Why was my question marked solved?

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1

Thank you for solving one problem.
But the unknown consumption from grid, when being off-grid, still exists.

People, who is so “trigger happy” to click the Solution button?
Again, isn’t it supposed to be the prerogative of the OP, when it considers that ALL his/her problems are solved?
And now that the system is keep reminding you that it’s nice to click on Solution, if the issues are solved, isn’t it nice to let the user decide? Or at least have the courtesy to send the user a mail and suggest it, before taking actions?
I know that I may be malicious when I am saying that it became a habit for the moderators to abuse of this “power” and to click for one another this button. And sometimes even for oneself. Just because you are in agreement with your colleague, press the Like button and don’t “steal” the OP the joy of marking the solution.
No offense, Guy @guystewart , what do you think?

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Thanks for splitting the topic.

I know that some users forget to click on Solution, but this is why the reminders to click on solutions exists on the right side of the page.
Clicking almost immediately on the Solution button, on behalf of the user, somehow defeats the purpose of these reminders, not to mention that it’s somehow rude, like you don’t trust the ability of the user to take decisions on himself/herself…

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Hi @alexpescaru

No offence taken

In this case I don’t think I was the one to mark your question as solved BUT

In general since the relaunch of the community I made an executive decision to be more proactive with solving, and closing questions that get answered.

There is a 14 day window after getting marked solved for the original poster to respond and potentially remove it if they disagree.

I agree it’s our preference for the Original Poster to do this themselves, however historically, by vast vast statistical majority they do not.

This causes two problems,

1 - Most people just leave and never to return once they have a solution, that’s fine and expected, but it means a successfully answered question is left in the same status as an unsuccessfully answered one indefinitely.

If the solution wasn’t correct, and it might happen even from an authoritative source like a Victron employee fixing a bug in software, then it can be undone.

But the inverse, someone coming back to later to mark as solved just doesn’t happen most of the time.

2 - a solved problem is resurrected months, or sometimes even years later by someone else entirely that has a vaguely similar sounding issue, rather than creating their own new post.

This causes all sorts of problems keeping track, especially where the OPs problem was solved, and the new problem is something quite different.

Marking solved stops this from occurring.

So far, despite the occasional reversible false positive, I think it’s an overall improvement in protocol.

2 Likes
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Hi @alexpescaru , that was my bad, I marked it as solved.

I think what would help here is to keep 1 topic for one issue. In this case, a solution was fixed, but you are right, for the other problem there isn’t a solution yet.

2 Likes
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As long as you / the mods “manually” review if something could be marked resolved (due to 14 day inactivity) that’ll be fine.

But automatically setting something as “solved” should be avoided.

This is done on the Microsoft Q&A site - Solved answers are even highlighted in Google - but 95% of them are just not solved, but marked so due to lack of further activity by the TC.

I’d rather prefer to have only 5% marked as solved, but then finding an answer there over having everything marked as solved due to age - while there is no finite answer to the individual topic.

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I didn’t mention it, but that is another reason to be proactive in marked solving, it prevents run-on discussions and conversations from getting too out of hand.

I’m not aggressive in moderating this most of the time, but the predominant intended structure of the site is one of question and answer, not ongoing back and forth discussion threads.

People tend to get attached to their “post” and will happily run it on with their list of issues, but it makes effective discovery much harder for search engines and other users and one of my key priorities in running this community is to make Victron information easier to find and more discoverable.

1 Like
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Only staff or the OP can accept a solution. Nothing is automated. Only the closing of the topic is automated - 14 days after an accepted solution.

3 Likes
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Thanks for response.

This is why I’ve suggested a “grace period” before considering the user is not coming back and warrant the marking the solution on his behalf.
But sometimes the solutions are marked by moderators instantly and that, in my opinion, is not so nice, as I’ve said above, like you don’t trust the ability of the user to take decisions on himself…
I’ve seen situations where the OP answered after a few minutes and tell the person who gave the answer (and instantly got the “Solved” mark), that isn’t what he meant and the answer is somehow off. What about that…

I am remembering an old quote from the MASH 4077 series, where Col. Potter said:
There’s a right way and a wrong way to do everything and the wrong way is to keep trying to make everybody else do it the right way…

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I am not sure I understand your post, but things are not marked solved automatically.

A human on the site is clicking the button manually and deliberately. It just isn’t necessarily the original poster because they have proven overall to be ineffective at it.

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That was my question, yes.

Then it’s all good.

1 Like
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There are too many posts to add that kind of moderation overhead, and answered posts fall behind.

We are doing OK now in keeping up with the flow, but I am intent on keeping things moving.

I understand there is a grey zone, the 2 week grace period is given to the OP to come back and remove the solved label if it was incorrectly applied.

12

True.
I will keep that in mind.

1 Like
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At least, considering your experience with Victron products, you’ll be able to say if the answer is correct or not and take accordingly actions.
What I am trying to say here is that also the “solved” cases should undergo some validation.
Because to err is human and for sure I will not take the stone first…

Anyway, thank you for allowing the debate.

1 Like
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To clarify, I am not just talking personally, but also to the advice I’ve given to other moderators as well.

The validation/verification step is the OP undo-ing the solved mark, or otherwise complaining.

There isn’t a systematic review of solved questions that I do. Though I do look at lots of community posts I tend to prioritise those that are still unanswered.