Launchpad itself

What happened to hilighting for the "best answer"?

Asked by Jim Hutchinson

I'm a bit to the answer tracker so I may not know the whole history of this, but I'm wondering why the new release of Launchpad does away with highlighting of the "best answer". I know I complained before that sometimes more than one offered answer helped in solving the problem, but now there is no way to know which one helped. This seems a step backwards. When a user searches for a potential solution they will now not know how a problem was solved if they find a thread similar to their own problem - especially if the thread has several answers. We can assume that it was the last one but that may or may not be correct. What happens if the solution was two parts? Shouldn't both of those be highlighted rather than neither so it's easier for a newcomer to follow the fix?

I know this was discussed a lot in bug 107810 but I'm confused by the implementation of the solution. The solution seems a good approach but keeping the highlighting seems desirable.

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Curtis Hovey
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Best Curtis Hovey (sinzui) said : 		#1

There is now a distinction between SOLVED by owner and ANSWERED by user. Owner solved question are not highlighted as answers. User submitted answers that are chosen by the 'This solved my problem' button will be highlighted.

There is a gross number of questions that state that the owner solved the issue, when it is clear from reading the messages that a user's answer is in fact correct. There is a large number of Questions that highlight the wrong message as the answer because the owner choose his or her own message (probably by mistake). Many users were probably not aware that they have not given recognition to the Launchpad members who helped.

We have changed the question workflow to permit the question owner to choose the 'Problem solved' button without choosing an answer, because this appears to be how many users wish to communicate that the question is solved. We show a reminder notice asking the question owner to choose a user submitted answer if one helped him or her arrive at the solution. We think questions owners will understand that the members of Launchpad community expect recognition for their efforts.

Consider this recent question:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/10016
Reading it, I know that Cesare Montedonico Answered the question, but Annihilan listed himself as the solver when he posted his message. So I can say I am disappointed that Annihilan did not notice, or take action to mark Cesare Montedonico message as the answer with the 'This solved my problem' button. In all honesty, I think we need need to remove the word 'solved' from that button; I suspect that it's name is too similar to the owner button that users think they are doing the right thing.

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Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#2

Thanks Curtis Hovey, that solved my question.

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Jim Hutchinson (jphutch) said : 		#3

Curtis. Thanks for the info. I do think the new model is an improvement but I think more can be done to make it more clear for users and make sure all those helping actually get credit. To that end, I've posted a blueprint. I'm not entirely sure how to do all this so if you or anyone can offer any suggestions I'd appreciate it. Or just modify the blueprint as needed.

https://blueprints.launchpad.net/launchpad-answers/+spec/shared-recognition

Thanks again.