to acknowledge that a solution/answer was found independent of the point system. When I see people posts "problem solved", I ask them to share the solution with forum.

Is there any Documentum response to this thread?

Please see http://forums.emc.com/jive3/thread.jspa?forumID=2&threadID=23256&messageID=214542#214542 for EMC Software Group's repsonse.

Sorry, I'm unable to give any further details. The upgrade of the forums software was put on hold until after we finished the conversion of the Legato support site into the Documetum support site. Now that this is done, this project should be starting up again.

Dianna

Hmm .. such a repeating and common topic! Points Vs Recognition. I've been through this before. I think recognition is important infact very important, simple reason: Participants spend time and share value knowledge and Recognition/acknowledgement is the least one would expect. This is one of the reason I almost stopped posting code (I agree I used to), except for some common snippets.
My Policy: Help the community but DON'T do their work!

Everybody is talking about how the points system helps users to find posts with correct working answers etc. and save time on going through unanswered posts, but everyone is missing an important point that the corerct/helpful icons are not visible at all in search results. Would't the points system be more helpful if the search results also carry the correct/helpful designations?

Nikhil.

well, atleast you can filter the posts which are marked correct, but, i do agree it would make sense to mark them in search results.

Very good point Nikhil. If I were you, I would post your observation as a new thread, so that Dianna or some moderator can investigate this and add this to list of forum enhancements.

How do you filter search results which are marked correct?

go to forum (say WDK) and just below page numbers, you'll see filter by option next to Topic.

I just tried it myself, but it does not seem right to me;)

that is true, it does not appear on results page.