not marking threads "Solved"

[Aging Technogeek]

This is going to be a mild rant mostly to blow off some steam but I think the subject is legitimate.

I've seen many instances in these forums where some one posts a problem , gets help from perhaps three or more people over two or more days, and just disappears when (I assume) his/her problem is solved. To me, this is somewhat rude and smacks of the kind of attitude that Windows users have toward paid support. Also, to anyone browsing the forum looking for a solution to their problem this leaves them up in the air. Did the suggested fix work or didn't it?

This behavior seems to be most prevalent among new Linux users. Maybe there should be something posted at the top of "Newbie Questions" about proper response to fixes that work.

Some might say that the lack of response indicates that the problem was solved. But couldn't it as easily indicate that the OP just gave up and reinstalled Windows?

Whatever it means, I stand by my statement above that not letting people who have volunteered their time and effort to help you know that their efforts worked is rather rude and inconsiderate. It doesn't take that long to log into the forum, post a reply along the lines of "Hey,it worked. Thanks" and edit the original post to add "SOLVED"

Does anyone out there agree with me?

[emorrp1]

I don't know, I'm a bit of two minds on this one. I definitely agree that it helps with searching to know the fix worked, but then I've also found that the topic heading often turns out to be unrelated to the actual problem, so would be useless if I was trying to find it. Then again I'm used to knowing exactly what's happening on my box, so maybe these titles are helpful to most people.

I think there is some credence to the assertion that lack of response = solved. Most of the times I've *not* seen an "it worked, thanks a lot, really appreciate it" reply have been when I know exactly what the problem, have provided an easy solution, and can be fairly certain it worked as expected.

Also, is it just me, or do people go a bit overboard in their thanks? There was one thread where the OP thanked me every single time he replied, despite the fact we were actually running out of ideas. I'm not complaining, it's really nice to know I've helped, but still it the example above, the "really appreciate it" is a bit superfluous.

While I'm on the topic of forum practices, I thought it was hilarious when someone "bumped" their thread after not getting a response in several hours, apparently not realising the "unanswered posts" feature makes it even less likely for their problem to get noticed.

[altair4]

Aging Technogeek , I am in full agreement with you. I started linux with SuSE 6.x and have always been a KDE user. Mint is my first Gnome linux and I had a lot of questions. It would have been very helpful in searching the forums if I could have focused on those marked "Solved".

[dlkreations]

I agree. This is also one of my pet peeves, but I can't control the world!

In fact I am going to edit my signature and put something like "If you have a question that has been answered and solved, then please put a [SOLVED] at the beginning or end of your subject header." Or something like that.

[kaixi]

I completely agree with you. I remember the days when I was using 110mb.com as my hosting provider. They always asked people to put [Solved] on the subject line once the problem was solved.

[FrogDemon]

I agree with what has been said in this thread. It has also bugged the piss out of me. I have been on linux for many years now and it never ceases to amaze me that ppl do that. I may have done it at 1 point or other and I'm sure alot of us have. NONE of us are innocent.

But ppl will be ppl, no matter where we go. We also have to understand, that some ppl just do not understand there is a certain "Netiqutte" on forums that needs to be adhered to. I think it's mostly due to the fact that ppl think it's "Online" so it doesn't matter. So they fix their prob( or not ) and then goes back to their own online BS ( whatever that may be ).

[emorrp1]

OK, so I've been watching out for this, and I can now agree, it's useful, easy to do and many people aren't doing it. It's also useful for when looking down the "your posts" search page, if you were not the last to post, it's hard to tell if they just went "Yep, that worked", or if they added more info, you've read it, but you haven't got back to it yet.

EDIT: just thought I'd point out that this idea was originally Don's, I just tweaked it a little.

I vote we take the initiative, and all add a signature, like so:

[kaixi]

OK, so I've been watching out for this, and I can now agree, it's useful, easy to do and many people aren't doing it. It's also useful for when looking down the "your posts" search page, if you were not the last to post, it's hard to tell if they just went "Yep, that worked", or if they added more info, you've read it, but you haven't got back to it yet.

I vote we take the initiative, and all add a signature, like so:

Done.

[Aging Technogeek]

Good idea. Will implement immediately

[sarahmarienc]

I agree with this. I try to remember to mark mine and include the solution to the issue. I recently went down my "view your posts" list for any threads I had started, received answers to, and solved issues for and marked them as such. Thankfully, I had been doing this already so I only had two or three recent ones to update. Like a prev. poster said, it's not time consuming or long and it helps those who are looking for solutions to their issues.

-Sarah -

Off to edit my sig line

[dlkreations]

I like your wording a lot better emorrp1, nicely done.

[emorrp1]

It was mainly just to say how to do it, as I got asked that earlier, and the choice to put it at the end. I've noticed it breaks readability somewhat at the beginning (when searching for a solution)