Threads that never find help !!!

[Shabarish_Nair]

It is about the threads in the forums which never get replies (the next step would be the 'still open' ones). How can we help members to find resolution to their issues? If none of the members in a specific forum was of help, can SAP come to the rescue ?

Well I guess it would finally be like "SAP giving away their consulting skills for free" eh?

Just wanted to know more about this and if there is any directive !!

Note: I am talking about quality questions posted and not others

[Lakshmipathi]

As for as SD forum is concerned, for few quality questions, we will not be able to provide a solution straightaway.

This is due to the fact that either we would not have come across similar issue or not gone through the relevant notes, without which we cannot suggest. Hence it is very difficult for the members, even the Moderators / Mentors will find it difficult to provide a solution. So in that case, they have to test on their own and then only, they can provide some solution and mostly, due to time constraint, they are unable to test and provide a solution.

As mostly, we all are working for some employer and with the regular day today activities it may be dificult to test (as we need to configure according to the requirement) and hence, they prefer to keep silent.

But to my knowledge, only on rare occasion, such quality questions are being posted and if the concerned member do not get any feedback, they have to raise OSS note and simultaneously, they also have the responsibility to update the forum once the issue is solved which most members dont do this.

thanks

G. Lakshmipathi

[Former Member]

I dont know much about other forums but in ABAP development, i dont see much replies from the sap mentors.

I other websites like sdn which are there for other technologies say C++, some wesites have a mentor system where if somebody is not able to get any replies then a mentor does reply to that question.

Can we see something like that in SDN.

кu03B1ятu03B9к

[Former Member]

Hi Kartik,

usually I am contibuting in the BI forums, but on the other hand as I am a moderator too, I am more concentrated on keeping the BI forums clean. And by doing that pretty often I think I should delete a lot of posts (questions as well as replies), but anyway doing more moderation means less contribution and the other way round.

Siggi

[suresh_datti]

I occasionally filter the ABAP General & respond to HR-ABAP posts.

~Suresh

[Former Member]

Yes i do understand that, You moderators have a tough job at hand but you all still do a great job.

Cheers,

кu03B1ятu03B9к

[stephenjohannes]

In the SAP CRM 2007 forum where I have been focusing my moderation efforts, I will occasionally take a thread and make it sticky to try to get more answers.

I usually limit this to threads that are:

1. A general problem that would problem be encountered by everyone using CRM 2007.

2. The person explaining the question has provided sufficient detail to warrant an answer

3. A lack of replies from the "regular experts" in the forum.

Now I don't think this would work for all the other forums, but it works for CRM 2007 forum due to a lower volume of questions. I also try to strongly encourage that answer to those question should be also posted as a wiki entry afterwards.

Once again after taking on moderator duties, my contribution frequency is a lot lower and I tend to only solve problems which fit in with my actual work projects.

Take care,

Stephen

[Former Member]

>

> In the SAP CRM 2007 forum where I have been focusing my moderation efforts, I will occasionally take a thread and make it sticky to try to get more answers.

Best idea I've heard in a long time. Rather than locking threads, etc. (dealing with forum problems), you help people working towards a solution.

I'll keep this in mind in the ABAP forums.

Rob

[Former Member]

The bugger with that is that in high volume forums such as ABAP Development, the stickies will soon clogg up the overview as they are always at the top and will need to be managed (and released again) realtime by all the mods.

A suggestion which I think would be usefull and not have this side effect, would be to give mods the ability to flag certain questions as "Premium" questions, in the same way that SAP NW Subscribers can ask "Premium" questions (even if the question is theoretically not particularly interesting).

This way it would encourage mods in forums to read more threads and highlight the earnest and interesting ones for knowledgable folks to spot more quickly.

When people notice this option, they might also try to ask more self-researched questions, in the hope of attracting more knowledgable answers...

Cheers,

Julius

[Former Member]

Julius - I like your idea even better; but the bugger with that is that the procedure is not in place yet, whereas stickies (with the weakness you point out) can still be used.

If the number of stickies is kept to a reasonable minimum (probably not too difficult given the general standard of questions) and each moderator is responsible for his or her stickies and the stickies only stay for a couple of days, then I think this could work in the interim.

Rob

[Former Member]

I dont think the number of such stickies can be more then 4-5 or else it would crowd the page, now u can have much more questions which are eligilble for this concept being discussed above, also u may feel certain thread needs to be made sticky, other moderators may feel same about other threads, so even if every moderator makes one thread as sticky still we would be crowding the first page, we can change the setting in control panel to display max number of threads on one page but most users dont do it,so they will not able to see other threads.

Now i have just got one idea,

How about having an ABAP EXPERT forum one for entire abap development (in fact an expert forum for each category), to which no new thread could be posted, only threads could be moved to here by the moderators, so selected good questions but with no responses may be moved here, Here may be you can implement the sticky thing also.

кu03B1ятu03B9к

[Former Member]

Well, I doubt if you could find more than a few per week that would qualify, so I doubt if there would be much of a crowding issue. In any case, the moderators could get together to decide.

And if you check the top of this page, you'll see that this is supposed to be an expert forum

I think Julius's idea of premium questions is the best in the long run, but making stickies is just a short term solution (?)

Rob

Edited by: Rob Burbank on Mar 15, 2009 3:47 PM

[GauthamV]

 I am talking about quality questions posted and not others

I guess it is difficult for moderators to filter the quality questions

that you had mentioned.

Moreover people can get solutions from services market place if it

is really a major issue that is troubling them.

Gautham