Moderators - What is the criteria to push a thread into T&P forum?

[Former Member]

I think, a thread should not be relegated to T&P forum even if the question has been asked before or even if it has a "obvious" solution, if someone has a better solution to offer that is not well known.

This is important so that the consultants are made aware of better ways of doing things rather than getting things done hook or crook.

A case in point is thread, please see my last post

[Replacing of o and O in a string|;

This sort of thing happened before and couple of moderators agreed with me that the criteria to push a thread in T&P forum should also include the kind of solution offered.

I want to bring this point to everyone's notice, so that there is a systematic way to decide this.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Well, we look at the question rather than the answer.

The main purpose of the forums is to help people with problems. The solution you provided may help someone in the future. The only difference is that you won't get points for it.

Rob

[Former Member]

I agree to Vishnu on along with some more observations.

Why ABAP forums are moderated on such a level that you cannot answer to a question even if its easy to make someone understand about it. It might take 5 minutes to search. I can prove this N number of times.

If you are setting a level of moderation, please do it for all forums. dont restrict it to specific forums,.

This is very disheartening sometimes and it DEMOTIVATES people.

There was a basic reason why moderation is done.. thats why the name is Moderator not Dictator.

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moreover its not just about contribution points always. let me show you this thread

my comment was:

>Swathi,
>(may be the thread will be locked before i post, but let me try)
>1. you should use a proper subject line
>2. requirement is not clear enough. you want this constant value on a user input field or where?
>Moderator Message: Knowing the Rules and still trying to break them, amounts to cheating. Looks like the only way to deter you from doing it is to deduct a few hundred points from your total.
Edited by: kishan P on Jan 18, 2012 12:26 PM

NOW tell me what did I do to deserve this comment from Kishan?

Edited by: Soumyaprakash Mishra on Jan 23, 2012 5:06 PM

[former_member184657]

NOW tell me what did I do to deserve this comment from Kishan?

The umpteen suggestions, warnings and mails from other Moderators that you chose to ignore.

pk

[Former Member]

Kishan,

lets concentrate on this message. let me know what was wrong in my post

[former_member184657]

I thought my comment was self-explanatory - you knew the thread will be locked (for RoE violations) and yet to wanted to post before it gets locked.

pk

[SuhaSaha]

Hello Soumya,

I'll like to borrow Matt's one liner, "Moderation is (read: not a science) an art!".

There are some guidelines which need to be adhered to, but "how" someone does it is not(or rather cannot be) documented.

Why ABAP forums are moderated on such a level that you cannot answer to a question even if its easy to make someone understand about it

Because we do not encourage spoon-feeding!

Allow me to cite your latest response . Do you think the OP could not have searched the same over the net? Had it been a typical problem for e.g., error "blah-blah" while installing JAVA stack of SRM7.0, i would not mind anybody replying. What value does "Yes, you can" response add?

I understand you are driven by your passion to help others, but you should try to do it by adhering to the Forum RoE. As moderators we need "extra" eyes of responsible members who want to keep the forum clean. Hit the "abuse" button more often, report the offenders instead of being one!

Looking forward to your continuous support.

BR,

Suhas

[Former Member]

@Kishan,

I am not sure if the English was not grammatical or the content was not understood. let me brake it down

"Let me Worm you" - "before moderators lock it" - "DO and Dont" - "what you did not do" - " do so next time"

@Suhas,

I think moderators should have the basic decency to write the names correctly first. (no disrespect here to you).+

And next, you ARE wrong there.. Probably you have not gone though the installation guide. and probably the person who posted the question.

you DO very well assume that the ABAP forum questions are NOT SEARCHED questions. but other forum answers are.. arent they?

[SuhaSaha]

I thought my comment was self-explanatory - you knew the thread will be locked (for RoE violations) and yet to wanted to post before it gets locked.

And trying to pass a response as well

you want this constant value on a user input field or where?

.

If you knew there was an RoE violation, why did you reply? You could have hit the "abuse" button instead!

[Former Member]

Is it wrong to inform people what they did wrong?

Moreover, can you sum up answers all my queries ? I dont want this thread to be just complaining about one thread(though I want answers for this)

[Former Member]

And Suhas, you said some very strong things about the SRM 7 thread as well. Can you respond to my response for that?

[ThomasZloch]

Take a trip into the past and see what the ABAP forums looked like when there was almost no moderation:

/community [original link is broken]

(you can play with the "start" parameter to go even further back)

I agree that other sections of SCN unfortunately don't have the same level of moderation, this is being discussed in the moderator forum occasionally, but this is not under our control eventually.

What I know is that our approach in the ABAP forums is backed by SCN administration.

I think you have a good feel by now for which threads are locking candidates, now please refrain from getting involved, or leave it to a "please search before posting" comment, thus showing the poster that he is not dealing with moderators but a responsible community as a whole.

Thomas

[SuhaSaha]

And next, you ARE wrong there.. Probably you have not gone though the installation guide. and probably the person who posted the question. 

I'm sorry, but i don't think the OP had any typical problem which would require him/her to go through the installation guide.

I [googled |http://lmgtfy.com/?q=caniinstallABAP%26JavastackinSRM7.0] it out & the first hit answers my query. So?

you DO very well assume that the ABAP forum questions are NOT SEARCHED questions. but other forum answers are.. arent they?

Had this been the case, i/we(Mods) would have been on a "Lock Thread" spree!

[former_member184657]

Is it wrong to inform people what they did wrong?

Says who? If nobody points out if you (generic) are doing something wrong, then how will you (generic) learn from your mistakes?

But looks like you (specific) are not ready to learn from your (specific) mistakes - continuing to violate the rules of this forum, even though your ID has been deleted once before this!

pk

[Former Member]

@Thomas, I understand, mostly after the warning from Suhas I try to push myself not the involve. But when i write please search, Suhas says its not a blah blah question. if people cant search in ABAP forum its is not fine, if people cannot search in other forums then it is not fine

@Suhas, lets say your company is going for a brand new product in SAP, dont you get a consulting guide? and please dont tell me that you cannot find about DUAL stacks on internet. why Typed the exact keyword, why not type the requirement.

His requirement was dual stack implementation on NWDS. and that was the answer for him..

[Former Member]

Is it wrong to inform people what they did wrong?

> Says who? If nobody points out if you (generic) are doing something wrong, then how will you (generic) learn from your mistakes?
> 
> But looks like you (specific) are not ready to learn from your (specific) mistakes - continuing to violate the rules of this forum, even though your ID has been deleted once before this! 
> 
> pk

Kishan, let me know what was wrong in that thread? i dont want to push that threads discussion.

Suhas, I agree that you inform regularly about not to help people who violate the forum rules. but please realize that I just try to answer the question some times without keep on searching and if the questions are generic let that be answered and keep a full stop there

posting 10 you should not post loads the server more that posting a 1 line answer. right(you can continue SDNs moderation rule, i dont disagree to that)? take out the points, i dont mind. Please dont be rude on people..

[Former Member]

/community [original link is broken]

Woa. That was a sentimental trip...

@ Soumyaprakash: Reading this thread and the various other complainst about you, I have the impression that you are just playing cat & mouse with the moderators to buy some time to carry on belittling our efforts to keep the forum quality up to a reasonable standard by answering basic questions under the disguise of telling the posters to read the rules.

As you can see this has triggered several irritations in the Abuse Reports system and surely not all the mods are wrong in reacting to it.

I suggest you stop this game as there will be no further warnings.

Cheers,

Julius

[ThomasZloch]

Thanks for commenting here.

In your example, the question is about how to replace O with 0 inside strings. This is a very basic problem that is covered by standard and well documented ABAP syntax. Moderators have the delicate task to find the correct balance between a helpful environment for beginners while also maintaining an "expert forums" appearance. At the same time we have to keep redundancy low to make content easier to find, as well as slowing down "points hunters" and spoon feeders that will answer every FAQ for the tenth time in the hopes of gaining more of the beloved.

The move to T&P and removing all points as opposed to just locking the thread was invented to find such a balance. The original poster can still have his answer, there is no points motivation, and the main forums are not that bloated with basic stuff.

Thomas

[Former Member]

Well, I myself don't spend time checking what is in T&P forums as that is supposed to contain mundane and oft repeated questions and answers. I think this is the case with most other people around here. I would rather want my response be read like I want to read interesting responses from others.

So I will close this thread as unanswered as the responses really didn't address the question that I asked - that is of losing interesting answers just because the question was oft asked.

I understand though that this is done so that people do not abuse the rewards system, but my concern is more about the purpose of sharing our ideas in a free environment.

[Former Member]

Unfortunately, when you mark a question as closed but unanswered, it becomes locked so that people cannot respond.

I want to correct one of your points. Interesting answers are not lost when a question is moved to the T&P forum. A Google search or a forum search will find the thread. The reason it is moved to T&P is so that SCN responders cannot inflate their point totals answering softball questions.

Rob

[former_member184657]

Vishnu,

Rob hit the nail on the head with

Well, we look at the question rather than the answer

He hit the nail on its head a second time with

Interesting answers are not lost when a question is moved to the T&P forum. A Google search or a forum search will find the thread.

There's literally nothing you cant find on the web by searching. REGEX is not an elusive concept - even in ABAP forums here. These type of solutions have also been given here before. Im not trying to undervalue your answer in any way. Its just that we forum moderators know which questions are FAQs and which questions have been asked without putting any effort into them - thanks to spending innumberable hours on these forums for many years now.

There was a time when basic questions were either locked or deleted, thereby depriving the OP from getting any replies and the Contributors stripped of their points in those posts. But with the new policy we are just moving the threads to a different "points-free" forum, where the threads continue to exist and OP gets replies.

As a responsible Top Contributor we expect your co-operation in improving the forums and help us to keep it clean.

pk

[Former Member]

Well, I myself don't spend time checking what is in T&P forums as that is supposed to contain mundane and oft repeated questions and answers

I'm afraid I don't understand now. I thought you don't mind answering simple or repeated questions.

Most of the repeated or easily searchable questions are what most reasonable forum members would consider as "lazy". We try to encourage people not to ask or answer lazy questions.

Rob