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Tech Q&A... We want it back!

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by wordmaster1

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Anyone listening????? Your site has been helpful in several ways, but the Tech Q&A and the points system was what made it worthwhile and different from other sites.

I guess I will check on it occaisionally to see if the Tech Q&A has been returned, but until that happens, this site might as well be any other forum site.

The Tech Q&A was helpful, stimulating, and gave recognition to those who helped. The current incarnation is just blahhhhhhh....

Wordmaster

30 replies

by shelli_2005

The Q&A may not have always answered my question exactly but it gave me a starting place or jogged my memory enough so I could find a solution for every "weird" problem I researched here.I miss it!

by fungus-among-us

"I guess I will check on it occaisionally to see if the Tech Q&A has been returned, "

I'm planning on doing the same... until then.
Adios!!!!

by smorty71

Questions haven't gone anywhere. They are just intermingled with the list of discussions.

We are working on splitting the lists out so that you can see only discussions or only questions. That should help visibility a lot.

As for recognition, we're not bringing the points back. Sure, they are a great way for people who answer questions to get recognition; however, they really didn't show an accurate picture of anything since the points varied from questions to question.

For example, I could answer 100 questions and get 1 point per answer and some else could answer 1 question and get 5,000 points.

In the new site, people who ask questions can mark an answer helpful (there is a link at the top right of each answer they receive). Helpful answers get a thumbs up icon next to them in the thread tree. We *are* counting the number of helpful answers and will eventually be displaying that on member profiles.

To us, that seems like a much more even playing field for those answering. Plus, people who need help right away don't have to hassle with points.

Hopefully, you'll stick around and give the new system a chance.

by wordmaster1

Discussion forums are all over the web and usenet. The one thing Techrepublic had that was different was the Tech Q&A.

Despite its problems, when I had a question that I could not answer and could find no answer for by googling, etc., there was almost always someone on the Tech Q&A that could help.

That is what made being a member of this site worthwhile, different and better than other sites and groups.

Wordmaster

by w2ktechman

My Opinion -- The tech Q&A should be seperate from the discussions. But, in the past many things have been interchangeable.
I have seen more and more often that people have been using the discussions for questions, and have received far greater troubleshooting tips in some cases, and often many more responses in general. But also often appeared a message to use the Q&A as well. And some have even used both to try to get the urgent answers.
The points system was kind of cool, but they really didnt mean anything either. Some people had a lot of points and when they answered questions it was a joke, while others were very good. However, even with that in mind, I think that the points was a recognition point that should not have gone away.

by cg it

When I first came to Techrepublic's Q&A there were many highly knowledgable people providing suggestions and answers. often the Q&A section ended up with a LOT of discussion on topics rather than suggestions or answers, especially when XP was rolled out and XP SP2. So creating a discussion section was a good idea.

BUT, the discussion section had more threads by members on everything but tech stuff [well the techrepublic crew would post tech related threads ] but the majority of members discussions seemed to me to be on anything but computer industry stuff.

Q&A seemed to dwindle down to posters making up senarios, making up questions based on what advertisers put up on the site, taking problem solutions from MS Help and Support or Technet and posting it as a question. There are others who post questions that are so fundamental that virtually anyone ought to know. There's one right now about whether they should get AV on a server that doesn't have an Internet connection. Of course they should have AV. Many threats come from inside but its questions like that from someone who has been a techrepublic member for 5 years or so ought to know. It's been discussed often enough.

to add insult to injury posters who posed the question often would reject any and all suggestions that didn't follow the KB solution or whatever solution they were looking for if they were actually looking for a solution. Got almost seemed to be a game.

I'm one of those posters who answered questions with a joke when I recognized the question from MS KB articles, certification test questions, Technet or questions of "lets see how much an answerer knows". Quilty as charged. However having someone purposely post questions from known KB answers or certification questions seems to me to defeat the purpose of Tech Q&A which is someone with a legitimate question can seek real world working solutions from those of us who have hands on experience.

All forums are fraught with posers and people with to much time on their hands and get glee from jerking peoples chains, but Tech Q&A degenerated into nothing more that what ifs rather than they got a actual problem.

Sorry to see the Tech Q&A from back in 2002 go down the tubes, but not sorry it's gone with the way it is now in 2007.

by w2ktechman

I used to only do the tech Q&A trying to help out. I liked it just fine the way it was, with the worthless points and all. Sorry if I came off wrong, I never did get to my coffee today, and just now got to Dilbert -- lol
Basically I was just stating that they have been interchangeable for some time, and lumping them together was not all bad. However, as a preference I would like to go back to the Q&A being seperate -- with useless points -- even if it means zeroing the counter.
I know what you mean by posers and stupid questions. I even got annoyed when the same question was posted as new by a different user, with an identical one still in the current listings. I always thought "Geez, people get a (bad word) Clue.
I have also found that many questions were easily solved by a google or simple MS search. When this was most common I started jumping over to discussions and reading threads instead. This is probably about whan many others started leaving the Q&A alone more often as well. However, I did like that they were seperate, and how they were setup.

by cg it

I agree on the seperation. In my mind, discussions are just that, discussing "something" be it global warming, political parties, or Grandma Whosits chocolate chip cookies. What I saw happen on Tech Q&A and Discussions forums was that the posers would often move over to discussions and try their hand at "discussing" senarios rather than posting questions because that's where everyone who was posting in Tech Q&A went to get away from the posers.

Bringing back Tech Q&A isn't going to solve the problems it had with posers. If they left off the ability to accept or reject an answer or even thumbs up thumbs down, then the Q&A might have meaning because the posers wouldn't have a mechanism to jerk peoples chains and get whatever they get out of doing it. Least in discussions they can argue and jerk someones chain.

by konza

I came here today to finally close a tech question I posted six months ago. No one ever was able to answer it.

I wanted to thank DKlippert for being the only one to ATTEMPT to answer it and to tell him I that while I rejected his answer, I wanted to post another question in which I WOULD accept his answer and thus award him consolation points for coming close to what I needed and taking the time to share his knowledge. Now I see that not only is the reward system gone, but I am out the 4000 points I offered but never awarded for the question. And that just plain sucks.

by pesk, mbcs, mcse, mcitp, sts

I thought I was the only one. I thought it was me. I couldn't see the link, but now I find like minded individuals in search of mental freedom who have the same views.

We want Tech Q&A! When do we want it? NOW!We want Tech Q&A! When do we want it? NOW!We want Tech Q&A! When do we want it? NOW!We want Tech Q&A! When do we want it? NOW!

by nexs

What are they on about... this Q&A seems to be the questions forum, with thumbs...

I've found a humble state of confusion...

by hal 9000

Back in th Bad Old Days TR used to have Tech Points. The person asking the question was given 1000 Tech Points for asking the question and they could award what they liked as Points that they handed out to people who answered the question.

Back then it was quite common for someone to ask a question and award 100 Tech Points so they increased their Own Tech Points by 900 every time that they asked a question.

Also as most didn't bother awarding the Points many questions answers went unrated so the person asking the question got to keep them all.

There where people like The Chas and Maxwell Edison who had lots of Tech Points hundreds of Thousands/millions in both cases if I remember correctly. Anyway the Tech Points where originally conceived so that you could cash them in for things which never eventuated so the only use of them was to award 100,000 Tech Points when you asked a question so you got a quick answer. I'm not sure if it even helped but because most people where abusing the system the concept was done away with and the Thumbs where awarded for helpful answers. It did away with the people asking questions featuring their own nests at the expense of others who where trying to help them.

Then of course there where the people who abused the system with with either a different account or a friend would post a question like ABC and award points for an answer of XYZ.

So we now have Thumbs which are still as useless as Tech Points but now I have lots of peoples thumbs in my freezer to stop them going off and smelling bad. It's costing me so much more than the Tech Points ever did. :D

Anyway hopefully this will clear things up Tech Points where stopped and Thumbs awarded in an attempt to get the people asking questions to rate the answers. You can see how well that worked can't you. But that was the idea and those that consisted of the TR Insiders back then seemed to think that it may improve things as Tech Points just where not working and many people where refusing to answer questions. :^0

Col

by jaqui

if I had gotten a Thumb for every point I would have over 300k thumbs. :D

by seanferd

I hung around here, on and off, a long time before I registered. Actually, I had been registered previously, then went a while without internet. So I do recall a bit of the Old Ways.

300k! Holy smokes.

by nexs

Ha!

That DOES sound pretty cool, but I suppose that there's less of an error margin now though, if people gave false questions for false answers...

Like that bastard who asks questions like "What do you change 'My Computer' to?", What an idiot!

by jaqui

to post a question it cost points.
to answer, if the question helped, then ONE person got the points.
[ if I remember right, the points couldn't be split between people answering easily if at all ]

I myself spent about 250k points on questions, and still had around 300k points in my account from answers given when they evaporated for thumbs. :D
I posted one question for 200k points.
The more points you spent on the question, the faster people got real answers posted. ;)

There were rumoured plans to have a shop on TR to buy swag using points earned, the motivator to collect lots of them.

edit to add:

and members like TheChas, BFilmFan and Maxwell Edison all had me beat for points, by a very large margin. TheChas and BFilmFan by well over a million points more, Max by around a million more.

The thumbs just don't carry the same weight as millions of points when thinking about how well the answerer knows their stuff. :D

by charliespencer

You grill them, like chicken wings.

Hey, PESK, there's another overhaul coming later this fall. Mark your calendar for late 2014 so you can comment on it.

by ansugisalas

Two or three of my thumbs are for informing people how to give thumbs! :D
That's 22-33% of the total, man.

by hal 9000

I can't eat the flesh of animals. OK so they come from Humans but they are still from animals sort of. ;)

Regarding the supposed TR Redesign for this year Pally it appears to be underway right now. There have been several minor changes to the Site that appear and the E-Mail Notifications are totally messed up. I'm currently getting notifications for up to 3 days for each post that I make. Makes the E-Mails from TR very long and I get confused. :D

And AnsuGisalas supposedly TR had plans to setup a Shop which sold things useful to us IT types that we could buy. Or so I believe. Anyway it never happened and as I have enough problems with [b]SWMBO[/b] why in Gods name would I want more Wives?

OK I know I'm part way crazy but not even I'm that bad to want more than 1 wife. At times I don't even want that many but I've been reliably informed killing the Misses isn't an Acceptable Practice by the Law Enforcement Agencies. Even if I've suffered many more years of Marriage than I would have got for murder. I suppose any murder [i]deletion of the wife[/i] starts from when she gets deleted and the Sentence would start from then. Hardly worth the trouble after way too many years of marriage. :(

by ansugisalas

No, I don't mean that as an insult... but if you bring enough kit with you, you'll be pretty comfortable. And you'll be lost, until found... and that's only if they can catch you. A reprieve, at the very least :)

by nexs

Sounds interesting. But the flaw i can see is that it may not be only one answer that solves the problem.

So, let me get this - You sport up some of your points to bump the prize for having your problem solved?
What if you're a 'N00b' and have no points?

by pesk, mbcs, mcse, mcitp, sts

...So, so cruel...

www.futureme.org

@HAL

I have no words. Deletion of another human being is something that is to be frowned upon and should be reqarded with a very severe finger-wagging! You should be ashamed to even harbour such thoughts of malice against your.... Oh, heck! What am I saying? Delete the b1tch!

NII - No insult intended.

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