unanswered threads question

[dwsmith]

Can we make it so solution posts from other forums don't show up in the unanswered thread section?
I would like to look through there without having to weed through solved unanswered threads.

 

[Jameson]

Can we make so solution posts from other forums don't show up in the unanswered thread section?
I would like to look through there without having to weed through solved unanswered threads.

Good question and point. However, this is well beyond my coding capabilities. It would require being able to flag certain threads as not seeking answers such that the the search would skip them. It would also require having permissions set on who can flag such a thread and some other pieces too.

So short answer is no, this can't be done in this way or I don't know how to. So what can we do about it? Maybe when someone copies a problem from another site, that person can get in the habit of making 2 posts - the first one contains the question and the second contains the solution. That is what I do for Facebook posts and it seems to work just fine.

 

[Klaas van Aarsen]

Different forums have different members, cultures, and ways of doing things.
I believe people should have an option of trying them all out, seeing which forum fits them best.
The best we can do, is help them as best we can.
If they are happy, perhaps even after an answer on another forum, they'll come back.
Otherwise, we'll probably won't see them again anyways.

As an example Lisa91 posted her problem on MHF first, and I even answered her there.
Then she duplicated her problem here.
I think she liked it here.
We can probably agree that on MHF things are different.
She didn't go back.

 

[MarkFL]

...Maybe when someone copies a problem from another site, that person can get in the habit of making 2 posts - the first one contains the question and the second contains the solution. That is what I do for Facebook posts and it seems to work just fine.

I will begin doing this with the Yahoo! questions I bring here. I hadn't considered that these would clutter the unanswered threads search.

 

[Jameson]

Different forums have different members, cultures, and ways of doing things.
I believe people should have an option of trying them all out, seeing which forum fits them best.
The best we can do, is help them as best we can.
If they are happy, perhaps even after an answer on another forum, they'll come back.
Otherwise, we'll probably won't see them again anyways.

Great point, ILikeSerena. Cross posting as a means of "testing the waters" of various help sites is reasonable and not something we should criticize if done within reason. Every once in a while there comes a member who does this for every question and at a certain point it becomes an issue, but this is a rare situation.

 

[Klaas van Aarsen]

Great point, ILikeSerena. Cross posting as a means of "testing the waters" of various help sites is reasonable and not something we should criticize if done within reason. Every once in a while there comes a member who does this for every question and at a certain point it becomes an issue, but this is a rare situation.

Ah well, some people are just hunting for answers to questions without making any effort.
They will probably end up in yahoo answers (or MHF where this is no longer discouraged).

I don't mind if threads like that go unanswered, get a mild suggestion to put in some effort, get a friendly PM, get an infraction, or are even deleted.