Getting serious about repetitive threads / queries

[former_member195124]

Hi All !!

ALL OF US know about this - the repetitive queries being asked by OPs every now and then.

I have been constantly posting on some FI forums lately and found out that almost 90% of the solutions I gave were links to old threads. It is funny as well as irritating.

In short, the OPs are just being lazy about searching for a similar query. At SDN, if not now then later, we will HAVE to do something about this. Then why not now.

In the past, [Raj Karunanidhi|; came up with a similar query about thread notifications.

We all know the issue and the outcomes of it. Let me directly go to some suggestions -

1. As soon as a person clicks on 'Post new Thread' remind him to search first, with the help of a pop-up.

2. A more tedious task for developers/programmers - After the new post is submitted, try to find related subjects and provide these threads to the OP before he can confirm the submission of his new thread.

3. As menioned in an earlier post, make it mandatory for the OP to re-type the correct answer before closing the thread as answered. This gives us better chances of finding a query which is solved, rather than just finding queries ending with solved myself (We can take more suggestions from Raj's previous thread for this point)

4. Ban members who ask repetitive queries more than 3/5 times. Ofcourse make this ban temporary (5-10 days)

5. If you think the Moderator's task is becoming too much by all these things, then assign some sub-moderators who have the authority to resolve only such kind of problems. We have plenty of people (in this forum) who are experienced and want to make SDN better.

Hope this is taken as priority. More ideas / suggestions / criticisms are welcome.

All these are my viewpoints and suggestions. Do not expect you to understand / relate / react exactly the same way

Just want to make SDN a better place!

Regards

Zubin S

[former_member184657 · Accepted solution]

Zubin,

Most of the queries you've raised here has been discussed umpteen number of times. I can dig atleast 10-15 threads just like this one for you

But unfortunately, Im given to understood that nothing much could be done about this as Jive does not seem to be that dynamic. So, what can you do? Stop answering such queries. If every individual decide not to answer basic questions, then you can see that such basic questions will dry up eventually. And trust me it does work. I mean if it can work in ABAP General, then it should work anywhere!!!

pk

PS: Almost forgot - Keep hitting the Abuse Button too.

Edited by: kishan P on Jan 13, 2010 12:21 PM

[Former Member]

A lot of the 'solved on own' or 'asdf' solutions are quite often followed by a new question from the same person. So I suspect that the poster is trying to mark some questions as answered to get around the ten open thread limit.

Moderators can remove Points from responders, but cannot mark as unsolved a question that was marked as solved without assigining Points.

If moderators cound unmark these questions, we could force OPs to give better solutions.

Rob

[former_member193382]

@ Zubin,

I don't think providing Search help ( Like F4 help in SAP ) would work because i have come across many threads having the subject line as Help Me or Help Needed or something which is not relevant to their question.

So it won't be possible.

@ Kishan,

I don't think Stop answering basic questions concept would work in all forums because if the experts stop answering, the junior experts who are eagerly waiting to answer for points would do the search work for the OP and post the link.

So I think, this has to be handled in some other way.

The report abuse tool has already helped in minimizing the no. of basic questions (FAQs) asked in the forum.

But if we have the solutions posted at the end of each thread instead of answered or sovled Own, it would definitely encourage OPs to search for the similar posts & solutions before posting repetitive threads.

I think improper solution at the end of each thread leads to posting of repetitive threads.

I really appreciate all those users who post the solution, may be as part of their responsibility or as respect to those who answered their question.

Regards,

Raj

[Former Member]

> I don't think Stop answering basic questions concept would work in all forums because if the experts stop answering, the junior experts who are eagerly waiting to answer for points would do the search work for the OP and post the link.

>

> So I think, this has to be handled in some other way.

I know a perfect solution for this! An RFTM forum of it's own, where freshers can practice their answers and doing a search for someone else, without making a pest of themselves by flooding the forums and interesting questions in them.

See

Feel free to post a motivation to that thread if you agree...

Cheers,

Julius

[matt]

I do so agree. A new category of "rtfm" on the abuse reports. A new button on the console - Defer, Edit and Accept, Accept, Reject, RTFM. Away we go.

matt

[Former Member]

My suggestion is that top contributors and folks who are known to care about quality in the forums should have access to use the "RTFM move" button as well.

But Rob is correct, if the OP closes the thread then even moderator powers cannot mark it as open again. The best way to deal with this is to do a quick background check on the OP before answering. If they are a repeat offender then you can normally spot them very easily.

Another solution would be a "Dunce cap" icon next to known repeat offender's ID's to warn people who answer with an overdose of goodwill or haste.

We already have the Mentor Lemon, so perhaps a Banana would be more consistent with the design than a cap. If the person improves, then we remove it again. If they create a new ID, then we change the icon to a bunch of bananas for all the IDs...

Just some thoughts to make the system more intuitive and the observations of some regulars more user friendly to find for the unsuspecting. Also the OP will have to live with the banana icon in subsequent questions, so might be more inclined to avoid earning one in the first place...

Cheers,

Julius

Edited by: Julius Bussche on Jan 14, 2010 8:40 PM

[matt]

I could be wrong, but if a question is locked before it's answered, then, outside of moderator action, the poster is stuffed....

matt

[Former Member]

Yes, but that is only if we catch them fast enough and if people have not answered.

If people answer in goodwill without noticing or thinking about the repeat offender habits (such as folks new to the forums would) then it is sometimes sad to lock the efforts, but less worse than the OP doing an "asdf" close after another 5 answers.

If they see a banana, then they will all think twice - including the OP.

Cheers,

Julius

[former_member193382]

Hi Julius,

Here is a perfect example about what we are discussing here & which needs a permanent fix.

[Thread|;

1. The thread posted by OP is so ugly.

2. Also he hasn't assigned any points to the experts who have tried answering him.

3. And thread closed without providing any solution.

All those things needs to be checked when a OP posts a thread.

And when some expert tries to answer

1. If the solution posted is ugly, because in ABAP forum, I have seen experts posting code which looks very ugly from an expert point of you.

2. Check if the expert has come up with a copy-paste solution.

This will really make sdn better and result in more active participation of experts.

Thanks & Regards,

Raj

[matt]

The thread author has exceeded the 2500 character limit on formatted postings. That's why it looks ugly. Points appear now to have been assigned. It's depressing that people don't read their own posts!

When I spot someone has said "solved on my own", I send them a message, requesting that they provide details to help others. You've done this by your reply. If they continually don't provide feedback, then eventually their accounts will be deleted, as they are not behaving in a community minded manner.

If a response is copy pasted from another site, this is a grave breach of the rules, and often leads to account deletion.

Programmatic solutions to these problems are unlikely to work. Consider the rule against posting your email address. Every day I reject post where people have tried to get round this restriction. There are certain words and phrases that are not permitted - so people use variant spellings.

There are two solutions to the problems you highlight.

1. Do what you've done. Downside of this is that other members then come along and your advice is ignored.

2. Members to hit the abuse button when they see something they don't like. Then the moderators can deal with it as they see fit. In the example you quote, I could have rejected the original question and told the poster to try again with just the relevant information. I could have edited it so that it looks nice etc.

I'll reiterate - moderators cannot read all posts. We rely on the members help.

matt

[former_member193382]

Hi Matt,

I agree with you and i understand how hectic it would be for moderators to go through each post.

Also, what I meant by calling that thread ugly is that, we should force the OP's just to stick to their question/problem while posting the thread. He should not copy paste the entire code and ask the experts to fix it or re-code it for him (If I am not wrong).

Secondly, The time when I posted him , to respect experts by giving points , no points were assigned to anyone.

Here's another example how that user goes around with sdn.

[Thread2|]

Regards,

Raj

[matt]

>

> , we should force the OP's just to stick to their question/problem while posting the thread.

One question. How?

[Former Member]

Hi Raj,

Here is an example of what you can do:

Now if the OP does it again... then he should get a banana icon for 30 days, in my opinion.

Cheers,

Julius

[former_member193382]

Hi Matt,

How?

Solution is in your previous post.

 2. Members to hit the abuse button when they see something they don't like. 
Then the moderators can deal with it as they see fit. In the example you quote, 
I could have rejected the original question and told the poster to try again with just the relevant information. 
I could have edited it so that it looks nice etc. 

But

 I'll reiterate - moderators cannot read all posts. We rely on the members help. 

Solution for this is in Julius's post.

 My suggestion is that top contributors and folks who are known to care 
about quality in the forums should have access to use the "RTFM move" button as well. 

Regards,

Raj

Edited by: Julius Bussche on Jan 15, 2010 11:19 AM

Code tags changed to quote tags - formatting problems.

[former_member193382]

Yes Julius,

I am already doing it. Even today I reported a thread in ABAP forum and its locked now.

But at the sametime I feel we should not discourage the freshers or OP's who come with a question that has discussed many times on sdn. We ask them to search the forum and the thread is locked. But as I said earlier, in only few cases the OP closes his thread with a solution.

Here's a fresh example from workflow forum.

[Example|;

In SAP, We have something called as BEST PRACTICE.

Can't we have something similar on SDN called SDN BEST PRACTICE ?

I hope it makes sense.

Regards,

Raj

[Former Member]

The thread is 6 months old. For all we know SVS could be dead already so Divya should have opened an own new thread anyway.

I cannot judge whether the topic is a Workflow FAQ or not, and would be a candidate for an RTFM forum. But Top Contributors could.

BTW: Taking a closer look at my example thread above, I noticed that Sudhakar responded shortly before I locked the post. I faintly suspect that he is still waiting for the mail sent from Mylene to reach his inbox...

Cheers,

Julius

Edited by: Julius Bussche on Jan 15, 2010 11:04 AM

[kesavadas_thekkillath]

Julius with amusement snack again ))

Now if the OP does it again... then he should get a banana icon for 30 days, in my opinion.

[former_member193382]

Hi Julius,

So would this be implemented on sdn?

Regards,

Raj

[Former Member]

Not sure. It is not up to me.

But I did put in a good word for it (the RTFM forum) already.

I don't think the yellow banana and blue leaves is close enough to SAP's corporate design...

Cheers,

Julius

[Former Member]

Many folks share your view and making the system more intuitive towards "search before you post" than it already is would certainly be usefull.

But as PK mentioned, the Abuse Reports are a great tool. Generally it is a small group of repeat offenders who make a big pest out of themselves in the forum and I am not sure whether any amount of forced search will help them to ask more differentiated questions. Just keep whacking them until they stop moving...

Cheers,

Julius

[matt]

I see quite a few abuse reports for Frequently Asked Questions. Recently, responded to a thread with just the text "Frequently Asked Question", then locked it. I got an email yesterday asking me why I'd locked the thread... I said- see my response! I then got a reply - well, if it's a faq, give me the link to the answer!

doh!

If you see a FAQ - hit the abuse button. Moderators usually DO NOT read everything that is posted. There's just too much volume.

matt