405 Open Questions at This Time?

For all of you wanting to reply, but fearing a rejection, fear not. I will accept only one response and not rate the others.

You are absolutely correct. It is very ludicrous to keep all these questions open. And we have all seen the questions that have received correct or acceptable answeres and the poster never returned to award points or close the question. But I think more and more people outside the IT field are coming here to get answeres to their problems but a lot of them are hit and runs. Get a quick answer and see ya later.
But for those of us who use this site regularly are more considerate and professional and realize the urgency of eticate here. A good idea would be for TechRepublic to put a notice at the top of the page here maybe to make all take notice.
But still, you and I both realize how important it is to allow all to use this site to help themselves but,LET'S ALL BE CONSIDERATE!

I have no open questions, so I cannot close, award, and move on. Actually, I haven't posted a single question. Not because I'm so smart, but when I do post one, it will be a difficult question that I really need an answer to!
I believe that your point is well made and hopefully those you are aiming at will understand what needs to be done.
I believe that most of the open questions are still open because of simple indifference. Many people just couldn't get around to closing thequestion because it just didn't seem that important to them. There not bad people, just a bit lazy.
Additionally, I believe that there are some out there who asked for an answer, got a valid answer or answers, but for some reason don't want toadmit that the problem was solved. Possibly, they value their TechPoints too highly and have difficulty parting with them. Another possibility is they are ashamed the answer was so easy and don't want to "pay" for it. Whatever the reason, they need to get over it!
I just started answering questions last month. I've answered about a hundred so far. Acceptance feels good...Rejection hurts a little, especially when you did your best to provide a clearly-written answer. I also feel a bitlow when another poster provides a really good answer after mine missed the mark a bit. But, it's all in the name of sharing and helping one another. I've been in the computer industry for a long time, and I am amazed at things I learn from reading others' questions and the answers posted. It is very beneficial.

This site will attract all kinds and lately it has been attracting those that only what they need at that time and after using other sites they forget where they have been to seek answers,not to say thsi is the case for all.Some postings come from those that think that they are doing you a favor,by letting you help them,and donot think the answer deserves points.
Please donot take this forum to personnal.
As far as the points total go some make think that you are compromising by helping a friend gain points and this could certainly damage the integrity of the forum.
You have provided great support and I would like to see you hang around.This question could best been posted as a discussion.
The other part is that TechRepublic noew has asystem to close quesions that have been posted for a length of time with no activity and will close the question and reward points to those that have provided suitable answers.
Hang in there!!!

Soulrider! I was writing this up, then I saw you had posted.

If I may, I would like to comment here. (First, there's 405 open questions in the Windows 95/98 topic only. Okay, now 406 counting yours. There are 9152 overall.)

This is not a new problem. Here are two discussions on the subject that span almost a year:

(Oh ya, you know to delete the spaces from the links you copy and paste from here, right?)

https://www.techrepublic.com/forumdiscuss/thread_detail.jhtml?thread_id=18824

https://www.techrepublic.com/forumdiscuss/thread_detail.jhtml?thread_id=51484

Here's a comment I got in an email earlier today from soulrider (hope you don't mind if I quote you, buddy) "... age old problem is still there that you provide a answer and its gets rejected".

Dukey, you make a good point. (And keep yours, by the way. They're redeemeable for big prizes!!!) kmerrillt and dan, well spoken.

The problem is, Q&A is unmoderated. If you want to see a moderated site, go to Experts Exchange?, The Knowledge Sharing Company?, www.experts-exchange.com (see below, the link is there.) And they're not all happy there either, but they have a place to b**ch.

I've considered suggesting to TR that they have moderators here. Then I thought, "But who? Me?" Even if I had the time, do I want the responsibility?

But that's the only way it would work. If there are others who would be interested, maybe we could sell them on it. I have found The Powers That Be to be much more responsive than in the past.

Anyway, despite all the frustration we share, here's what sums it up, for me anyway, from dan: "I've been in the computer industry for a long time, and I am amazed at things I learn from reading others' questions and the answers posted. It is very beneficial."

Ditto.

That is a good question... Have you read some of these questions? I like a forum of professionals asking for other professionals advice as much as the next professional. But some of these questions are being asked by people who are not really in this profession. 50 percent of these questions could be answered from Technet.. either via subscription or using the online "FREE" version... all you have to know is how to word a query. I try to answer questions posed from others who have run into a glitch/bug etc.. that you just can't EASILY find answers to. If the people asking the the easy questions would take the TIME to research the problem they would LEARN more. Depending on experts to hand them the answer on a silver platter doesn't make them any better at their jobs.

I too have noticed that when I post answers there is rarely even the notice that the help offered has been rejected. I also think that many of the questions I see being posted in my areas of expertise reflect people who are working out of their depth.

I cannot teach long-distance on the basis of just a question--for that you need to pay for and take a class yourself! Just because something *can* be done does not mean someone who knows how can explain it in 300 words or less to someone without any background to understand the help offered.

The community representated by TechRepublic has gotten much bigger in numbers, but the depth that was here in the first 1-24 months is spread very thin now.

I still participate in Q&A, even though it often seems unappreciated, because I have been helped by others in the TechRepublic community, and want to share what I to give with those that ask for help. I also learn a great deal by reading what others have posted and the answers they have received.

Every point I have has been earned the hard way! :)

Various reasons, above pretty much covers. I don't mind them being open. TechRepublic will come along and close in 3-4 months, award points equally to those that posted. Would like to see such points and answers go to a different totalling category just te keep seperate.

Would rather see those that reject give a reason. If it didn't help, would be nice to know what/why/etc.

I think many are reluctent to close because they see points as $ (but don't remember they get 50 per login and additional for other 'stuff').

Have read several "... don't answer because this user always rejects ...".

I think many don't know how to play by the rules or don't care to play by the rules (or both), but ...

Hi all

I have a suggestion why not us how answer the quistion give the person how asked the question the points. since we are getting problem to be solved free.We are learning and searching to help our self with there probles.So we should thanks them ??//
The worst ones (but i do not care since other look at the soloution and learn) who gets the answer then waits tuill before closed BY TR then close it rejecting good answers.The other is the one you give but rejected by comment then you give answer then reject ... so on you think that person did not understand then says your answer in another way.

Hey all pros do not give up this fun and intristing profisional site keep the good work were a small bad pepole tryed to damage
this and other good sites.

Note:
There are person who send me e-mail to thank me for helping then that was touching my hart.Some wrote nice comment for those popel and other nice pole like you we will be strong and keep the good work.
May God help us all.

*** i hve been in this since old mainframe i am meeting pople who try even make fun and try even to prove that the know more but the funny thing is that the come and ask for help again.
AND these who thank you and simle in your face and help who were they can even tell your boos how you help them.

Well source which tels you that there is sweet.

good luck all

Mohamed

Yes, I have come up a dream : a powerful search for solution to problems.
A very good database of questions solved(better than the Microsoft knowledge base) which can be searched with ease.

1) But first a re-arrangment of the questions and solutions may be needed.
If they can be classified across to platform, software / hardware related and some other details.

2) The ones who give accept answers can get more points if their solutions have helped some others who search this database.3) Besides, a better expert system on solving the problems can be established by lots of solution collected here.

4) But I have found that some don't participate. Some good stuff may be needed to encourage the participation. For example, the higher the techpoints, the more special gifts (e.g. reports or...) can be collected.

Oh, I missed where you said "The most funny, and at the same time hostile, response will get all of my points."

I don't want yo points, sucka! Keep yo points, turn 'em in for big prizes. TR says so!

"In the future you'll be able to trade 'em for cool merchandise from our partners. Because of tax implications it'll be limited to $600 per year."

I hear the next move is to make 'em redeemable for REAL ESTATE! Prime Florida swam... uh, vacation land!

I'm gonna post a question and not rate it just to spite you! Besides, most of your answers get rejected anyway! (How'm I doin' on the hostile part?)

Okay, sucka, my birfday is August 8th. Gimme the points!

;->

I think Techrepublic could simply institute a series of nagging messeges to users that have left questions open. such as when they log on

"Dear user, You have 7.5 million open question, please begin closing answered questions or all other memebers will owe you a quick slap upside the head, while memebers you are still waiting for you rate their responses, will owe you a proper beat-down."

Then there are the people that simply reject all answers so they don't have to award the point, I mean talk about greedy, these people horde points like Microsoft hordes money. Seriously, a complete stranger helps you out and you don't even have the courtesy to award hime some measly points for it; so he could possibly get help some day. Do these people go to parties and brag about how many Techrepublic points they have, are we dealing with some sort of point envy?

Come on they guy who helped you fix your NT 4 installation may like to have some points so he can post a question about his Exchnage Server that eats up all available RAM until it crashes the server, then users start complaing how "I can't check the personal e-mail I was sending with the 3.5 Gigs of attachments, all riddled with Viruses that I opened even though you warned me not to" (not that I'm bitter). Anyway where was I? Oh right! Points.

I think if you have an open question, and someone is answering it, be kind an award your free points, if you don't I'm sure some vendor will gladly answer your question after putting you on hold for an hour and charge you $99.99 per minute. Basically people are helping you for free, so be kind! And award the point to the people that have them comming.

Best damn method I can think of is to institute massive electrical shocks through the keyboard via e-mail!!! Teach them b*st*rds not to mess around with the system. I'm sure we could do it via some kind of attachment that they would blindly open. Start off small - say 10 volts on the first one, then increase the voltage every day until they close the damn thing and award the points!!!! I think it would be great fun to be a fly on the wall in those offices where the person gets up to a couple thousand volts....

I agree with you about people posting questions and then not rating them, or even posting a response to the answers they are given. I still have 20 unrated questions outstanding. My other beef is about those out there that close their questions without awarding points to any of the respondents and then saying how they solved the problem. I am fairly new to IT, so it is reassuring to know that I have been able to help someone out there with a problem. TR has been a great help to me with the articles and drill downs, but the Q&A is about everyday problems which can effect all of us. If I don't know an answer (very often) then I will subscribe to the question just if I think it may be relevent to my position. I don't necessarilary answer questions for the points (although they do help) I answer the questions because I think I know the answer and I want to help someone. I know that there are people out there that will help me when I need it. This is a two way thing, if you want help, be prepared to offer help,award the points when help is given and close your questions with a few words of thanks to those that have helped you.

Good points, all! I, for one, don't really mind it getting cluttered, but I suspect that really important questions aren't being addressed because they're being buried by later stuff. As the questions stack up, it's too much trouble to shuffle through them all, so the older ones fall into limbo.

I spend a lot of time answering, and rarely ask a question. But when I do, I really need help! In this biz, even a week's delay in finding an answer can be critical, and I've found that getting aresponse is unlikely if someone doesn't respond within a few hours.

Maybe we need a "day old" site, where stale entries are filed separately from the active questions. After a week of inactivity, the question would be moved out of the main site, and the author notified. Quite a few I've seen lingering, too, are written so badly that I can't even comprehend the question - this might be a good way to inform the author that a rewrite is in order.

My favorite thing about this forum is the imense amount of babble people DO receive as answers for questions. I have found some of the FUNNIEST things people think are the correct solutions. Additionally, I scincerely appreciate the many questionsI have either answered in a correct manner or being the only person to answer the question and not receive any points because the user decides to close the question. Its no wonder that the babbling people have so many techpoints when none of their answers make sense. This site is a really nice thought, but I've yet to see it be beneficial to everyone. I know people who avoid this place because they think everyone on here are idiots (guess I'm one too then). Who knows what would happen if interation were to happen on an intellectual level here.

Phew.
640k

While the unrated and unanswered ones are a pain, what really gets me is the "i know you won't rate this answer and time will expire it, I thought I'd just grab some points" posts to high point value questions. Interesting to notice that some of them are posted by people who were very active in the discussions ASyscoKid mentioned. Seems like people have decided "if you can't beat em, join em."

Yes, all of the open questions with answers should be closed and everyone agrees that you should give me your points!!!! Have a nice day.

The question doesn't encourage me to close my questions because I don't have any open questions . Secondly I doubt that you are going to close this question and award points on the 5th of August 2001 .

Also just an observation .... How did you manage to accumulate 38865 points if people are not closing questions and awarding points . ( Time expired I guess )

Another observation ... The points cannot be redeemed for anything else except asking questions . So whenever the points will becomeredeemable into products , there will be more disincentive to leave the questions open and eventually cancel them . ( Let there be penalty for not closing a question whithin a time limit ) .

Finally, a brief opportunity to vent! I totally agree with your point. I would like to add a couple more peeves of mine.

1) When you post a question, how about describing the problem? Those of us who are professionals and wish to exercise our minds and thereby increase our knowledge could help alot more with a more detailed question than "I have Windows 2000 and my users are denied access" or "I am trying to setup VPN and it won't work". C'mon, throw us a bone here!

2) Who are these wingnuts answering legitimate questions with Microsoft slurs or stupid answers like "Wave your wand over it twice"? These people are here for help and these types are making us look like a bunch of fools! One questioner asking a simple question about setting up VPN responded best:

From: pxttocyob@msn.com
Date: 07/15/01 12:23 AM EDT
Status: Rejected
Points: 0

This is a very complicated software.
Shouldn't it be easy?

From chris@chrislouth.com on 07/15/01 10:58 AM EDT: Answers like this are ridiculous. Does your mommy know you're playing with her computer, little girl?

Or his other response, which had me rolling on the floor:

From: garyd@sbcsolutions.com
Date: 07/16/01 10:16 AM EDT
Status: Rejected
Points: 0

Yes, it can work.

From chris@chrislouth.com on 07/18/01 02:18 AM EDT: So does Aspirin, but that doesn't help much here. Go play with a ball.

Fuck ur Post! umm Hostile enuf?

Close the door, close the door,
We already gave you the Tech Republic answer you've been waiting for.
We had so many answers to give too,
And we gave them all to you.

Close the door,
No need to worry no more,
Let's bring this topic to an endfor heaven's sake,
Or your fingers we may have to break.

We've waited all month long just to have you acknowledge the solution,
Now it seems you started a backlog revolution.

Close the door techie!
And let us know you're fine,
Plenty goodanswers posted time after time.

It's easy to solve with the help of a simple program that will automatically close open questions after eg 2 or 4 weeks of inactivity with, say 1 week e-mail notification. Appeals of any kind seems not to be very useful :(
Regards.

I am the one with the smartass responses to 'wingnut' answers.

Every time I see one of those I can't help but think of what the respondant does for a living, and how they help their clients. Is this the type of tech that is becoming more prevalent these days? We have so many people with less than two years of technician experience who know just enough to be annoying... It's almost enough to make me swig a case or 3 of Jolt and go on a twitching, spastic rampage against idiocy.

While it might make me feel better, it probably wouldn't solve anything.

As I see it there are two main problems: First, many technicians are too young to have much maturity. These are the highschool children who have played with computers for several years but have no community experience.

Second, adult technicians who are secure in their comfort zones but don't recognize their boundaries. This changes with time, just as much as any other lack of knowledge.

What I'm saying is that we are surrounded by children here - treat them like children who need to be educated and not insulted. You don't usually end up here unless you have at least a reasonable intelligence, and to me that by itself deserves assistance. Besides, the kid you help may be your boss one day.

I could just use the points to keep from falling out of the Top 5 Scorers.
:)
To bad you weren't able to post all 38k points. That could move me closer to Soulrider and ASyscoKid.

How bout them apples!

I, for one have been on vacation and just haven't got around to catching up on my E-mail and do appologize....gnelso48@home.com

I have read with interest the 'answers' posted above and can agree with many of the points made. However, one area I would take issue with is some contributor's decrying of the occasional question which is not perfectly formed Anglo-Saxon English. This is a world site and as such we should welcome contributors from wherever, regardless of whether they have an intimate knowledge of English nuances. I appreciate that occasionally some of the questions are virtually (excuse the pun) impossible to decipher, but at least let's give the contributor the courtesy of seeking some further explanation.

That's it - my rant for the day.

Just think, you could give me all your points, go on holiday and relax in the fact that I will post a question with 9000 points and never close it.

Ofcourse I will post my address with this, inviting people to beat me with a 9 pound meat hammer.

I do agree with you as of everyone here does too. I was in the same issue, of answering a few questions, and it took 3 months for the person to finally close the question. I use this feature alot with asking and answering questions. I think it is a great Opportunity to give your knowledge and receive some too. I hope you have a great vacation, love to hear where you are going or what you are doing. Hope to hear from you before 8/5/01. Thanks Leah

You know, I have been going around posting comments on almost year old posts. The comment wrote that if the question has been answered please close this column, if your request has not been answered please re-post it with updated information... Hopefully it will clear some up!

Has your question been answered? If so please close your forum, if your question is still open please repost it with more current information. Thank you.

You expext people to close their questions when they don't even bother to patch their systems to prevent attacks (a-la the 300,000 servers that were infected by Code Red)?

Oh well, just my 2 cents on a subject that will not go away.

Hi Dukey01,
Maybe TR could help with a pro-forma set out for questions which have certain fields filled in before a question is accepted.
As a relative newbie myself on the site, I would like to think that my limited knowledge can help someone. Asfor the points I did not realise that some people took it as a challenge to amass the highest totals,now that is sick.
Goodluck in handing out the points and enjoy your holiday :-)

Who said they were doing this for the points? It's the fame and glory we are all after.

And the satisfaction. Here are a sample of the actual comments I've gotten. (Yes, I save 'em. Feels good to re-read 'em after a bunch of rejections).

"Just what I needed, I just didnt have time to search for the key. Thanks for your effort."
"Thank you very much for this solution. It was exactly what I was looking for and it worked."

"Great! Never would have figured it out. Thanks."

"Thank you very much for your quick response to this question. You were a life saver! This worked and I also passed this tip on to others."

"Thanks AsyscoKid, that worked brilliantly, thanks again"

"Geeze,... thank you so much for the info. It worked like a charm!! You also beat out a few people with your efforts. Enjoy the points, and thanks a million!!"

"Thanks, you're an angel. It worked."

"Great! You are my savior...thanks a zillion..."

And my personal favorite:

"asyscokid is a god"

To sum it all up...

'Twas the night before Christmas, and my spouse was in bed,

So I checked TechRepublic and this is what it said:

My servers all crashed, and hotfixes don't work

So please help me out, cuz my boss is a jerk.

And if I don't fix it, there'll be hell to pay,

I'll definitely need to update my old resume.

So here's my dilemma... all my servers are dead!

I've kicked them and slapped them, and I painted one red.

On the screen that appears it's all blue, with white text

With nothing but gibberish, no steps to try next.

It does say some things about a dump and a kernel,

But I've fed it no corn, and it's far from the urinal.

What i learned in my class was to reboot the box.

And if that doesn't work then to beat it with rocks.

Well, nothing has worked, and I am in tears,

So I sat down to post this over a couple of beers.

And now here I am, asking you for advice,

So please do your best, and try to be nice.

Ifyou bail me out this time, I'll try to give back.

I'll answer some questions (like "What is whack whack?")

I'll be thankful and grateful, I promise! You'll see!

Just give me a chance. Just get to know me.

And for all of your trouble, and for not making me wait,

I'll give you 50 whole points! Wow, isn't that great!

So you say I don't "get it" and that I'm not mentally "OK"...

But the geek in you answers, and I get my way!

Not that it matters... I won't ever check back

Cuz, I'm like all the others, who just don't know jack!

Here's your 50 points!

This site has a top 5 scorers list how about a top 5 list for @#*&() who don't award any points for answers. then we will know the people who not to waste our time on

Because they (questioners) forgot to bookmark the site and are wandering aimlessly through cyberspace in tragic need of memory upgrades :-)

Hi,

As I've read some one's answer " I've made points 'cause when I'll ask a question I will be really hard to answer". Shareing know how with all of us who join TR together is realy great. No matter if the question is hard or easy, or if one's idea of the solution is not rated, we all know that we will not have all our answers rated. But here we are building TR together, and trying to make it better. So to all of us !

TechRepublic go Bragh !
Slanite !

How dare you demand that people close their open questions. The questions are their's and they can stay open if the owner pleases. Are you some all-powerful dictator who can demand that they be closed because YOU think that the open questions violate what YOU think the whole point of this website is? Your attitude is absolutely appauling. Their choice to leave their questions open is protected as freedom of speech and an attempt at closing them would violate basic human rights. Noone, and especially not YOU, has the right to demand their closure.

Confucius says "People who ask technical questions, often very confused heads"

Pleas keep this question open for a while... I never had as much ratings as in the last few days ;-)

By the way, careful with one's statistics: Dukey looks pretty bad on the unrated answers right now ;-)

Jim

This is an easy one. People are trying to see if Techrepublic works the same way as Windows...keep opening apps (questions) and see how long it takes to 'crash' the system! Even if all the answered questions are closed, will Techrepublic hand back all the resources to the system or will it suffer from memory leak?!!

Just one point. I answer questions on a frequent basis. Some answers I see from other people to the same question are pure guesses or show a complete lack of knowledge in their field. I only answer questions if I KNOW I have a working solution. That is, I have had the same problem and have tried the cure. How many times have I seen a common hardware/driver problem and some goober has answered saying "it's a virus" or "deleteyour registry". If you're gonna answer a question, please give a true answer based on experiance and not a guess! Look at any question with 4 or more answers and see how different (and often wrong!) they all are.

Perhaps Techrepublic needs it's own 'resource meter'....and automatically kick off people who do not return to their questions and rate peoples answers!

Why? Why not? Both those questions have been tried to be answered in the other answers...

However, I do think that some of the users who keep the questions open are "points hunters" who are afraid to give up their points, but they do have a real question to ask. Some others just simply forget they posted something or they do not check the site...

The reality? Noone knows... I've even saw several questions posted by... "Account deleted"... in this case what is the point to answer the questions? Who will close them? They will raise back from the death and rate/close those questions?

On the other hand... everyone has the right to have his/her own oppinion... I've saw lots of them in the other answers... That confirms my oppinion: many users of this site are "points hunters"... and I am one of those too... If this is bad, though luck, I like it!
You sure did a good job attracting over 40 answers to one question in a short time... And if you ask me, YOU are the nasty one simply by posting this question, so YOU should get the points...

'Scuse me, I gotta log out and log back in so's I get my 50 daily points.

I have some bad news. I e-mailed TR and asked what would happen if I accepted only one answer and left the others unrated. Well, TR is gonna paste every unrated answer with a rejection. So, start sending them e-mails complaining about that. I think I know the argument they'll make but if they get enough pressure they may change the policy.

Dukey,
There are people like paul cortens who take a year to research the question and provide an answer. If you take away his year old questions what will this lamer of a tech have ti live for. *Please Review Answer #39*

Perhaps a time limit on open questions could be imposed. Say 60 or 90 days. Maybe a few email warnings to the question writer. Then automatic closing the questions awarding the point across the answers. Also being able to allocate points according to the answer would be nice. I also found so people closing their question awarding no points ( With valid answers) :(

Richard Bolha

Why not just share the points with everyone on this list. You were already going to give the points to one person, and it is such a substantial amount of points that everyone will receive a fair share.

...its just the right thing to do man...

This is for answer #41. All of my unrated answers are from this post. Those unrated answers will all be gone August 5.

405 open questions is nothing, actually around 9100. They do not automatically close in 2-3 months either, there are questions with no activity going back to last Sept.

Some people are just lost, others are complete bums. Look at some of thethings user deleted has been doing. Multiple profiles so he/she can pass points onto the user deleted profile, so he/she can look like they know something. 280 questions asked, 560 answers and not ONE has been rated. Unbelievable. I certainly do notaccept every answer, but at least I let people know one way or the other.

Don

You got a lotta gaul there "Dukey01" (if that is your 'real' alias!?!)! You and your "10K" club. Trying to tempt us all with your 9000 points.

We're on to you buddy boy! You're gonna "Reject" everybody, that is, if you bother to get around to even closing this question.

Fact of the matter is, your question comes straight out of Microsloth Certifiable training. Exam 407-2b(i), if I'm not mistaken. You're just posting this question so you can plagarise all of our collected wisdom, get your Green Card, and take jobs away from "real Americans".

You're the worst kind of scum, bud! And you won't catch me posting a reply to your question!

=============================================

if i actually got a freaking answer that ACTUALLY worked, i would close my questions out and be done with it. are the people who answer my questions employees of microsoft or something? or is it just bill gates answering my questions? if that is the case i think i will become a unix admin. Lord knows it can't get any worse!

i would go and look through microsoft's knowledge base but trying to find any answers is nearly impossible because you have to use extremely technical words. if you use layman's terms you get a freaking crapload of answers to things you didnt even ask for. if i could go thru 30 billion answers in an eight hour day i would be THE SPEED READING GURU OF ALL TIME! so please spare me "if you had tried researching microsoft's site crap" i dont need it. just intelligent answers to my problems that actually work.

As a system administrator, I see that people not cleaning up after themselves in this forum is no different than people cleaning up their disks/directories, cleaning up their mail, cleaning up their code, etc.. It's just that people take the easiest way and they're getting just what they need and then they leave the remains behind. I can't understand or relate, but some people do this. It takes some amount of pain for many people to change. So, what happens is administrators figure out waysof forcing things to happen to clean things up. I'm not sure why people behave as they do, the only person I know who truly understands how people think - and why they don't clean up after their postings is God - please ask Him, he always tells thetruth.

Being a help desk/tech support person, I know the answer to your question. It's the same simple answer to almost all questions concerning end-users and computers - "Because they're morons."
Depending on your mood, or perhaps the scope of the problematic question, substitute the appropriate name(s) for the "they" - in this case, it is respectively, TechRebulic, the posters, and those of us who take all this a bit too seriously.

Thanks for posting this. I have been ticked off a bit myself that I have posted answers to questions, and they have never been closed. I understand that I might not have the right answer, but someone took the time to ask a question. I took my time (which is valuable to me, if no one else) to try to answer the question. I think that the least that is deserved is a reply on whether the answer I gave helped.

I would like to think that the one time I posted a question, I did it right. I posted a question. I received an answer that did not solved my problem. In the meantime, I found the answer through other means. I rejected the answer that was given since it didn't solve the problem. I then posted the answer that someone on my desktop teamtold me to the question and closed the question. I thanked the person for trying to help me. A little courtesy doesn't take very long and maybe he/she will try to help me next time.

Unfortunately there are a lot of bozos out there that think theycan get something for nothing. IS Geeks are like most people, we like to help people and we like to show off our knowledge. That means we will occassionally be taken advantage of.

My two cents: A major part of this can be solved by TR directly and programatically.

If a question has an answer and the poster does not visit it in one week then TR automatically sends a reminder. If the poster doesn't visit after the second notice (at week three) then at one month the question is closed automatically and the user's account is closed.

Then close the deadbeat's account since we don't need dead weight here. (Who gives a shit if there are 1.9 million subscribers if 1.8 million only showed up once!)

If the poster returns to read the question then prompt them to close it. If they choose to keep it open then start then remind them each week that the question is still open without recieving new answers. In other words,don't let them forget that they have a question open. If they get tired of being reminded and cancel the membership all the better--one less deadbeat. Award the points for their open questions and cancel the account!

Of course TR doesn't want to do that since it would affect their advertising revenue. However I have a different point of view... If they improve the quality of the subscription base then they can sell advertising based on the fact the remaining users really do come back, and over a longer period of time.

Seems that open answered questions that have not been accepted diminish the quality of remaining open questions in the group. Why not indicate to all posters that 30 days after receiving the last answer that received or not the question goes to a new thread. The thread could be called open questions in limbo. This way the open question forum would be kept current.

Also at the time when the question moves to the limbo thread those that answered or attempted to answer would be awarded thenumber of points available divided by the number of answerers. Fair and equitable albeit possibly unpopular with the poster. We all apparently have the right to withdraw or accept... so this solution shouldn't put anyone in a situation that they could not have avoided.

(Hey Dukey, you have to accept my answer now or I'll get about 6 rejections on my record!)

Earth to about half the posters here! Come in!

TR DOES send reminders. TR DOES autoclose questions and distribute points. Why there are open questions over 3 months old is a mystery to me, though. I think q's with only one answer don't get autoclosed, but I can't 'splain the rest.

Check this out (you know the deal about deleting spaces, right?):

www.techrepublic.com/forumdiscuss/printer_friendly.jhtml?thread_id=18824

3. Situation addressed
Joshua 57
9/11/00

One of the new features at TechRepublic addresses this issue. A rather complicated algorithm is in place but a close approximation would be to say a reminder is sent to the questions author 30 days after an answer is posted. If the author takes no action another reminder is sent after 30 days. If after another 30 days the question has still not received attention from the author it is closed and points are distributed evenly to those that provided answers. In summary: A reminder is sent at 30 days, another at 60 days and the question is closed at 90 days when points are distributed.

This is for Don Christner #48. I think "user deleted" is a bug in TR's software. I've posted answers to questions, while logged on as myself, and the answer showed up as coming from "user deleted."

Why so many open questions? You can?t be referring to me. I am the best there ever was. I know 173 programming languages. I?ve written 47 books on computer technology. I only program in assembly. I invented the CPU, the floppy drive, the Altair, andUSB ports. I can build a PC out of grass clipping and yard waste. My home network uses only Amiga computers. I have lunch with Bill Gates. I wrote Oracle for Larry Ellison. I create all the viruses, and write all the software to fix them. I write every article in PC Magazine. I?ve worked at Compaq, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, CA, and Novell. And that was before I was 12. So when I post question, it?s for my own amusement. I already know the answer. I just want to see the lot of you bumble around. You couldn?t possibly understand the complexity of my question, so how could you hope to answer it? Therefore, it?s not really necessary to rate any question since I rarely bother to read them. When I do read them, it?s just so Bill G. and I get a goodchuckle, I always reject them. I don?t really need you simplistic answers. Surely you don?t believe you?re worthy of MY points? What an ego you must have. On the other hand, my answers are always on track and absolutely correct. Any dolt that rejects my answers should go back to their previous job at the French Fry machine. Clearly they have no concept of computer technology.

For me it is simple. The answer to some questions are NOT CORRECT for the solution they provide doesn't work or it is for the wrong OS, etc. Just because they answered it, doesn't mean it works and thus it is still OPEN to us. If they simply tested the solution before posting it... I will award points when the question has been answered.

Many of the above posts are valid. But I think that just like we have to live with people who drive slow in the fast lane on the freeway, we have to put up with people who will abuse any system that comes along.

In the end the only effective way to solve this dilemma is to simply have TR remove inactive posts after a certain time period.

Even if penalties were imposed by TR it would not solve the problem. After all is said and done, we still have convicts and boy scouts out on the highways everyday cleaning up trash from people who are too lazy to clean up after themselves.

It will not be any different here.

The majority of my answers have never been rated. I suppose most never will be, but that does not preclude my tring to answer when I know the answer. I am participating so that I can learn how be better. If I extend a helping hand along that way that is refused... Well... so be it.

THAT"S IT!
I just checked up on an answer I responded to weeks ago, but was never closed; well it's closed now and my answer is rejected!! What the heck i got an e-mail from the guy thanking me for all my help and that it worked great, but my answer still gets rejected!!!!!! ARGH!!!!

That's it! it's time to release the super-Virus that will destroy the world. I causes all computers to run so slowly they need $1,000+ in upgrades, It causes no application to be able to run, it makes yourdesktop ugly by default and You'll never find drivers for anything again!!! I'll call it "Windows XP" ahahahahahahaha!

It was only 150 points?!?! like it would've killed the mouth-breathing troglodyte to give them up?!!

It must be a form of ADD...They get their answer, but can't stay focused long enough to delete the question.

It turns out they did let me modify it.

I personally answer questions as much as anything to keep my hand in on the wierdier problems we all face. I read many more than I answer, but having been in this business a long time, I can can answer in a lot of areas. The points are how you keep score - more an ego boost than anything important.

At this point, I have answered 105 questions that are still open (17%).

I can see where dukey01 has a valid complaint -- 93% unrated??? Only about 50 are from this question.

Tony and I seemto be fighting it out for the end of the top five list. How about a hyperlink to a top 100? Or, for that matter, anyone over 5K for answers. By the way, for those who may not know, the number there is points answering questions, not total points.As much as I sympathize with the suggestion for a list of people who respond with, "That exactly solved the problem!" and then close the question without awarding points, it would just make trouble. Can you see someone suing TR to take them off the a**hole list? (Besides, they will just sign up with a different name.) Shine them on -- life is too short.

The bigger pain is the guy who looked up my profile, hit our web site, then emailed my CIO offering programming services. I may have to unpublish my profile...

As far as old questions are concerned, I read all topics from current until I get to stuff I have seen. Sometimes I miss some -- I only saw this one because it was in the top 5 list. What I would like to see is TR putting a "I need this by" field on the question-asking screen. That way you don't bother answering a question for someone who is not coming back, and TR can auto-expire questions.

Keep smiling.

Dukey you are running off and nothing can stop the flow,but it is getting to be fun in this game of interacting.
Have you thought of going into to business for your self you are good at marketing your services.
Some of the things you request for cannot be posted,or you will be terminated.
Give the poins to yourself and that way you can join the fab five.HA! HA!
This answer has been rated ??????

reply-will not
rejection-character
fear-defect
How did you know me so well

Okay, as it has already been said,there are a lot dingalings on here who do not have a clue e.g., trying setup a W2K server as a BDC in NT 4.0 domain???? Good fricking grief!

So maybe they are not smart enough to check the little box under the posts that says "notify me when I get an answer" and so they never are notified and they forget about the post.

Of course if they ask a stupid enough question than nobody answers them and they don't get notified anyway!

Okay, I here ya, no suchthing as a stupid questions..geez come on, read some of these!

Okay, and there is dummies like me who do occasionally forget to close the posts. Guilty as charged!

Somebody threw me a bone so I thought I'd add it to the pot.

I would suspect that since Techrepublic is NT/Win2k based, they are required to spend soooooo much time patching and administering, that there is no time, money, or personnel man hours left for moderating effectively. Perhaps they need to contact Microsoft for effective technical support.
Hey, it's a bargain at $50,000......

Point value changed by question poster. More bones for the pot.

Hi their,

all things are written down here, but one thing i want to point is: Many Questions are asked several times, i anwsered questions with the same text i written weeks ago. Like the poster of the question is not be able to search this hugheDatabase of information. Wouldn't it be nice to have an separate place for those, to search the given anwsers to similar questions ? This would be better for us, it's very boring to answer the same thing and the poster doesn't realy copy the message. I personaly give no handbook's in 300 word's on a silverplate, "how to get things run". Their are(should) other places to look for such things.

I wish to have this community to realy help People in Problems, with an hand and not with the wholeperson! The point earning here is a nice gimmick, but not more for me. (Has anyone tried to buy things with points ?)

regards

Frobo

Just to rpove nobody reads the whole thread before posting,

Alone at the '64 World's Fair
Eighty dolls yelling "Small girl after all"
Who was at the Dupont Pavilion?
Why was the bench still warm? Who had been there?

What song was that from?

TR Haiku

My problem is solved.
My computer works again.
I will keep my points.

Answer not rated,
I never read them again.
Why do you bother?

Network is broken,
please help me solve this problem.
I will not thank you.

Give me your points, Bud.
I will use them for prizes!
You will not get mine.

Dukey

What are you trying to accomplish with this posting? What are you looking for, expecting, what's your hidden agenda? if any

At what point are you going to be satisfied?

It seems like a game/big mental exercise to me. You already have several postings which could be correct answers - depending on viewpoint and criteria that they are looking at this at. So is there an underlying criteria you aren't telling us? IS there something you are wanting specifically to hear? You may not get a complete, perfect answer from all angles, so what then are going to do - let this thing drag on and on and on? Just curious

Point value changed by question poster.

This is just to disprove ASyscoKid's theory...

ana ng
TMBG

Cheers dude!
(and that right there should get me the points if I weren't so smart that I could earn those in a flash- hah... of course anyone can check and see how many times I've been rejected... even though they were damn good answers DAMNIT.. not bitter... no no... not bitter at all)

Thanks to all of you who have posted here. Many good suggestions were made and I hope TR is listening. I have decided to close the post early because I'm now sitting on a T-1 line and if I wait till the fifth I'll have to close this monster I've created from home on a crappy dial-up connection. Some of your responses were serious, some funny, and some downright poetic. But I welcome them all. If my post has resulted in even one old question being closed then I've been successful. Since my question really has no right or wrong answer it wouldn't be fair to give all the points to one person. So, I'll give them to everyone who responded. Some answers will end up being rejected by TR. That's because people who posted more than once only had their original post accepted and the subsequent posts I left unrated. It wouldn't be fair to award more points for more posts. I just read in Information Week magazine that TR has inked a deal with BMW North America whereby TR members can redeem their points for discounts off the purchase price of new BMWs. I believe the article stated that for every 1,000,000 points a member redeems they will receive $1.00 off the purchase price. See, these points really are valuable.
P.S. Something weird happened and I'd like to know if any TR members have had a similar experience. About a month ago I had accumulated approximately 13,000 points from answering questions. The next week, my total had dropped to 10,000. The thing is that I hadn't awarded any points to anyone. I hadn't even posted a question or bought a new Beamer. It's like those 3000 points just evaporated. I asked TR about it (waste of time) and they said they checked their logs and didn't find any discrepancies. If something like thishas happened to you drop me an e-mail. Good Luck to All. I'm off for a week to Anna Maria Island on the west coast of Florida.