Idea...

[Keithoms]

Ive had an idea to implement into the forum. How about, when making a post, you get a box you can tick saying, "this is a question". You then post your thread as normal. The OP now has a Solved button on their post. When he/she has got the answer needed, they should click solved and it will lock the thread.

This will stop any accidental old threads being brought up

 

[SuperColey1]

This assumes that the Op knows they have got the correct answer though which may not be the case.

You may get the incorrect answer a couple of times and think same answer from 2 people means that I can click 'solved'. Then when others read it and try to correct the error they can't!!!

This happens time and time again where not necessarily wrong answers are given but there are different opinions on things and it is often helpful to get several different opinions.

An example would be where several breeders use totally different methods, temperatures, practices etc. and therefore it is good to know all their preferences rather than just one or two!!!

AC

 

[OohFeeshy]

It also assumes the forum software can actually do that. Which it can't.

 

[Bignose]

This assumes that the Op knows they have got the correct answer though which may not be the case.

You may get the incorrect answer a couple of times and think same answer from 2 people means that I can click 'solved'. Then when others read it and try to correct the error they can't!!!

This happens time and time again where not necessarily wrong answers are given but there are different opinions on things and it is often helpful to get several different opinions.

An example would be where several breeders use totally different methods, temperatures, practices etc. and therefore it is good to know all their preferences rather than just one or two!!!

AC

This is a huge point -- very often the response the OP wants to hear isn't the correct response. I can imagine a simpler scenario: One of the trillions of "Is this overstocked?" posts where the poster has 842 fish crammed into a 15 gallon tank and the OP closes it the second some other fool says "not overstocked".

There are many, many misconceptions in fishkeeping. I used to be more vigilant about shooting them down with actual citations to science and skepticism, but I admit I haven't had the desire to lately. I just get tired seeing the same misconceptions appear over and over and over again. But, there are out there, and if the OP is asking a question they don't know the answer, how can they know what the correct answer is?

If you need further proof that this idea won't work, just poke around the Yahoo Answers website -- they basically have exactly this system setup where the asker picks the answer they like best. And, the asker very often picks answers that can be proven wrong if you dig up some actual facts. This is the basic idea behind trial lawyers calling expert witnesses to testify -- the average ignorant person cannot and should not decide what is right based on what sounds the best -- you tap the knowledge of experts and use their expertise to help arrive at the best answer.

 

[Tolak]

Yahoo is a perfect example of where this can lead, what a frustrating setup. What's really lovely about Yahoo is if they don't like the proper answer, which is usually not the answer they want to hear, they can report you, to a moderating team that doesn't know squat about fish.

 

[andywg]

Yahoo Answers!

To realise how bad it is you must first watch the story of:

How is babby formed?

The flash movie is the story of a simple question followed by an awful answer. This answer was voted to be the best answer by users of Yahoo Answers, including the original poster.

To turn to any sort of application to this site: bad idea for all of the above noted problems.

 

[Keithoms]

Oh well, was just a passing thought. I could see how this wouldn't work now!