FORUM ACCEPTED ANSWERS - PLEASE READ

Mahesh Chand

OK guys,
The purpose of the point system and cash reward on the forum is so our members post clear answers on the forums. We are going to review all answered posts by end of the month and remove some of them as accepted answers if they fall in these categories.

The following types of answers will not be accepted as ANSWERED posts.

If you post one or more links to external site by googling saying here is the solutions. This is actually not worth rewarding.
If you ask users to send you project and do not post clear solution on the forums.
Duplicate answer that somebody already has replied same. This is not recommended. Please do not answer if same answer is already posted. Our goal is not to make cash by posting unwanted replies more than once.

Thank you for your support!
Cheers!

7 Replies

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Sam Hobbs16y ago
For what it is worth, I don't post links to get points. I post links when it seems obvious that the person has not done the research themself that they should have done. If the person reads the material I have linked to and then has a more specific question, then something useful has been accomplished. If then someone else is able to answer a more specific question that would not have been asked before the additional material is used, then the reference material helped.

I think the points causes confusion. In most forums, links to other sites is totally acceptable. I can understand that links might not be worth points, and that is causing confusion. I think the best solution is to encourage members to do the research themselves. Links can show that answers are easily available.

Another problem is that the points system has two purposes that sometimes contradict. The points depend on the person asking a question to mark the reply that they like the most, but the adminiatrators want the points to help build content useful for the most people possible. Those two goals do not always result in the same thing. Then when we add to that the situations where a member asks a question that has easy answers and they just want someone else to do the work, things get really unclear about what is best.
Mahesh Chand16y ago
- I think forum moderator can look and if an answer that is just a link or not detailed enough and ACCEPTED, can remove the accepted option.
- We do have search option and encourage users to search. We actually display search results automatically as soon you type a question and it changes as you keep tying your question title. We also send possible matches related to a question in email. We also have Our Recommended Articles and Our Recommended Forums Posts in the right side. These results are generated based on a question title ;).
Mahesh Chand16y ago
Keep the feedback coming guys. That's why we're here to discuss and how to come up with the best way to deal with these problems and avoid scams.

Kirtan, Nikhil - There is no need to make answers colorful or bold. They are harsh on eyes. We are reading everything here ;)
Kirtan Patel16y ago
Sorry to saying this Sir dont take me wrongly , but i will not remain silent now about this link posting because its working like cheating here

Giving Link is Very bad Idea in my opinion. in some cases its good to give link but many users here just post links and only links and even after posting link if the person who posted question ask some thing related to that linked article then Link Poster even dont know about it even some time he also dont know whats behid that link he just posted result of google which matched to questions word. He just posted link to gain points ." if user selected his answer then its good for him if not the lets post links in some one else post again. if it works then fine else again post link " this is what users doing here when you allow to links . if you post the link then be ready to give answer what user asks after you posted the links .

if it is matter of just linking here why we are here ??if it is so then every questions answer is just one .

Search google or just go to codeproject.com there we can find every thing there no need to ask here every article is every thing is linked now ?? and yes, what about MSDN ?? its answer to every question right ??? why we are here ??? then ?? every question's answer is MSDN too ...

if this forums working on links then i will post links only why should i write my own code format it for the user , taking screenshots for the user as every thing is ready made available for me there on the internet / MSDN to post here.

we can directly search on google too no need of community if this forums working like this methodology .we are here to share our own knowledge . not to give links what thing is located where if it is then google is there where every one can search every thing even no thing is there that can not be searched on google.

Here are Forum Rule about Links even many members not following it though they get prizes..
Mahesh Chand16y ago
Good feedback San and Sam :)

Yes we are limited in staff and time to allocate a full-time moderator who monitor forums all the time and award points. That would be impossible if forums keep growing. I agree posting links is better than copying and pasting code.

Let's keep bringing new ideas to come up with the best solution and we can implement those. We may also bring more prizes and awards in year 2010.

Cheers!
Sam Hobbs16y ago
I sure agree that it is counter-productive to reward answers in which the code is provided outside of the forums. Since you now provide the ability to post large code samples (in zip files) there is no reason for code samples to not be provided in the forums.

In other forums, such as the CodeGuru, CodeProject and MSDN forums, developers are encouraged to search for answers and to read the documentation. I don't like providing answers to other developers that don't do that; I think they will get in the habit if using the forums instead of doing what they should do themselves. Yet in the C# Corner forums, if I don't provide an answer that the person could easily find themself, then someone else would get the points. I therefore support not encouraging members to ask questions that can easily be answered.

I think that the subject of providing external links is not as easy as it appears. I expect that members will simply copy sample code from an external link and paste it in a reply and then expect to get points for that. In my opinion, it is much better to provide a link to information than to copy and paste the information. Yet that would be more work for C# Corner administrators to montior, so the solution is not as clear as we would prefer.
Santhosh N16y ago
The ideal way to handle and reduce spam is to have a dedicated moderator for moderating the answers and award points to the posters say 10 points for extraordinary, 5 to better and ... for the answers instead of solely depending on the question posters acceptance which i feel is ruling over here atleast from some of the instances i have seen in just a short while ever since i am active over here (just a week or so)