To avoid duplicate posts

[former_member221025]

Hello guys,

I know, SCN is already working towards removing duplicate posts and to avoid new duplicate posts. I got a suggestion for avoiding duplicate posts.

Usually users does not search on SCN for any previous similar posts, and post their own question. This is the main reason for so much duplicate posts.

While starting a discussion we just enter its Title and its details. Moreover if we include 2 more spaces here for Entering "Transaction Codes used in this Scenario" & "Program Name or Error message Number if Any"  we will be having Text inputs from

1. Title     2. Transaction codes      3. Program Name or Error Message number.

Now based on these texts if we can run search on SCN forums and search results are displayed just above "Discussion area" saying "SCN has following posts similar to your question".

If user is not satisfied with the search results he/she will be definitely go for posting his/her own discussion. But I Guess for most of the questions user will find similar posts in search results ran automatically by SCN.

It will definitely restrict duplicate post to some extent.

What you guys feel about this?

Amol.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Amol,

This sort of idea has been discussed countless times before on SDN -> SCN (and no doubt most other internet forums that suffer with the same "noise" problem.)  I don't think it is the right answer as it hides the symptoms, instead of fixing the underlying problem, which is generally many people fall into 1 of 2 typical categories:

1. Too busy/too stressed/too lazy to put any effort into figuring out their own problem and just assume SCN is the answer, without also putting any effort into understanding how SCN works
2. Points gamers who like to post and answer all sorts of random noise, at the overall expense of the general quality of SCN

Both of the above could then be categorised into one simple condition, that many people just don't bother (for whatever reason, justified or otherwise) invest any personal effort/time into understanding how to behave in internet forums.  Like many challenges the internet has brought (and many challenges around people's behaviour generally) I believe the real fix is education and that comes from people like you and me having these discussions and trying to make things better.*

* I accept I'm over-simplifying things a lot but I'm sure you get my point

Cheers,

Gareth.

[former_member221025 · Accepted solution]

Hi Gareth,

Ohh, its not an unique idea !!!

Thanks for your time and inputs. I got your point.

I am agree with you. I strongly feel its related to personal habits, etiquettes and people's behavior.

Amol.

[Jelena]

We already have a tool for this - it's called 'Report abuse' button (hopefully soon to be renamed as 'Alert moderator'). More people should use it.

Also restricting open questions to 10 (there already is an idea for this, I believe) could help.

[Reagan]

it's called 'Report abuse' button (hopefully soon to be renamed as 'Alert moderator'). More people should use it.

Unfortunately this tool is buggy (most of the times).

Regards

RB

[nitin_jinagal]

Hi,

'Report Abuse' button is really useful but I feel a need of one addition. There should be 'Duplicate' to choose from when one go to report something. General abuse is not suitable I guess

This is required when the cases of duplicate responses appears.

Eg. If OP has posted "What is the T code for creating Sales Order?"

We sometimes see several responses like

1. VA01
2. You can use VA01
3. Create it through VA01.
4. VA01 can be used to create sales order... etc etc.

I think when a straight answer has been provided, no more responses should be given to keep the content intact. Or wait until OP adds something. 

My Opinion !!

ntn

[JL23]

Are these categories really important?

When do you categorize something your application? Probably in case you want to do some analysis. I never saw one for abuse reports. The more categories you then more diffcul is to find one, and the action taken is not really influenced by the category.

If there is a note given, then I do not even look at the category.

Probably half of the categories could be removed as i never saw any report with those.

[nitin_jinagal]

Hi,

I didn't know how a moderator work with Abuse reports.

Since there are already few categories, I felt need of one more to categorize the report appropriately, ofcourse from user perspective !!

If they are not actually significant then yes, could be removed.

ntn

[JasonLax]

How is it buggy?

[Reagan]

When the moderator rejects the "report abuse"

Regards

RB

[JasonLax]

I see. I thought there was a technical error ("bug") but it's rather something that would bug the reporter of an abuse.

[midhun_vp]

+1, giving options from existing discussions while creating a discussion based on the text entered is a nice idea. If I am right Stackoverflow.com has this functionality. It also lists similar discussions. The addition of similar topics along with the discussions helps people who are looking for a solution later.

- Midhun VP

[former_member221025]

Thanks guys,

yes, the idea is to suggest search results based on text entered in Title. (May be those 2 fields too).

Its nice to share same views.

Amol.

[Former Member]

There are a lot of positives for how the Stack Exchange sites work, however I feel their approach to moderation is a little too draconian, even if it would probably cut down a lot of the noise we have here on SCN.  As with most things, its all about finding the right balance and I suspect what SCN needs is somewhere in between the current SCN and where Stack Exchange is.

Cheers,

Gareth.

[midhun_vp]

Raising a question in stackoverflow makes me hate their system because of their draconian nature (as you said). Once, after asking few questions, stackoverflow barred me from further questions that resulted in creation of a new account. But definitely we can adopt whats good in their site.

- Midhun VP

[Former Member]

Agree 100%.  I never bother with it because of that attitude.  One of my colleagues here does lots of PHP/HTML meddling in his spare time and must have about 10 accounts now as he gets barred for asking what they deem to be stupid questions.

There has to be a happy medium!

[Steffi_Warnecke]

Hello Amol,

of course it is a good idea and like Gareth mentioned, others have had this idea before, e.g. Ravi, who created Inclusion of Product version/release in questions of SCN in the Idea Place. Please see point 2 at the end, which is pretty much what you have explained here.

The problem I see is, that people, who didn't use the search before they started creating their own thread, will most likely not fill out those optional fields and even if they do, probably ignore the nice list of hits, because it's much easier to ask the question than to search for oneself.

Nontheless, I like the idea. It would be helpful for those people who are looking for search results and so it would be kind of like searching and creating as one workflow (like in the marketplace when opening a OSS-ticket).

Regards,

Steffi.

[JasonLax]

If I understand correctly, a search query is launched based on what is entered in the title field, and the search results might match a similar query asked and answered before.  Yeah, sounds like a good idea for SCN Innovation and Enhancements: Home