Good point on the marking of closed. Critical part. If we wanted to be really lame, closed could be a tag. But right, something like that is critical.
What sucks is sometimes I read mailing list mails from users, but don't have time to answer them just then and then of course I forget about them... and well .. as you point out that doesn't end well for anyone. -David On May 12, 2011, at 5:56 PM, Benson Margulies wrote: > I don't think it's the tagging and voting. It's the ease of finding > and tracking unanswered questions. > > When someone posts a message to one of the busy user(s)@ lists, they > have only so much chance of snagging the attention of someone > qualified to answer. If they get lost in the wash, the question is > probably lost for good. > > Some very lightweight system for allowing users to open 'tickets' > asking for some sort of specific assistance might help here. Or it, > too, might wash away in the tide. > > > On Thu, May 12, 2011 at 8:47 PM, David Blevins <david.blev...@gmail.com> > wrote: >> >> On May 12, 2011, at 3:54 PM, Benson Margulies wrote: >> >>> The QA format, in my opinion, is a very powerful tool for some kinds >>> of collaborative assistance, and a completely useless tool for others. >>> It's much easier to find a question with answers than to find a >>> mailing list thread. It's on the other hand pretty silly to engage in >>> any sort of extended interactive assistance on it. >> >> That's been my experience as well. The QA format is pretty great for some >> stuff, but breaks down fast when I have to ask for log files and things of >> that nature. >> >> Another thought. Sometimes I wonder how hard it would be to just allow >> tagging and voting on top of a plain mailing list emails. A simple DB with >> the messageId as the key for tags and vote count then a slightly fancier >> archive view than we have now. And hey, markdown happens to look nice as >> plain email. I've actually been indenting code snippets for years. >> >> I admit I like getting SO points and badges but they do not factor in at all >> when looking for the right answer. >> >> The tags and votes though are definitely the two critical tools that help me >> find what i'm looking for. >> >> >> -David >> >>
