Looking for Community Feedback

Would you like the forums better if there was a best answer or ordering mechanism?

  • Yes! I would prefer the thread starter choose the best answer.

    Votes: 7 19.4%
  • Yes! I would prefer a Reddit style with up-votes.

    Votes: 6 16.7%
  • Yes! I would prefer a hybrid approach that combines both of the other options.

    Votes: 13 36.1%
  • No. We don't need any of this.

    Votes: 10 27.8%

  • Total voters
    36
  • Poll closed .

JoshDW19

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Hey Everyone!

One thing that's stuck out to me over the last year is that sometimes it takes a while to go through longer threads to find the best answer to a question. I've been reviewing a plugin that allows people to choose the best answer to their question. There are two ways it can work.

1: The thread starter chooses the best answer to their question (moderators can overrule if it's an improper choice).

2: Reddit style where upvotes are used to automatically order posts by most useful based on upvotes.

What do you all think about this idea? Let me know in the poll. Please note that this does not guarantee any of these options will happen. I'm just looking to get an idea of how others feel on the issue. P.S. I promise there will not be emoji ratings! ;)

Votes are anonymous!
 

nojohnny101

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This would be a great addition. I responded to the poll but would it be possible to have a hub rid of the first two choices? This is how stack overflow does it and it seems to be very effective. The OP can choose the solution (green check mark) but then the community can also upvote. Sometime you find a better answer up-voted than the solution the OP chose.
 

JoshDW19

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Added hybrid as an option. You should be able to change your votes if you'd prefer.
 

jgreco

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As long as there isn't a downvote option. When that was tried, it became apparent very quickly that people would downvote things that they didn't want to hear, even when (perhaps especially when) the answer was correct.

I'm not sure I care for the Reddit option but I can see why that might seem attractive.
 

Redcoat

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Would a user be able to view a "raw" thread (without the influence of the voting)?
 

Sjöhaga

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To me one of the major strengths of this forum are its long living threads, but that said -a way to get to the "good" part of a thread would be useful :)
i'll vote for the upvote style but with some limits on how many upvotes one can give. If the number of upvotes one can give is very limited then perhaps they are given only where they are most deserved.
 

HoneyBadger

actually does care
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My option isn't represented, so I'd like to write it in:

Upvotes or some other visible indication of "this post provides an answer or other valuable insight" is fine and dandy, but anything other than "chronological order" is going to make it a bit of a mess to respond to unless the "forum" concept is abandoned entirely and replaced with Reddit-style posting. (Provided we don't get "Reddit-style users" this could work. ;) )

I think another hybrid such as how the XDA forums do it will work - the most-upvoted or most-thanked posts in a thread are in a callout box on the side of the forum, and can be easily navigated to from there as jump links. All posts remain in chronological order.
 

Redcoat

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Upvotes or some other visible indication of "this post provides an answer or other valuable insight" is fine and dandy, but anything other than "chronological order" is going to make it a bit of a mess to respond to unless the "forum" concept is abandoned entirely and replaced with Reddit-style posting. (Provided we don't get "Reddit-style users" this could work. ;) )

I agree with these sentiments - chronological order I find generally much easier to follow, especially if the topic is one on which I know little or nothing but wish to understand better.
 
Last edited:

JoshDW19

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Lots of good ideas here. To expand on what a few of you have said, I'm thinking more along the lines of upvotes from the community or thanks in the thread determine the best post which places it immediately after the question while leaving the rest of the post structure intact. Maybe we don't go full Reddit and reorder the post because i could see how that gets messy. Even still, we could use that as a basis to let the community choose the content they find most valuable, which is ultimately the goal.
 

HoneyBadger

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I'm thinking more along the lines of upvotes from the community or thanks in the thread determine the best post which places it immediately after the question while leaving the rest of the post structure intact.
If the "best post" is copied or linked below the original (as in "Solved! Go to solution") then that's probably the ideal situation in my mind.
 

Apollo

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I am curious how this will actually look. Do you have a template or an example from an existing post you think might be a good candidate for evaluation?
My concern is with the amount of information a post usually contains.
For instance, if you take "Stackoverflow" the threads usually tends to be to the point and very short (at least the ones I have been redirected to.
With Freenas, each post is required hardware and Freenas version disclosure in order to be able to understand the environment and provide adequate solutions. It is often overlooked by new comers and for the rest of us is usually part of our forum signature which doesn't retain specificity over time.
So when someone create a post and say that my HW spec is in the signature, the post would only be valid if the signature still match the HW and SW at the time of the post. As soon as the signature gets updated, the post and signature are no longer in synch.

With a vote system, I think we will need to deal with Tags (ie. Freenas release number 11.2-U1, 11.2-U2...) as well as HW description/categories.

An answer can be voted as correct on a specific Freenas release, but can very well be the wrong answer on a different Freenas release.

With post that spans a large number of pages, such as "How to guides" (ie https://www.ixsystems.com/community...llation-of-nextcloud-15-in-iocage-jail.62485/)
How would you manage voting on it?
The reason is that the original post can be edited over time to include corrections pointed out by users or simply being updated to match the latest state of the script (in this particular context).
A post can leave for many years and be actively updated by users and the OP that maintains it.
I don't think such post would benefit from being voted upon while retaining valuable information. There are simply too many questions to too many scenario.
 

Snow

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This would be a great addition. I responded to the poll but would it be possible to have a hub rid of the first two choices? This is how stack overflow does it and it seems to be very effective. The OP can choose the solution (green check mark) but then the community can also upvote. Sometime you find a better answer up-voted than the solution the OP chose.
Yeah I was reading the awnsers and was hoping for some thing like that. Thanks for adding it!
 
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If the "best post" is copied or linked below the original (as in "Solved! Go to solution") then that's probably the ideal situation in my mind.

That sounds like the only acceptable option to me, the chronological order of a thread is important if you want to learn how the troubleshooting happened for your future and not just be spoon fed an answer. Frankly I don't think it's necessary.
 

j77h

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the original post can be edited over time to include corrections pointed out by users or simply being updated to match the latest state of the script (in this particular context). A post can live for many years and be actively updated by users and the OP that maintains it.

With that kind of complex thread it would be great is there's a place to write a summary post that stays at the top of the listing, and can be edited. (Discourse calls it a 'wiki post'.)
Alternatively, collective knowledge could be distilled into a separate wiki...?
 

JoshDW19

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With that kind of complex thread it would be great is there's a place to write a summary post that stays at the top of the listing, and can be edited. (Discourse calls it a 'wiki post'.)
Alternatively, collective knowledge could be distilled into a separate wiki...?

Interesting! I can see a lot of value in a wiki post.
 

HolyK

Ninja Turtle
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I would prefer the "Best Answer" or "Marked as Answer" approach. Changing the chronological order would cause even more mess for longer threads.

With that kind of complex thread it would be great is there's a place to write a summary post that stays at the top of the listing, and can be edited. (Discourse calls it a 'wiki post'.)
Alternatively, collective knowledge could be distilled into a separate wiki...?

Personally i am adding links to solutions or other valuable posts to my opening post. I saw more ppl doing this which is quite fine. And in case there is valuable post MODs could do the same. Or if the "Best/valuable/correct answer" system is added then we might grant that specific "power" to potential volunteers/senior members willing to help (@Tigersharke to comment on that) We're community after all :]
 

Snow

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I would prefer the "Best Answer" or "Marked as Answer" approach. Changing the chronological order would cause even more mess for longer threads.

Personally i am adding links to solutions or other valuable posts to my opening post. I saw more ppl doing this which is quite fine. And in case there is valuable post MODs could do the same. Or if the "Best/valuable/correct answer" system is added then we might grant that specific "power" to potential volunteers/senior members willing to help (@Tigersharke to comment on that) We're community after all :]

Yes we are Sir and a great one at that :).
 

Tigersharke

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I would prefer the "Best Answer" or "Marked as Answer" approach. Changing the chronological order would cause even more mess for longer threads.

Personally i am adding links to solutions or other valuable posts to my opening post. I saw more ppl doing this which is quite fine. And in case there is valuable post MODs could do the same. Or if the "Best/valuable/correct answer" system is added then we might grant that specific "power" to potential volunteers/senior members willing to help (@Tigersharke to comment on that) We're community after all :]
From what I have seen of Reddit (and even Stack Exchange), it can be a place for trolls or other abuses, the upvotes only work to the degree that a bunch of malicious influencers do not choose to do something stupid. Sometimes the best chosen answer (including when Yahoo answers was a thing) is not the real best answer since the asker chooses and a better answer may arrive after the choice is made. The best answer might not be the one chosen by popular vote, especially if there is a lot of misinformation out in the wild.

As a tech-oriented crowd with significant specialized knowledge within the community, I'm sure we can manage more successfully at final a 'best answer' than most. I'm sure that if we must decide on a cadre of experts, we can easily determine within this community who knows the most about any certain topic, and then grant them the privs for any system we choose to use. I am not sure about how we would grant a *specific* "power" to these individuals, especially if any such "best answer mechanism" has none integral to it, but we might be able to figure something out (another group perhaps?) once we decide most precisely what the parameters would be.

I like the idea of putting a link to the best answer or whatever, into the initial post, or even for long-lasting topic posts to be edited over time, BUT, we already have the Resources tool/mechanism on these forums which could be a repository for any number of well-written question-answer pairs, or summary, or groups of similar questions and applicable answers, or a series of good answers (even with one indicated as best).

Whatever the decision, whether it is one or more of those discussed, it is likely not to be very automated and will mean more effort and time (and dedication) by those involved, not to say that we lack those individuals but that if we choose to undertake any thing like those proposed, to make any of it valuable for visitors here, we must maintain it and not let it slip. There will need to be some quality control and/or standard, format, framework, template, etc. to make QC determinations/adjustments easier.
 

Tigersharke

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One other comment: Some threads get excessively long due to momentary tangents that may not be directly related to the title, topic, or question. In those cases we ought to move (or request to be moved) those posts or series of posts to an area better suited to their topic or off topic. This would also mean that the new thread be provided an applicable title as well.
 
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