Message before posting new thread

[GauthamV]

How about displaying a message before posting new threads in abap devlopment forums which tells the members to use search button before posting new threads.

I think this may improve the quality of forums to an extent.

Plz give ur comment on this.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Gautham,

Your intention toward forum quality is highly appreciated.

But my guess is , this would be possible but some of the user even can ignore this message prompt. isn't it?

Okay but yes we can atleast let them know to search forum before posting but I'm glad to say that this things is clearly mention in Forum rules,but sadly some very few guys gone through this theory(Rules) before posting.

And i believe atleast all guys aware of search option we need not to let them know about search option of SDN even they post a forum(Without search) that's really strange for me.

My guess Message would not be any enough impact on forum quality until this message can be ignored by most of the folks.

That's what My just 2 cents..

Though we should wait until MODS or our big boss(Craig) responds

Cheers

Amit.

[GauthamV · Accepted solution]

Amit,

I am not talking about those specific users who even though are members from past ,knowing the rules of community but still ignore them.

But the people who have Joined recently may not no much about the search option , like they can get the posts related to particular topic by just giving some key words.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I believe in universe almost all website have a search option atleast even though they have only single webpage on their website

And moreover being a Consultant we should know how to search with proper term.

Even more Rules are clearly mention in first page of SCN.

Cheers,

Amit

[ThomasZloch · Accepted solution]

Additionally, how about a sticky thread with FAQs (but not interview questions) in ABAP General just like JB has created in the Netweaver Security forum:

dynamic table creation, last program execution date, performance tuning, you name it.

I would be happy to contribute as time permits.

Thomas

[GauthamV · Accepted solution]

Thomas,

ur idea is good ,but how far can we attach FAQs in forums

as the content is vast.

Moreover if people really would watch them ,then they will do it by giving the search option itself.

let us wait n see if somone comes up with new ideas.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I have suggested the same to the ABAP mods and am waiting for a go-head.

If the thread points to F1 as being the 1st FAQ then we should be able to cover much of it with a "one-liner"...

If we add some examples to show how usefull searching can be, then folks (most notably "freshers") would feel more confident in themselves to use it.

For the remaining stuff it would be more tricky and any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Julius

[GauthamV · Accepted solution]

If we add some examples to show how usefull searching can be, then folks (most notably "freshers") would feel more confident in themselves to use it.

julius,

This is also intresting one.

Because this will make people more intrested in searching the forums before posting a new thread,which will provide them more information then they actually require.

Cheers.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Perhaps they are scared of the search? Scared of having to think about and interpret the search results on their own?

So they need a whole croud of spammers, link-farmers and copy&pasters to help them feel less lonely...

How about assigning points automaically for using the search, or some sort of "search indicator" for the user ID's (e.g. level of (recent) search activity shown on a scale of 1 to 100).

This would help other users with a bit more information about what type of (informed) person is answering their question.

Just a thought to help encourage the search and make it everyone's friend

Cheers,

Julius

[jurjen_heeck · Accepted solution]

> some sort of "search indicator" for the user ID's (e.g. level of (recent) search activity shown on a scale of 1 to 100).

That would be a nice one, to know how much effort has been done before the post. It doesn't stop the ignorant poster but it will stop me answering their lazy questions.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Yip, that as well. People thinkin about answering can see how much search has gone into something in the recent past (for example a week or a month).

It would be just an indicator, but I think a very usefull one

Of course this is much easier said than done, but some ideas are always usefull to have.

Cheers,

Julius

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

>

> How about assigning points automaically for using the search

Than it would not point hunting using search?;-)

Cheers

Amit

[jurjen_heeck · Accepted solution]

> point hunting using search?;-)

Isn't searching a part of every hunt?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I like your idea...I am about to post the same for ABAP forum, I found some good sticky threads in ERP forums , can we have them too in our ABAP forum.

[GauthamV · Accepted solution]

vijay,

let us see if the mods may take any of our suggestions which can improve the quality of forums.

cheers.

[former_member184657 · Accepted solution]

I believe a Moderator working during IST (Indian Standard Time) can help cut the noise to a great extent.

Just my 2 Paise

pk

[GauthamV · Accepted solution]

pk,

It may be some what helpful.

But it is even difficult for one moderator to control because we will be getting hundreds of posts daily.

Cheers.

[former_member184657 · Accepted solution]

Well actually, all that a Mod needs to do is look at the abuse reports during his coffee breaks or remainder-of-lunch-time. It should work just fine.

The problem right now is that most of the mods arrive, lets say the post-lunch (IST) sessions. So, most stupid questions asked before lunch-time get answered (usually within a few minutes) before the mods arrive. Hence a mod lurking in the ABAP forums during this time can effectively nip most of the stupid threads in the bud.

pk

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

If absurdly stupid questions get seriously stupid answers within minutes, then I don't think that there is much we can do against it, except remove all the ponits and reject all the posts including the question to let them know that they are wasting their time.

Eventually people will stop answering and asking (be)low-quality questions. I think we have a partial success with this already, or at least have made some progress.

Cheers,

Julius

[GauthamV · Accepted solution]

julius,

you are right.Even though people have not stopped asking silly questions,the people who are sending answers to them are considerably reduced .

so in this case you have made some progress.

In the same way if u can stop people from asking basic questions and make them search ,then defnitely the quality of the forums will be improved and every one can have good future .

cheers.

[former_member184657 · Accepted solution]

Even though people have not stopped asking silly questions,the people who are sending answers to them are considerably reduced 

I beg to differ. IMO the problem still lies with people who respond to stupid threads. Just a couple of days back there was a thread where somebody wanted to know the difference between a script and a report. Yeah you've heard it right.

The most sickening thing about that thread was that there was close to 10 responses to that ridiculously stupid question.

The best way to deal with such a thing is to let the OP go with a locked or deleted thread and a warning but get the responders' id removed after giving a First Life.

So when a point-hunter with 500+ odd points get struck off the SCN roll, the point-hunter will feel very discouraged and most definately wont try to earn back those points. This can cut down on the noise factor to a great extent.

Let me also take this opportunity to congratulate Julius and |Team for the doing a commendable job with the ABAP forums. Rock On Mods.

pk

Edited by: prashanth kishan on Sep 27, 2008 10:20 PM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I think most people who answer simple questions do so because they are genuinely trying to help and are perhaps not familiar with the type of user IDs who ask such questions.

But they should heed the warnings (in most cases they realize this themselves before a warning is required). I also know a numer of people who stop visiting SDN when they realize this, and that is a big pity.

Users who carry on and on and on without heeding the warnings are deleted as well. This has happened already and there are two more in the pipeline. But Guestification is a last resort and not a perfect one either. It is only really effective when points are the reason for the misuse.

I am sure that without a points system in its current form we would have less noise, but we would only eliminate the childish points gamers.

What I think we need to work on is further improving the reputation of the SDN forums for quality content.

Eg. when someone posts something which is incorrect or questionable, then question it (politely as possible / appropriate).

That way people who answer will realize that their accounts have a track record for questionable quality, and will think twice before posting some bla-bla-bla or not reading the question carefully => if the question is "What is reports and tables" then when thinking twice, they wont answer at all....

Cheers,

Julius

PS: I will start drafting a sticky thread for FAQs and memorable discussions, and then we can make a team effort of contributing to it and the mods can update it as appropriate.

Edited by: Julius Bussche on Sep 27, 2008 10:20 PM

[GauthamV · Accepted solution]

PS: I will start drafting a sticky thread for FAQs and memorable discussions, and then we can make a team effort of contributing to it and the mods can update it as appropriate.

Waitning for ur sticky thread .

Cheers. : - )

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

you are worrying too much about forum ?

Why you answer a question like this -> Differences between ORDERS02 and ORDERS05 of basic type idocs.

A lazy person asked and you answered.He can easily open tcode we30 and we31 and can know the difference.

One hand you are trying to improve the performance and on th other hand you are encouraging first stop it.

[GauthamV · Accepted solution]

hi,

What i understood from his question is his basic knowledge on ale/idocs is less.

so he may not be knowing much about we30 and we31.

also if u search the forums u have no much replys related to difference between ORDERS02 and ORDERS05.

First u recognise about urself before going to question someone.

There is no need for me to give reply to u ,but i wanted u to no

something which u r lacking.

Cheers.

[jurjen_heeck · Accepted solution]

> reply to u ,but i wanted u to no something which u r lacking.

Since your first post was about improving the forum quality I must point out to you that the above sentence is not proper English. Please stop abbreviating short words like 'you' 'are' and 'please'. The amount of time gained is close to none and it is against the rules.

Besides that, a large group of the forum members (including myself) consists of non-native English speakers who find it difficult enough to read and write proper English so text speak only brings along extra barriers.

Thank you

Jurjen

[GauthamV · Accepted solution]

Jurjen,

sorry for that.

I know the rules, but actually i was having some other issues over here,so in fast i was not able to concentrate much on them.

Cheers.

[GauthamV · Accepted solution]

julius,

Finally iam closing this thread hoping the things to happen.

Cheers. : - )

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

The "rules sticky threads" were merged into 1 yesterday already (see the top of the ABAP General forum).

A draft of the "FAQ and memorable discussions" will be available later today for contributions (I will post a link here).

Cheers,

Julius

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

>"FAQ and memorable discussions"

what kind of memorable discussions are they..? you started collecting them..., or we have to contribute to that...

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

I know some of the usefull and memorable links and will create a draft, but we can make a team effort of it to add the contents before moving it into the ABAP forum, and update it from time to time when something new turns up.

I will let you know once I have a rough draft going.

Cheers,

Julius

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks and I am waiting for the sticky thread..., Please let me know any help needed in the contributions part.

[ThomasZloch · Accepted solution]

For this purpose it would be nice to turn the "abuse button" into a neutral "report button". This way we can suggest you good quality threads via that proven reporting method.

While at it, the categories could be reworked too, as you are virtually always choosing "general abuse", since there is not so much profanity and harrassment going on, luckily.

-> "vague subject", "did not search", "copy/paste", etc.. At least a "rule violation" category should be there.

Cheers

Thomas

[former_member184657 · Accepted solution]

And while you are at it, how about a "Report User" button too, to report repeat offenders who keep asking the same type of questions again and again like for eg, Table/Field names or submit 3 reports at a time or bapi/fm name....blah blah blah

pk

[JozsefSzikszai · Accepted solution]

The sticky thread is not really sticky in [ABAP development|/community [original link is broken]; (in all ABAP sub Forums works properly).

[ThomasZloch · Accepted solution]

Hi Eric,

if they were sticky on that level, you would see 8 sticky threads before the first actual thread. I remember it used to be that way but was changed to the current state after some complaints.

Cheers

Thomas

[JozsefSzikszai · Accepted solution]

thanks Thomas! I just realised that the "Post new thread" options is also missing from ABAP development, so it cannot happen, that someone posts a new thread without seeing the "Best of threads" sticky....

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

We have made a good start particularly on the ABAP and UI forum sections, but still need some legendary threads for Performance, DDIC, Data Transfers and ABAP OO.

Eric? Uwe? Naimesh? Matt? Suresh? aRs? David? Blag? Thomas? Horst? Andreas? And many, many, many, others... ??

The draft thread is here: (the first post to it will be split later and become the "sticky", leaving the remaining whole thread as the contributions suggestions thread (I will move it here to the "Suggestions Forum", and there will be a link to it in the main sticky thread).

Please don't be shy to suggest threads which you gave cool answers to yourself. You would know them faster than most others. There are some real "gems" and interesting discussions in the forums, but many others might not know them. The (main) idea is to give people some usefull information (to install confidence in the search, for usefull search terms, and also people to keep an eye out for when searching further) and a first impression of the quality which is expected and hoped for in our SDN forums.

Cheers,

Julius

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

members you mentioned will never make a search and answer them.

They use point to point protocol

[GauthamV · Accepted solution]

julius,

I feel that we have gathered enough basic stuff to start the sticky thread in abap general forums.

so i think we can close this thread.

Cheers.

[GauthamV]

julius,

i am marking this thread as unanswered so that we can still have some discussions once your sticky thread is on its way.

Cheers.

[Former Member]

Okay ABAP gurus,

Here is my draft:

It is currently located in the "Playground" forum for the moment.

Please post your contributions and suggested changes to that thread (not this one).

Once it is presentable, I will split the thread and move the updated first post (the sticky) to ABAP General, and leave the suggestions and contributions to it (as a link pointing to the second remaining post with subsequent contributions) here in this forum (once split, it will be moved here) for future suggestions and contributions.

I am relatively new to the SDN ABAP forums (and anyway just a "hobby" ABAPer due to my interest in the security aspects of ABAP development) so this sticky thread belongs to those who contribute to it.

I will only take care of the administrative efforts of updating it, but also contribute where I can. The other mods will no doubt as well.

Thanks for triggering this idea, and lets see how much effect this has on improving the ABAP forum content quality and noise levels.

Please keep the thread open

Cheers,

Julius

[Former Member]

Hi Julius,

I thought of starting the Post, But i am unable to proceed , can you guide me in that..?

Regards

Vijay

[Former Member]

Hi Vijay,

Your post to the draft thread in the "playground" forum is fine.

I will copy& paste the links into the top post which I can edit.

Try to use the same forum structure (ABAP General, Data Dictionary, Form Printing,. etc...) as the forums and my top post, and add a comment afterwards like

> <thread ID> => <comment or usefull hint and why the thread was included>

That way the format is always the same.

You can still edit your first post, or post new one if you want and I will move the links to the top post.

Cheers and thousands of thanks for the help,

Julius

[jurjen_heeck]

In my experience, which includes some time at the support desk, almost everybody just dismisses extra messages. Everytime I asked and end user what the error message was they answered "dunno, just clicked OK". And that's what the posters of silly questions will also do.

After all, they're not the brightest ones.....