OP question follow up encouragement idea suggestion

[CanadaEh]

Ideally we'd have a system that would:

1. Allow people to choose a setting when creating a thread to designate that it is something that they are looking for answers on versus just providing information or wanting a general discussion
2. After a certain amount of time, the system automatically sends an email to the original poster asking them to come back to the thread and mark it as resolved, and or Mark a specific post as the best answer
3. Support a robust best answer system that allows the tracking and viewing of individual best answers

This would be a very complicated system to set up, and it's hard to know if it would even be used, or if most people would just ignore it.

The first 2 items could be as easy as adding another check mark option to thread creation page that is checked by default (would you say at least 98% of threads on BYC are questions?)

Options:

• Watch this thread...
  • and receive email notifications
  • and this is a question or advice seeking thread, remind me to come back to it to mark as resolved, select best answer, or provide a follow up

 

[CarpCharacin]

How about an enhanced "like" system, one where you could choose a different type of rating for a post? Funny posts could get a funny rating, informative posts an informative rating, etc. I have no idea if something like that is compatible with the BYC software, but I like the idea. Just today I read a really good post by someone and it would have been nice to give it an informative rating, not just a like.
View attachment 1596042

That's the post ratings add-on, I used to use that exact add-on on my own site on XF1. Not sure if it's something that we could consider implementing here though, because XenForo 2.1 has it built in, and there is no upgrade path for that add-on directly to 2.1, only to 2.0 using another add-on since post ratings isn't built in to 2.0, and we aren't planning to upgrade to 2.0, we'll probably go straight to 2.1.

 

[casportpony]

That's the post ratings add-on, I used to use that exact add-on on my own site on XF1. Not sure if it's something that we could consider implementing here though, because XenForo 2.1 has it built in, and there is no upgrade path for that add-on directly to 2.1, only to 2.0 using another add-on since post ratings isn't built in to 2.0, and we aren't planning to upgrade to 2.0, we'll probably go straight to 2.1.

Which sites are using 2.1? I'd like to check them out.

 

[CarpCharacin]

Which sites are using 2.1? I'd like to check them out.

2.1 is currently in beta, the stable version hasn't been released yet, but https://xenforo.com/community/ is running 2.1.

 

[Shadrach]

I have no idea what for I am receiving likes when welcoming new members. So categories of likes would be nice.

It's a group hug thing.

 

[casportpony]

2.1 is currently in beta, the stable version hasn't been released yet, but https://xenforo.com/community/ is running 2.1.

Very cool!

 

[Shadrach]

All the badges and points thing aside, it would be great if some means of encouraging people to return with a result could be implemented. Even an email reminder would be better than post grave digging.

 

[casportpony]

All the badges and points thing aside, it would be great if some means of encouraging people to return with a result could be implemented. Even an email reminder would be better than post grave digging.

I think that maybe best way to do that would be to post in a way that makes them feel like part of the BYC community.

 

[Shadrach]

I'm not sure that would work. Some of the best (most informative, amusing, most like what I wanted to read) have come from posters very much on the outskirts of the community if such a thing actually exists.
There are posters here, some not so well liked who give excellent answers to questions but they get drowned out by the more popular posters and the 'badge brigade'.

 

[Shadrach]

I see the problem as this.
The forum ethos is based around the idea of a family site where people come and have fun, make small communities, possibly friends if you can do this on the net, and get a wide range of opinions on any questions one might have. I don’t see BYC as a primarily educational site.
For me the problem is there are so many differing opinions given to the various questions that if one is seeking to learn something from the given information one needs to know what happened in the end.
This requires the OP to return to the thread. This would require a small shift in the forums ethos. I have no idea if this would be acceptable to the owners. An email reminder could achieve this.