pigletdiglet wrote:

There is of course another option though:

Divide forums into 2 different categories: One with replied threads, the other without.

This one, I think, is simple and worthy of support.
***Please think this over***

Nope. An automated bot to move topics would cause waaaay too much confusion, discounting the challenge of coding it.

Having points does nothing, besides making more competition.

Having a “thanks” button will lead to more spam.

Define “distinguished reply”

Nope. An automated bot to move topics would cause waaaay too much confusion, discounting the challenge of coding it.

Having points does nothing, besides making more competition.

Having a “thanks” button will lead to more spam.

Define “distinguished reply”

um. Coding that is not really an issue…
How does that cause confusion?
This is what it might look like

Discussion Forums>>Suggestions>>Improving the Discussion Forums>>Unanswered AND
Discussion Forums>>Suggestions>>Improving the Discussion Forums>>Answered

Having points actually does do something, and yes it does make more competition. The difference between AoPS where all users get replies
in a matter of seconds is that they have a points system. As with Yahoo.

Lastly, a thanks button will not lead to spam because “thanks” will not be part of notifications in your inbox. As with AoPS, a message that someone gave you a “thanks” will not be sent to your account. You'll just get more points.
About “distinguished reply”: you're right, that is definitely ambiguous. What I mean is that, a reply that is given by another user than the initial poster.
Also, please read the discussion thread because I already said that I would drop the point system.

Still, I'm not making these point rules off the top of my head; they have worked very well in other educational sites.

This is my collaboration account btw with JustNoob.

Or maybe it isn't. For example, there are a lot of campaigns supporting and encouraging recycling. Do everybody in the world recycle? Despite all the incentive, the answer is no. So convincing yourself to help new users is easier than convincing the whole world. Unfortunately we can't get everybody's help, but a little help is still a help.

The point is, this is just an idea. If you have any disagreements, like I said in my initial post at the top of the thread,
post your own thoughts for a solution. So far, only ProdigyZeta7 has done so, but his/her solution tends to be less affirmative in action.

PigNoobOnions wrote:

um. Coding that is not really an issue…

It's easy to say that when you're not the one coding it, and on top of that, having to code the website and editor.



We don't need two separate sections, one for answered posts, and another for unanswered posts. On the forum's home page, scroll down to the bottom and near the bottom-right edge there is a button that says Show unanswered posts.

PigNoobOnions wrote:

Nope. An automated bot to move topics would cause waaaay too much confusion, discounting the challenge of coding it.

Having points does nothing, besides making more competition.

Having a “thanks” button will lead to more spam.

Define “distinguished reply”

um. Coding that is not really an issue…
How does that cause confusion?
This is what it might look like

Discussion Forums>>Suggestions>>Improving the Discussion Forums>>Unanswered AND
Discussion Forums>>Suggestions>>Improving the Discussion Forums>>Answered

Having points actually does do something, and yes it does make more competition. The difference between AoPS where all users get replies
in a matter of seconds is that they have a points system. As with Yahoo.

Lastly, a thanks button will not lead to spam because “thanks” will not be part of notifications in your inbox. As with AoPS, a message that someone gave you a “thanks” will not be sent to your account. You'll just get more points.
About “distinguished reply”: you're right, that is definitely ambiguous. What I mean is that, a reply that is given by another user than the initial poster.
Also, please read the discussion thread because I already said that I would drop the point system.

Still, I'm not making these point rules off the top of my head; they have worked very well in other educational sites.

Coding it is somewhat of an issue–the bot has to find all replied topics and automatically move them to the Answered section, instantly.

And how will users know to go to the Unanswered section? It just creates another problem

How many forum users (regulars) are on AoPS/Yahoo vs Scratch?

So people will race to be the first to answer… only to clutter up a topic with sometimes pointless answers (like on Yahoo).

The “thanks” system will lead to spam:

user wrote:

Thank this post and I'll thank/love/favorite/follow you!

Yup.

PigNoobOnions wrote:

Or maybe it isn't. For example, there are a lot of campaigns supporting and encouraging recycling. Do everybody in the world recycle? Despite all the incentive, the answer is no. So convincing yourself to help new users is easier than convincing the whole world. Unfortunately we can't get everybody's help, but a little help is still a help.

The point is, this is just an idea. If you have any disagreements, like I said in my initial post at the top of the thread,
post your own thoughts for a solution. So far, only ProdigyZeta7 has done so, but his/her solution tends to be less affirmative in action.

by less affirmative in action, I mean that It won't be carried out anytime soon, and it isn't exactly a definitive answer to the problem

So, are you saying your suggestion will be carried out, while his suggestion won't?

Firedrake969 wrote:

So, are you saying your suggestion will be carried out, while his suggestion won't?

I'm simply implying that the solution does not take enough action to turn the tables. Scratch doesn't have enough Scratch Team members to constantly answer people's questions. That is discounting the fact that they also have to moderate projects, etc.

Coding it is somewhat of an issue–the bot has to find all replied topics and automatically move them to the Answered section, instantly.

And how will users know to go to the Unanswered section? It just creates another problem

How many forum users (regulars) are on AoPS/Yahoo vs Scratch?

So people will race to be the first to answer… only to clutter up a topic with sometimes pointless answers (like on Yahoo).

The “thanks” system will lead to spam:

1. Coding, considering the current progression of scratch, should not be very difficult. After all, the program will be running continuously so its not like it waits one year, and then has to move all the unanswered posts.
It could even in fact work like this:
Once a post is posted, automatically in unanswered section
Once answered, move to answered.
That's not very difficult, or capacitating programming wise.

I don't know about AoPS vs Scratch or Yahoo vs Scratch, but yes, they may have more members. Still, considering the amount of views each posts get in scratch, someone should have answered after 17-18 views. Or even just 5-6: That means, assuming the poster doesn't refresh the page over and over, 5-6 people didn't answer when they could have at least attempted to.

You say that some people will race first to answer… but I don't think that will happen. As in AoPS, unlike Yahoo, Scratch is a more civilized community. Taking the broken window theory into indirect consideration, less scratchers are likely to post useless comments in a community
sponsored by official institutions like MIT. Like in AoPS, there are rarely any useless answers.

cobraguy wrote:

PigNoobOnions wrote:

um. Coding that is not really an issue…

It's easy to say that when you're not the one coding it, and on top of that, having to code the website and editor.



We don't need two separate sections, one for answered posts, and another for unanswered posts. On the forum's home page, scroll down to the bottom and near the bottom-right edge there is a button that says Show unanswered posts.

Yes I agree. Easier said than done. But look at what scratch has done already; they have even implemented Cloud data.
Its not that hard to write this simple algorithm:
When posted—> unanswered section
Once answered—-> answered section

You can even just change the color of the unanswered posts to, ex. red.

No support. New Scratchers(meaning recently created accounts) could spam, have fake accounts thank, and get above 500 points far too soon, allowing spam in the recognition.

pigletdiglet wrote:

When posted—> unanswered section
Once answered—-> answered section

We already have that. It's located at the bottom of the main Discussion page.

No support. New Scratchers(meaning recently created accounts) could spam, have fake accounts thank, and get above 500 points far too soon, allowing spam in the recognition.

You're right. But really, you are not getting the big picture. A small detail like that shouldn't automatically cause you to disagree with the idea. The idea is, we give incentive to reply.

NoxSpooth wrote:

pigletdiglet wrote:

When posted—> unanswered section
Once answered—-> answered section

We already have that. It's located at the bottom of the main Discussion page.

That actually may be a solution to this problem if we could just make it more noticeable.

pigletdiglet wrote:

That actually may be a solution to this problem if we could just make it more noticeable.

Oh yes, I'll have to agree with that.

So my overall solution is just an individual effort:
I shared a tutorial about how to reply to unanswered posts
Check that out here:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/15326028/

Also if you want to support this GENERAL CAUSE and NOT necessarily the point idea or other ideas, please comment, support, and even curate this studio:

http://scratch.mit.edu/studios/301482/projects/

If you want to curate, please just ask me.

An important thing to note is that not all forum categories are for helping.

NoxSpooth wrote:

pigletdiglet wrote:

That actually may be a solution to this problem if we could just make it more noticeable.

Oh yes, I'll have to agree with that.

^

mathfreak231 wrote:

An important thing to note is that not all forum categories are for helping.

NoxSpooth wrote:

pigletdiglet wrote:

That actually may be a solution to this problem if we could just make it more noticeable.

Oh yes, I'll have to agree with that.

^

Yeah, but in general, there are A LOT of unanswered posts.