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by rdunn

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Post questions but do not come back and say if the answers worked or not? Of course, this also means that no points are awarded? Out of the last 10 questions that I've answered -2- have actually replied and given feedback.

I don't answer tonsof questions either - this was over a period of a month and a half.

And, what are the points for?

Sorry, I've just felt recently that it's not very gratifying to answer questions when people don't even have the decency to reply and tell you if you've helped them or not.

plinkity-plunk * .02 cents worth

14 replies

by road-dog

I make a point of not attributing to malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity.

Personally, I don't really care about the points, but if the points are the currency of the realm, than the question posters should "pay up".

Maybe theanswer to the problem is that the quastion remains open for 30 days only. If responses are not acknowledged in that time, then the points promised go to the first respondent or are divided between all respondents.

I don't lose any sleep over this. My biggest gripe is the large numbers of technical issues submitted in the discussion forum.

I hate it when the "I hate the French" thread gets bounced off the hot topics list because of all those miscellaneous tech issues that belion in the tech section.

Kerplunk - Kerplunk, my $.02

by oldefar

Technical questions are being posted by the French to bump the "I hate the French" threads. This same group, a secret organization with roots back to Napolean, posts questions in the Technical Q&A that they then refuse to acknowledge when answered. Michael Moore is a long time member, having been recruited while in high school still drinking cheap domestic blends.

by jkaras

To me it's not the points, it's acknowledgment to determine the proper fix. I surf this site to learn, that's the primary purpose as well as assisting others resolve issues. There will be a multitude of answers posted where you have to guess what was the correct not knowing, where's the learning? Discussions one thing, but in the technical realm the object is to improve one's skill vs. strokin the 'ol ego. If you participate play the game correctly or go some where else.

by jellimonsta

I have noted the same thing myself and have not been spending much time in the Q & A section recently purely because of this fact.
What's up with the question's status being changed to 'Answered' as soon as you submit an answer but before the answer is rated?
I think TR should knee cap repeat offenders of this situation. :oP

by mallardtooxx

Nice useage of Knee Capping!!! God I love a good knee capping! Almost as much as windex.

Also I think the whole Q&A forum has gotten fouled up. We can blame that on the french though just because they are well, french.

-duck

by timwalsh

The conclusion I've come to is that there are a large group of people out there who want to get something for nothing, no matter what. It doesn't matter that the points don't cost money. They have received help for FREE.

I've broken the question posters on the Q&A site into 4 main groups:
1. Those who ask a question and never bother to rate any answers (or award points) and leave their questions open for ever. These are also usually questions that could have been answered if the the poster did a simple search on one of the many Internet search engines
2. Those who close a question and reject ALL answers (thus avoiding awarding any points), even though one or more answers are obviously correct). A subset of this group will actually comment that the answer helped but still reject it.
3. Those who properly award points and close their questions, but with no feedback
4. Those who properly award points and close their questions and do give feedback/thanks. A subset of this group will actually send you a personal email (if they can) to tell you how thankful they are for helping them out of a tough situation.

I will admit that there are probably a minor number of people in the first 2 groups whose behavior can be explained by simple ignorance of how this forum works.

For me, all it takes is a couple of people in the last category to make up for all the rude people in the first two categories.

For Jellimonsta: about the "Answered" status of a question - thisis basically just a Yes/No type of filter (either there has been an answer posted or not). There is no implication as to the "quality" of the posted answer. This filter is used so that a user can filter the types of question they wan to look at (i.e all questions, only questions that have answers posted, only questions that don't have posted answers). And no, TR doesn't do a good job of explaining that fine distinction.

by rdunn

I definitely agree with TheChas, JKaras and Tim here -

I should have stated that it's not the points, but the fact that I'm spending my own time to help out others (and learning along the way). I'd REALLY love to know if some of the info works in an environment besides my own!

I really would like to know what the heck the points are for - heck, if it's for nothing, then why don't we just change our values to something like what message boards do - - i.e. answer so many questions, you'rea "know-it-all" etc.

So, anyhoo - thanks for your responses, I would give you an 'Accepted' answer if I could.

Really, I would. No really. :)

by thamer

5th group ... Those whom for no obvious reasons tend to get selective with their ratings to the answers by rejecting someone's answer and accepting someone else's when both answers are almost identical.

I don't usually answer for the sake of gaining some techpoints ... Besides enjoying it, I consider the down ratings I recieve to the answers I provide ... an apportunity to update my knowledge.

But as per the case of those I described in the begining of this post ... it happend to me once ... and ...

... I would give ALL MY 15000+ TECHPOINTS to the requester if S/He ... just tell me why my answer got rejected ...

... Anything to take this "bug" out of my mind ... so it will stop generating me those painful reasons on ... why?

Reference to the question:
https://www.techrepublic.com/forumqa/thread_detail.jhtml?thread_id=121612

by thechas

I to answer questions, and get no response or feedback.

As of today, I have almost 1000 answers that have not been rated.
This is 20% of the answers I have given.

I take solace in the friends I have made from answering questions, and just continue on.

This topic has been debated several times over the past year. So, you are not alone.

As to the points, right now the only value is to use them to ask your own questions.

My advice:

Share your knowledge as often as you can.

Take personal satisfaction in your answers.

Ignore those few peers who do not rate answers.

Chas

by hal 9000

But the only question that I asked didn't elicit a responce that lead to a fix they only led me down blind allies that while being usefull to gaining knolledge where a waste of my time.

by davidandgoliath

Emails are automatically sent to users who have posted a question, the question has at least one answer, and the question is 30 days old. Another email is sent at 60 days. At 90 days the question is automatically closed by the system and the points are distributed evenly among the answers.

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