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if someone takes the time to help you please assign them points

 
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Richard Darling
Trusted Contributor

if someone takes the time to help you please assign them points

I have noticed that alot of people are not assigning points to people who take the time to help them out.

If someone helps you take the time to give them points...especially if you would like to receive help with future problems...
RD
rdarling@southwickclothing.com
24 REPLIES 24
Patrick Wallek
Honored Contributor

Re: if someone takes the time to help you please assign them points

I agree with you Richard. It is somewhat frustrating to post something, and then not get any points, or any idea that the post did or did not help.

What would help, I think, is a more user friendly point assignment system. The way it works right now is somewhat cumbersome and time consuming, what with a person only being able to assign point to one response at a time, then getting the message thanking you for assigning points, then going back to the thread and going to the next response.

What would be nice is to be able assign points to any number of responses to a question at once, then click on an 'APPLY' button or something and have all the points assigned at once. It would also be nice to be able to change the # of points that you assign to a response.

I don't know that the above would solve the problem, but it might help.
Richard Darling
Trusted Contributor

Re: if someone takes the time to help you please assign them points

that is a good suggestion...
rdarling@southwickclothing.com
paul courry
Honored Contributor

Re: if someone takes the time to help you please assign them points

I think you need to put it right in peoples faces multiple times along with the warning that people who don't award points don't get answers. Some of the forums are attrocious!

While many of us answer questions because our hearts are pure and we have been awarded sainthood some do it for points and bragging rights. (You may guess what catagory I am in, I'll never tell) With out the regular awarding of points this tree will wither.
Richard Darling
Trusted Contributor

Re: if someone takes the time to help you please assign them points

paul, you really do find your way into every corner of the forum!!!
rdarling@southwickclothing.com
Paula J Frazer-Campbell
Honored Contributor

Re: if someone takes the time to help you please assign them points

Hi to all

The points assignment problem once again raises its ugly head.

I think that the problem is two fold:-

1. The user can get their answers without logging in.
2. The new question posers are not fully aware of the points system.

If you are new to the forum and reading this then please log in and assign points to people who have assisted you.

Why? you may ask, well future forum users will not know which answer provided the best solution to the problem and also if someone takes the time and effort to answer a question or point you in the right direction to resolve your problem then the courteous thing is to acknowledge their effort.


Paula
If you can spell SysAdmin then you is one - anon
paul courry
Honored Contributor

Re: if someone takes the time to help you please assign them points

I am a smurf and I'm painted HP forum blue.......
RikTytgat
Honored Contributor

Re: if someone takes the time to help you please assign them points

Hi all,

I absolutely agree.

There seems to be a big difference in the rate of answers with assigned points between different forums.

I, for one, have been focusing on the IT/Operations forum, and despite my frequent presence on that forum, my points hardly increases, as opposed to the hp-ux forum, where points are rewarded more frequently.

Of course, it is not only about the points. But if we take the time answering questions and helping people saving a great deal of time, why don't they take the time rewarding us for it.

Maybe it is true that (new) users have to be made aware of the possibility to award points.

Bye,
Rik.
Tim Malnati
Honored Contributor

Re: if someone takes the time to help you please assign them points

This subject just keeps coming up. I have to agree that no acknowledgement is not a positive inspiration at all. It's a somewhat complex situation though...

Problem one - logging into the system. For those of you that are not aware of it, when you log into the ITRC you are opening some significant power in the areas other than the Forums. There is no question that HP needs to be careful about this. Most of the delay seems to be associated with the system calculating what access capabliities you have based on your support contract matrix, but the more system handles is needs to figure out, the longer the delay. The delay involved makes it a definite turn off. HP has improved it with longer cookie expiration, but it's not the answer. In my opinion, HP should probably adopt a two tier login system. One cookie that simply identifies who you are and that your are not locked out for some reason; this could be associated with all parts of the ITRC that don't require additional support contract stuff and should be quick to process. The other cookie associates the more sensitive areas and goes through the full login sequence. By doing something like this, HP could easily force the login with any access to the Forums without any long delays and much less processing on the login server.

The next issue is the ability of the user to get back to their original post. If you opt to receive an email it's a simple matter by clicking on the link. If you try to locate the message by any other means you can be in a world of hurt; particularly if a couple of days has gone by on a busy Forum area. When I look at my stats I see that I've awarded points to 60 of 62 responses. But good luck attempting to find the two that I've missed. The pathetic search engine is a part of it (I'll discuss it more later on). I have also suggested to the powers that be a more informative way of displaying what you already have out there that has yet to be awarded. A screen that comes up listing anything open at login time and accessable any time... A much more lengthy list of posting threads you've participated in (5 items is far from enough), etc.

The search engine without a clue... First, it takes forever and a day just to display the search selection screen. Then when you attempt to locate something the system seems to give you back a somewhat random list of what it has found. Do a search on your last name and you will see what I'm talking about. It's limited to the first 50 items found and it does not appear to have the capability to hold a list and further search within it. I right click on links and display them in another window to speed up things and not have to deal with additional delays repainting previous screens (the new system re-downloads every object). Now try to right click on the search link and attempt to bring it up in a new window - good luck!

So now you add in all the processing delays, SSI errors, 404 not found messages, item contained no data errors, menuing problems and all the other quirks that the new 'improved' Forum site has to offer and there is little wonder that users (particularly new ones) are less than inclined to award points. But I have to mention somewhat of a class distiction that seems to be going on also. The Forum areas that are more pc and printer related are rediculous when it comes to the lack of point awards. A good example of this is Jamie Hughes in the Microsoft Forums; she pours her heart and soul into it, yet can't seem to get past a green hat. Her particiapation is much more in line with what I'm wearing (probably more).
Dan Hetzel
Honored Contributor

Re: if someone takes the time to help you please assign them points

Hi Richard,

I fully agree with all that has been said about points assignment but it looks like some of the forum users don't think the same.

In a recent post, I brought to the attention of a forum newbie that points should be assigned if the answers proved useful, quoting an HP document.
One of the forum users replied with : "any problem again with points, Dan?".

Here is the link:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,1150,0x1ac479bffde7d4118fef0090279cd0f9,00.html

I've been living without a 'crown' for close to half a century and sincerely believe that I could still live without for a while, but, like most active members of the forum, I perceive getting a new hat as a real reward.
Anyway, it's the rule of the game so let's play it that way.

All the best,

Dan
Everybody knows at least one thing worth sharing -- mailto:dan.hetzel@wildcroft.com