new feature request, option: [RESOLVED :) ]

[variant]

I have thought of a new feture that could be of use especialy when the forum is indexed by search engines so it might be worth including in the forum..

how about haveing a "resolved" check box positiond next to the 'reply' and 'new post' buttons. In my idea it would only be available to those who started the post and of course moderators and idealy the user would press that button if he found that the most recent response to his question solved the problem!

After pressing the button the user would be returned to the index where his post would have a tick in a box (simmilar to the "number of replys" box) and optionaly the post topic would be appended with "[RESOLVED :)]" text!

What do you think of this?

[Giro]

Whos gonna write it??

[jasonlambert]

Does anyone know of any forums that have successfully implemented such a system? Or even got people to manually put [resolved] in the subject?

While i can see the benifits of such a system, i can also see issues with many people (*especially* newbies) not knowing they have to go and click a button or change the subject manually when they've got their question answered.

[Giro]

I can remeber one forum you use to have to nominate a reply to close the post as resolved sorry i cant remeber the name

[Muser]

i found exactly what you are looking for from good old phpbbhacks!! the description even talks about what you guys are suggesting!
http://www.phpbbhacks.com/viewhack.php?id=1637

[jasonlambert]

let me think about it some more.

Currently Im in a 60% (against) / 40% (for) mindset.

What concerns me the most is that we could end up as battery hens or robotic processes almost, ask a question, get answer, mark as finished. It doesnt feel like the way a natural disccussion happens.

While i can see that someone may be more likely to click the listing on the search engine if the result is marked as a resolved situation, i think there are far better ways to get more traffic to the site from search engines than this (some of which are being implemented now).

I'll sleep on it

[RobMcNeil]

it would probly cause more confusion than anything, if someone *thinks* they solved someone's issue, and marks it resolved..but its still not fixed, or is totally wrong info..there would be alot of people going and relying on the wrong answers

you would have to use some form of moderation to mark them as "Resolved" ..and moderators would prolly get tired of doing this after a while, seening how to newbie section has about 15+ questions per day

[jasonlambert]

I can remeber one forum you use to have to nominate a reply to close the post as resolved sorry i cant remeber the name

Ah, was that experts exchange?
I think they have some sort of "accepted answer" type of thing going on.

Is there anyone who has used experts exchange in the past who can comment on its usefulness / efficiency?

[big_k105]

experts-exchanges forces this but then again there whole system is alot different then this but i think its a great idea it helps on people checking older threads to help people that have already been helped daniweb tryies to get members to change the title to <solved> but it doesnt really work out to well. and so does vbforums they do a pretty good job at getting people to change the title as all the mods go around and remind ppl but i am personally trying this on my site to get people to change the titles but its not working out very well so its a good idea in theory but it doesnt work out the best

[variant]

I was not thinking that it should be mandatory in any way... some posts are general and will not be resolved at all ever (vi vs emacs :)) but if a few people who are genuinly satisfied with the response mark it as being resolved it will greatly enhance the usefullness in searches.. all to often you google for an error and you allwase find lots of hits but none have been resolved.. if its marked as being resolved then this is the fisrst (and probably only) place you visit, saving a HUGE amount of time which is of great importance to everyone. tbh i dont actualy think it will make a great impact on the number of hits to the website (maby slight increase) but I do think it would improve the usefullness of the website greatly.. and indirectly that will increase the hits and reputation!