Attn all : same problem over and over again

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi guys and gals.
I have seen this over and over again and i want to shake some of the people awake again.
How is it possible, that there are pople posting 125 ! problems and assign points to SEVEN ?!
I think, this is not a fair deal to the people, who invest time and brains into this.
Do we have to go the way to check first, who assigns points on a regular base and who not and then think about helping ?
I will not go this way, but perhaps some people now wake up.
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[Stefan Farrelly]

Time to name and shame them. Go for it - list some of the baddies...I would like to see who they are.

[Pete Randall]

An often debated question with no real answer. Occasional reminders like this may help some but there are many who just get their answer and run - unfortunately. The effort expended to help just has to be reward enough some times.

Pete

[Justo Exposito]

Yes, the same problem again and again and again.

That's the life...

Not is a easy question to solve, we must to learn to live with this folks...:-(

Regards,

Justo.

[PIYUSH D. PATEL]

Hi,

A WARNING SHOULD BE DISPLAYED WHEN THE USER WHO HAS POSTED THE QUESTION OPENS THE THREAD TO SEE THE ANSWERS.

" PLEASE ASSIGN APPROPRIATE POINTS FOR THE ANSWERS GIVEN "

CAN HP DO THIS ???

PIYUSH

[Stefan Saliba]

I agree fully with what you say. I must say that in my profile one can see that I did not give points to all the people. I really wish to fix this. In the early days one had to assign points one by one which made it very slow. With the new enhancment one can give multiple marks at the same time which is KEWL.

What I suggest is that a percentage appears near the person who posts showing how many questions he assigned points to. If he has a low percenatge then he will not be helped.

Just an idea ,

Good luck

Stefan

[Pete Randall]

Speaking of name and shame, here's a thought, maybe Procura could post a list of the worst assigners to Dan's "monthly issues" post, similar to his top 100 list that gets posted to Dan's "monthly successes" post!

[Martin Johnson]

I try to assign point to all my replies. I am 7 for 7 right now.

Marty

[Holger Knoppik]

Hi Alex,

yeah, to say it in the Ignite-UX language: "GO!" I thougt about to change my personal forum quote from "party on!" to something l??ke "Assign points or stay outside!" Sounds a bit like harry d brown jr has: live free or die! Maybe Dan and his crew can develop some tools to kick off those users and make the forums inaccessible for them.

I went a bit around thru the web and had a look at Steven Sim Kok Leongs Search engine for unassigned points in the itrc. Steven: Great stuff!

Surely, it is not easy to get a 100% ratio, but i think it's not the problem to take a little time to assign some points. It is nice to earn points, but i think the main thing is to sort out which reply was a good solution and which not. Also the forums ettiquette guideline from patrick wallek was really cool.

0 pts here.

RGDS, Holger

[John Bolene]

I gave up on this problem many moons ago.
I used to put in my answers -> If this answer has been of any help, please assign points.

That did not even work.

Some folks just don't want to spend any time giving a few carrots or bunnys to those who have taken the effort to reply to their questions.

Some say thanks with points, some say thanks with points and reply what actually solved their problem.

Some don't do anything but read the answers.

There are givers and takers in this world, fact of life, can't do anything to change them.

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Alexander,

I, too have given up & really don't care if they assign points or not. I just answer...hopefully correctly :^)
The points seem to come.

My Grandpa, bless his soul, used to say...
"Kid you can fix a lot of things...but you can't fix stupid."

MOST forumers are good people & do assign points. I won't let the few "hit & runners" spoil my outlook on the rest.
Folks, Please don't let that happen to you.

Cheers,
Jeff

[John Poff]

So what is the real problem here? That you are answering questions and not getting points? I say, get over it. Some people are great about assigning points. Some people don't assign points until they get educated on how things are done here, and then they start doing it. Some people just don't assign points and they never will, and there isn't much you can do about it. Do you want to start banning or limiting people who don't assign points? There goes part of what makes this forum great. Anyone can come here for help and get it. Some of the people that never assign points are also the same people that come up with the most interesting problems.

I quit worrying about it a long time ago. The points are meaningless. They are fun when you get them, but they are meaningless. I get my satisfaction from seeing something I haven't considered before and coming up with a reasonable answer. I don't get any more money for getting points and funny hats. My wife thinks it is nice when I tell her I reached another level on the ITRC, but that's about it.

The points are supposed to help people figure out which answers are helpful. Well, I've seen zero points assigned to fantastic answers, and ten points assigned to answers that would bring down your system. What is the answer? Buyer beware. If you have a problem and you are responsible for the system, you had better find out if you are doing the right thing before you do it, and that means you aren't relying on some silly bunny rabbit next to the answer to tell you to try it. Read the man pages. Search all the answers. If you are the kind of person that just wants the right answer and you don't care why it is right, you will get burned.

That's all I have to say about the matter. Now, let's go help somebody.

JP

[steven Burgess_2]

Hi

I do look at a persons profile and if they are newcomers advise them that they can assign points if they wish to those who have helped them as a sign of gratitude. This does generally tend to get recognised as most peolple are grateful for the time that people have spent helping them. Thats all you can do.

Steve

[Ron Cornwell]

The problem here is not only that people do not assign points, but that people actually care more about accumulating these points more than helping out a fellow Sys Admin. I thought that the point system was originally put into place to allow the person that asked the question to weigh the validity of the answers that were recieved from their question.

My question is "Do you really new a reward of some kind to help others?"

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi everybody.
Ooops, i did not know, that i started an avalanche of answers like this.
I do not care about collecting points, what i dislike is people just taking and no giving.
Let's keep it the way Patrick has given.
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

[Byron Myers]

Whenever I post questions, I welcome all responses - but I usually give more weight to the responses by higher ranks (Wizards, Royalty, etc.). After all, it's these folks that typically have the most experience. From this perspective, points are important.

[Nick Wickens]

Ask yourself the question "If there was no points system would I still post a reply"

I think that in the vast majority of cases most people would still offer help as they do on other IT forums without a points system simply because of the type of people IT admins are. Its that primevil instinct of "hey I know something you don't and to prove it heres the answer".

What I would find more satisfying is a final post from the author saying "yep that solved it - thanks" which is also better for future "searchers" on the forum who would like to know if and which solution given had the correct answer. The answers being awarded 10 points are not always the answer that solved the problem.

[Patrick Wessel · Accepted solution]

I never participated in a discussion like this before, because I thought that someone who doesn't bother to search for an answer and doesn't bother to assign points won't read it anyway.
But, there is something I would like to add. Maybe it's frustrating to have some users who don't show appropriate appreciation and 'consume' the forums instead of participate in them. What I feel is much more frustrating is the behavior when someone gives every answer one or two points and walks away. Why doesn't he/she tell us why the answers didn't satisfy him/her? It happens sometimes to me that I misunderstand a question and so I give a technical correct answer, but doesn't hit the core of the question. In those cases is it pretty helpful to know why you get a low rating.

[Tom Geudens]

Hi,
Personnally I'm not going to stop helping because someone does not award points. However, I do believe in an ongoing campaign to make people "aware" of the point-system (you'd be surprised how many people do - for example - not know that you've got to be logged in to award points).
I think we should push to integrate the "etiquette"-document and the "replys without points awarded"-pages into the forum proper (yes, I do know there's a link to the "etiquette"-document ... but I usually jump directly into the forums ... and I think most people do).

Byron, I do not really agree with the weight you give to the hats. I know I myself occasionally completely miss the point and I've - a lot more frequently - been given excelent information by people without hats.
Not everyone can spend the same amount of time in the forums. It's true an answer by an Olympian / Pharaoh / Royal can be based on a lot of experience (in and outside of the forums) but an answer of a non-hatter can also be based on a lot of experience (outside of the forums).

Regards,
Tom

[Chris Wilshaw]

I suppose the points question comes down to the reason that people want to use the forums in the first place. I suspect that most of us are members, so that we can give and receive help as required - and would almost certainly do so, even if the points system was not in place. This probably stems from the fact that we're mostly employed in support roles, so it's just a simple extension of what we already do. At a simple level, would you stop resetting a users password, just because they called you every day to do this, and never said thanks? Probably not - you'd do it just to keep things running smoothly.

Another aspect to consider is that just because one person doesn't assign points (for whatever reason) to an answer, doesn't mean it's wrong, or of now use - other people could be carrying out a search for just that problem (I know that I've done this) or they could just be browsing to see what's available, and think of a way that they could apply an answer to their environment.

The forums aren't just a Q+A medium, they're a vast (almost living) knowledge archive.

[Pete Randall]

Chris,

You're darn right I'd stop re-setting the user's password - until I figured out some way to fix what the real problem is. I don't believe in just massaging the symptom.

And that's exactly what this thread is about - searching for the answer to a very perplexing problem. In order for this forum to be of maximum benefit, it's extremely desirable that the point system be used and used properly - not so that people can gain hats - so other people can search for knowledge and have some kind guideline.

And Chris, no offense intended.

;^)

Pete

[Chris Wilshaw]

None taken.

I'm sure we all have users out there that we'd like to "educate" from time to time.

[Raynald Boucher]

Just a note... in case you ever get to the bottom of this stack.

I posted a question not long ago, reviewed the answers and assigned point.
I then reviewed more answers but found that the points I had assigned were not listed.
Reassigned points.
Reviewed more answers, still no show of points so ignored the rest.

Anything wrong with my setup.

[Mark Landin]

Perhaps you should get a point every time you assign points to someone else. Now some may argue that this would allow some people who don't ever give answers (only reward others for doing so) to eventually look like they are "experts" or something, but then again ... if I've awarded points to 250 answers, enough to get a cap icon, then surely I've learned SOMETHING along the way and maybe the cap *is* deserved.

I'm not in this just for the points, however, so I help whether or not I think the author is going to assign me points or not....

[Pete Randall]

Raynald,

Something does not look right with your profile. You should post this question in Dan's (he's the forums manager) June Issues thread at:
http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xe6268f960573d611abdb0090277a778c,00.html

Pete