Forum Points Status ...

[Former Member]

Hi Forum Friends,

Communication has not been our strong point the last two days.

With exponential growth there are times when you bump onto limits of your system. We have over 950K members now and we are very proud that they are really active especially in the forums.

We are also proud that our uptime in the last months has been in the 99.7% - 100% week after week.

This week or actually it started late last week if I am not mistaken, we reached a certain level of activity, which brought the system to its knees repeatedly.

The combination of forum and point system is the problem area and we decided to bring back the forums without the points. Functionality is there to get your problems solved, just the flow back to reputation or friendly competition is currently gone. To the cheers from many of you.

We are tuning the point system - forum connection in the background as we speak and if the tests are favorable, it may be back later tomorrow already. Ready for the weekend, where traffic is slower anyhow.

By the way, I started this new thread with the subject line: Forum Points Status, so that this information is not buried somewhere in the other threads. Is this enough or should I also post a blog? Funny that I am doing this announcement in the Coffee Corner forum and not in the Suggestions forum where it used to be. The activity here is just so much higher and with this post I am contributing too.

In a second I will start yet another thread regarding some background and suggestions what the best way forward for the point system within the forums is. Your input greatly appreciated.

All the best, Mark.

[Former Member]

Mark,

There are many things should be resolve before checking the point system status.

I have seen many posts in ABAP Developments, many of them asking same question in multiple times, many times moderator is not locking thread.

SDN should have more moderators on each group so that we can reduce the noise.

I am not against with point system but there should be limitation.

Simple example is many people will give the point’s only concerned person even if we give good answer.

I know reward points is nothing.

Just compare with SAPFANS, this is good discussion forum which i have seen, there is no point system.

If any person posted any question like urgent or Upper case in subject line then Moderator will lock the thread immediately.

Thanks

Seshu

[Former Member]

good moderation makes SAPFANS success.

points system makes SDN success.

[Former Member]

Eric,

I agree with you.

How about SDN Moderator ? I know that SDN is largest SAP Discussion group than other's.

I guess some quality is missing at SDN Forum's.

one person may have many user id's ,atleast SDN People should lock the user or remove the user name based on IP Address.

Thanks

Seshu

[Former Member]

It wont be fine to lock the question if it cones more than once.

Coz, the requested person might not have got the exact answer.

So, if we lock the ques, it may disappoint them and the purpose of the forum itself is against that intention.

So, it wud be better something like tht, if the same question rises, befor confirming the ques, let the person see all related links to that ques. Put some mechanism to do tht

Aalphy

[former_member194669]

Hi,

I suggest keep a limit on maximum number of open questions for a user. that will reduce the number of questions answered, but answered questions never closed.

a®

[Former Member]

Hi,

I suggest keep a limit on maximum number of open

questions for a user. that will reduce the number of

questions answered, but answered questions never

closed.

a®s

hmmm so what to do with questions that you get no answers on ??

so if you ask to many difficult questions or real challenges you ban you're self from sdn ?

[former_member194669]

Hi,

+

hmmm so what to do with questions that you get no answers on ??

+

I am seeing in abap forum, most of unanswered questions have been repeated again with in an hour or two it has been posted, and also how many users answer questions if my question moved out to page 4 or 5?

Sorry for my poor english

a®

[Former Member]

> hmmm so what to do with questions that you get no

> answers on ??

You should close them after a day or so anyway.

Rob

[KjetilKilhavn]

> > hmmm so what to do with questions that you get no

> > answers on ??

>

> You should close them after a day or so anyway.

>

<b><u>One</u></b> day? I hope you are joking. I'd say you should wait at least a month - and then close it with a comment saying why you close it even if it isn't solved.

However, what is the point about closed/unclosed questions? I could understand it if the advanced search had some more search opportunities (I'm thinking date range, status closed/open/all as a minimum), but currently I can't really see why they should be closed unless they have been solved, or answered to determine that it can't be solved.

[Former Member]

I'd agree that a day is a bit short... I often add a "watch" to interesting questions if I haven't got an SAP system available at the time I read the post and want to have a dig around before answering, which can be a couple of days later... After a week I feel the question is probably stale, but the poster can always bump it back up the list by adding another entry to show it is still an active problem.

As I've said elsewhere before, I think a gentle online system "nag" when people login to SDN might help remind them to close those lingering threads.

Jonathan

( btw did the point system "hiccup" yesterday? - one of the sub-forums I looked at had someone top the last 30 days with 300 points, but only 7 or so threads posted to... but it seems all better now... )

[Former Member]

perhaps also an idea to upgrade unanswered interesting questions by the moderators in points that can be earned from 10 to for instance 25.

I guess some questions remain unanswered because it takes to much time to investigate or to answer them in comparison to the 'what is wrong in this write statement' questions.

I will up some of mine again, good idea

[Former Member]

Sweet!... I'll keep an eye out for them and add them to my watchlist...

I do feel some questions just get "lost" because the volume of traffic in some forums means they disappear off the first screen within an hour or so of the initial posting.

I like the idea of upping the "challenge level" for interesting problems - perhaps all questions posted should have such a self-grading e.g. "Learner", "Somewhat tricky", or "OK, I've been stuck here 15 hours and I give up"... but maybe this is already coming to SDN -> I thought I'd seen some "double points" icons lurking around the test forums recently?

Jonathan

[martin_nooteboom]

Hi Jonathan,

It looks like it. It seems there will be some "Premium users" who can ask questions for double points or something.

Regards,

Martin

[Former Member]

strange that premium user thing if it's that way, it's the difficulty or complexity of the question that makes it premium not the user.

it it's more likely to upgrade the question if nobody can give an 'good answer in the first place.

kind regards

arthur

[rainer_hbenthal]

I would appreciate if the point system would disappear. There are too man point beggars. A lot of answers i guess are given which are totally senseless and i think the only reason they are given is that might be the poster will get 2 points for his dumb stuff.

Another thing what you can see is that answers given are repeated over and over again without putting more clearance to the questionnaire. In my opinion those answers are given just to get points. Some of the posters are waiting until the answer is given and then they give the same answer in their own words. Of course it might happen that two or more are answering at nearly the same time and therefor there will be an identical answer. What other reasons are there to give an answer already given hours before?

So for me this point begging is the most bothersome thing here. Just bring that down, one can answer without getting a stupid point reward.

[Former Member]

perhaps an idea to let the moderators give points to the answered questions instead of the users.

And that the amount of points given by moderators depends on the compexity of the question.

so simple F1 questions 3 points

simple ABAP questions about variables and loops etc 10 points

very complex ABAP questions and well given answers 20 points etc etc

perhaps also an idea to start an marketplace for 'non system involved' questions

so if someone wants to have a function or a programm with a precise defined input and output that they can just put a advert for it with a price they want to pay for it (or otherwise that sdn's can give a price they want to build it for)

SAP is not really a hobby system like php or mysql is for you're private non profit generating website for example, so why not pay for good work/help if it helps a company out ??

perhaps it's an idea next to the forum. since from a lot of questions users want really 'off the shelf' answers for their system and don't want to waste time by interpreting sollution given examples to their situation

kind regards

arthur

[Former Member]

I earlier thought that the points were quite necessary and we only needed to tweak them.. Honestly, after seeing so much peace and tranquility since they have been turned off I have had a change of mind. It looks Voila this way.

B A

[somnath_manna]

But Forum Points system is back now and all hell will break loose.

Users asking for points, replies with PLEASE REWARD POINTS etc. etc.

Life was really peaceful in past two (or three days) especially as Moderator.

BR

Somnath

[Former Member]

Hi Mark,

First of all I would like to take the oppurtunity to <b>Thank</b> all the SDNers for their precious time to respond and share their knowledge in this <b>ESTEEMED</b> forum.I feel fortune enough to be a member in it.

Coming to Assigning points..Whether or not there is point system,our SDNers are helping out with their views to the posts,appreciate it.But point system will boost up members to actively participate.

Thanks!

James

[Former Member]

Hello Mark,

I would like to confess that I am still undecided about the points system.

The last two days (the sum of day 1 with a missing points system and the shock of a 2nd day that it might really be gone(!) is indeed very interesting to observe.

It would be interesting to observe for a few days more...

Kind regards,

Julius

[Former Member]

Well,

I think it will be very helpful if the points system stable again since it motivates everyone to participate and different ways of doing the same thing. That way, you can tell who is new and who has got good experience. SDN is the biggest and quickest way to get help in SAP market and for knowledge as well. I would definitely humbly request to open the points system back to normal.

Thanks,

[Former Member]

How about reseting the point counter to zero for all :-- ))....jst kidding.

[Former Member]

LOL!!!

Mark, just keep the points system detached, even hive it off altogether, I am sure lots other SDNers would agree. SDN works so well without its annoying presence!

[Former Member]

How about turning the point system back on, but don't accumulate any points. At least allow the poster to value the responses.

[suresh_datti]

> We are tuning the point system - forum connection in

> the background as we speak and if the tests are

> favorable, it may<b> be back later tomorrow</b> already.

> Ready for the weekend, where traffic is slower

> anyhow.

that soon!.. PL Mark, let it be this way for a while..

~Suresh

[Former Member]

You might post this as well in the ABAP General forum as well (sticky thread?). There have been lots of questions there about it's status.

I think a lot of the posters there never make it to the coffee corner.

Rob

[Former Member]

don't! just let them think it's gone for a while over there.

It is such a pleasure to browse through the ABAP forum and see how quickly it reverted to 'normal'.

Average TTFR(time to first repsonse) gone up to around 10 mins, almost each answer personalized(contributing own thoughts, solutions), some follow-up <i>thanks. good idea. i will try that</i> posts.

I like it. anton

Message was edited by:

Anton Wenzelhuemer

[Former Member]

Hi Mark,

Nice to see an official word on this at last. But it would be great if you could post a thread before talking down any functionality to avoid long discussions

Moreover in SAP world we would inform users about the downtimes ..lol

Thanks

Prince Jose