Erlis Dhima asks:

I checked a little the MakeUseOf Answers page. The moment I checked it, there were:
9426 unresolved questions in total!
Around 2100 unresolved questions that you can still comment!
And for the other ones, comments were closed!

Now, I’m very curious to know, how many of these questions that you cannot comment on anymore, are solved and not marked as solved? Even some of those who one can still comment on.

Also, wouldn’t it be better if some of the unresolved questions go to top, as featured or pinned to top?

Also, a better way to reduce some of the unresolved questions would be to mail the people who asked the questions, so they can post a last comment, if they solved the problem (explaining how)! Or to reply at least that the problem is solved, so to mark the question as solved.

I don’t know! There are many other tips! But, what the good of this would be, is that maybe some of the problems would be solved, and we will know more about these problems. Also, the site would have more resolved questions.

Browser: Firefox 15
System: Windows 7
Tagged: answer question, makeuseof answers

7 Answers -

0 votes

Tina

September 15, 2012

Erlis,

You are making some very good suggestions and we are already working on at least one similar one.

The reason there are so many unresolved questions is manifold.
1: Only editors and the person who asked the question can resolve the question.
2: Many people who ask questions never return to comment or resolve their questions.
3: We didn’t introduced the option to resolve questions until earlier this year, so the thousands of questions that were posted before that, are listed as unresolved automatically.

Personally, I don’t see an issue with unresolved questions. However, it would be nice if we received more feedback from people who ask questions. So we are planning to send a reminder to then a few days after their question was published.

What I hear you are suggesting, is to remind them of commenting shortly before comments for their question are closed. That would give them the chance to share feedback and what solution worked for them, if any. That is a very good idea and we will consider it.

Regarding pinning unresolved questions to the top, essentially that’s what the unresolved Q tab is for. It’s just a different way of sorting questions. On the front page, you have all the latest questions and on the alternative tab you have all the unresolved questions. How is this different from what you suggest?

Erlis Dhima

No, I think you have given me a proper answer!
Also, I would recommend another thing, a tab for those oldest question, who no one can comment anymore.. It can be called like: “Uncertain” or something else, I don’t know!
Anyway, why I started this question, is to give some suggestion, so the site can be better, and we all can help more, resolve the problems here…

Rob Hindle

Maybe if the guy who asked the question got a few points for marking it as resolved that would encourage them?
It would be nice if that guy had a few points to hand out to the person(s) who provided the most useful answers too.

No, I don’t thing so!
If ‘you’ want to get point, then get to work!
What I think, the people who should not get points, are those with answers like: “I agree”, “I like this answer”.. etc etc..
They are leechers! They don’t deserve points, since they only comment for points, not for helping others.. But it would be difficult to mark those answer, so they cannot get points…
Also, you can’t say who gave a better answer or not.. That’s ranking! No, It’s not ranking.. It something that can’t & should not be done..

So you don’t think someone who has invested time in giving a carefully considered answer deserves any more recognition than one who writes “I agree”.

On the other hand you think someone who takes the trouble to mark their question as resolved (saving us all the time of looking at the question to see if we can help) should get the same points as someone who doesn’t bother?.

You don’t think the guy who asked the question would be capable of recognising a useful answer and marking that as therefore deserving extra points?

September 16, 2012

Rob,

I think you have a point. Resolving a question should be rewarded with points.

We are rewarding points for comments and there is a system to remove and not reward short and useless comments. I cannot be any more detailed than that.

We are also working on a voting system, with which people who leave great comments can gain more points if people vote for their comments.

In the end, we are aware that any system can be gamed and we are careful to keep it as fair as possible.

Good to hear such great updates to the site!

Question marked as resolved, since I got an answer!
If you have something to add, please comment!

After reading what Tina said, I think it would be good, since it’s something it can be done!
Also, you are absolutely right about marking a answer as not useful.. Waiting for the next updates though!

Jhon H. Caicedo

It would be great if MUO can mimic some features of superuser.com. – You don’t get points for comments but when other user’s upvote you of the OP chooses your answer as the best. Also I have been experiencing issues with the login method to my MUO account. i.e. this comment was posted as guest and not from my account because nowhere on the page the login is enabled. Don’t get me wrong, I like MUO very much but some features can be improved.

ahmed Fouad khalil

Good suggestion Erlis, i add my voice to you in that

Quinn Haine

Definitely agree with this. I love MakeUseOf, but the Answers space is lacking. Perhaps we could get some categories like Yahoo Answers?

I appreciate your feedback, Quinn.

We have been working on new features for Answers and a new look. For example the subnav search bar is one of the new elements. However, progress is slow, as we only have one web developer, who does everything and is swamped with long term projects and the day-to-day tasks and issues.

Either way, we are open for suggestions! How do you think categories would be useful for people? We have them, also tags, but how do you think people would use them if we made them more readily accessible?

Saurav Azad

yes i think so there should be a method to handle it

mohit kumar

September 17, 2012

No, I don’t think so.