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Annoying behaviour

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi,

I have been seeing a usual behaviour here on the forums that should be minimized.

A lot of people post a question to a forum, and when they get the answer that solves his/her problem they abandon the thread without even rewarding a point.

The most incredible thing is that they repeatedly behave that way, so they get lots of answers for their issues and they never (NEVER EVER) assign a point.

To solve this: When I see a user that is suspect of doing that, I review his/her previous posts to see if he/she is rewarding points. If he/she is not, then I don't answer the question. But I lose a lot of time doing this!

Come on! Rewarding points is free and is very easy! They don't see it.

I would suggest to add a personal and private "**** list" on every own control panel to be able to control that kind of people which I don't want to help.

At the end someone will answer that question, but that **** list would help greedy people on being even more greedy!!

What do you all think?

Regards,

David.

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

RichHeilman
Developer Advocate
Developer Advocate
0 Kudos

Well, here's my 2 cents. This is a pretty common thing. New people signing in, asking a question, getting good feedback, and never returning to show appreciation. In some cases, not even a "Thank You". There's really not a whole lot that could be done about that. The only thing you can do is give a little reminder at the end of your answer, and hope that they will come back and show some appreciation. If they don't, then you can still pat yourself on the back for sharing your knowledge to him/her. As I've said to many before, points are nice, but knowing that you have saved someone from having a head->wall session, makes one feel good. I think that is what is important.

Before joining up with SDN, I spent a lot of time on another SAP forum site, which will remain nameless, answering just as many questions that I do on SDN. There was no point system, but when someone would come back and say "Thanks a lot, you really saved me some time", that made me feel good. I have left the community because people starting being unprofessional. Making fun of people who didn't know how to do the simplest things.

That's what is good about SDN, people conduct themselves as professionals here. That said, having a so-called "s**t list" on this site, would defeat the whole purpose of why we are here, to share knowledge. Just because one doesn't feel the need to "be a member of the community" by not awarding points to his fellow SDNer, does not necessarily mean that he does not deserve an answer to his question. If one would be "unprofessional" in regard to his dialog, then yes, I would say he doesn't deserve a response. I have yet to see any such post.

Let's remember, this is a community. I think, a really good one. I don't want it to turn into a site like the one I used to hang out in. So, in closing, let's keep our eye on the ball. Again, points ARE nice, we all like the points system, but don't worry so much about points, feel good about helping your colleagues. Cool?

Best Regards,

Rich Heilman

Former Member
0 Kudos

You both have good points but the main thing to remember is that you can't force people to do what you want, each of us needs to decide for ourselves to answer or not answer. Those asking have to decide to give or not give. What we hope is that those who give see that not only do they get their answers but they also start to form connections in the community that can lead to even better collaboration!

From SDN's side we've added in a few reminders and we are working on some others but I don't see us at least anytime soon making a "sh*t list" so to speak.

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi,

I fully agree with you both. I mean, I also participated in other community forums without rewarding system and help there was just fun and even anonymous. But maybe I didn't expressed what I was referring to.

That **** list (maybe is not a good name for it) would be a private (not global) and fully optional list. I mean, if you don't want to use it, then don't do it.

In fact I could do a **** list on a piece of paper (I won't do that).

That list could probably make people who never reward points to stop and think: "Hey, if I want answers maybe I should start rewarding points. It's free, easy and I give recognition to the person that helped me". Or maybe: "Hey, why no one is answering? I see, I need to reward their answers". It's just a way to make them remember how things work here.

IMO the success of this community is the rewarding system. It's a silly thing but it's a good recognition program even if points don't give you anything. You can visit lots of SAP communities that don't have rewarding systems and you'll see that they are almost empty and no one gives answers. So, let's make points system work better!

Anyway, it was just a thought and I know that the concept "**** list" is not very polite, so it will never be added here, cause it's the opposite feeling of this community. "Let's help" its better than "Let's avoid helping".

Regards,

David.

thomasalexander_ritter
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Hi Rich,

I completely agree with you. To me a "Hey you saved my day" means a lot more then 10 points. When I would only get points I would start to feel like some guy from a technical support hotline.

regards

Thomas

Former Member
0 Kudos

I agree with all the observations made here. This is what makes the SDN so special. The place is well organized and the people are of course at different levels of professionalism both in their knowledge and conduct.

But when there is a place where we monitor each other, things are bound to happen. Points certainly give the encouragement to contribute more. I cannot deny that. But sometimes, I feel that rather than giving some points, I want them give their final solution here. That way someone else may be benefited with just searching the forum.

Just as some never assign any points, there are some who assign points to every response being too polite. So I would like to suggest that if the same person is responding to a question, that person should get only one point assignment, rather than multiple point assignments.

What I would like to see is closing all those inactive threads after a certain time. This will make the forums look more clean and STARRY!!

RichHeilman
Developer Advocate
Developer Advocate
0 Kudos

<i>Just as some never assign any points, there are some who assign points to every response being too polite. So I would like to suggest that if the same person is responding to a question, that person should get only one point assignment, rather than multiple point assignments.</i>

I can't say that I agree with you here, Srinivas. As you know, in the ABAP forum, some problems take many responses to get through to the final solution. Sometimes we have to walk others through the entire problem. In these cases, I think that points on each post that has helped them is rewardable. Of course, one could take advantage of that, by deliberately breaking there response into multiple replys. I don't think that this is happening though. Most of us understand the points system and don't look for ways of taking advantage.

<i>But sometimes, I feel that rather than giving some points, I want them give their final solution here. That way someone else may be benefited with just searching the forum.</i>

This I can agree with. It would be great if SDNers return and give a brief overview or additional tips that helped them get through the problem. This is not always needed in every post. But for more complex ones, then it would be good.

Best Regards,

Rich Heilman

Former Member
0 Kudos

Hi All,

Maybe a way to manage this is to have a list the user sees whenever he/she creates a new post, stating:

This is your unsolved posts. Please verify...

1. Problem here with XXX

2. Something else...

3. etc.

This will remind the people that they have to close issues. To me it's not so much about the points, but I have to agree a simple "Thanks, it worked" makes me feel good. It is more about hundreds of posts that are actually solved are not marked as solved. You don't even know if the person tried it, if it was helpful at all.

It is at times like the last 2 days (when the rewards system is down) that people get answers and return only in a couple of weeks when they have another problem. Their original problem might be 3 pages down on the forum - they don't even remember they didn't assign points, or rather closed the issue.

That's just my 2c worth...

Adele

Answers (0)