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Feature request: Mark problem solutions

By Christian Scheuer @chrscheuer
    2020-12-11 18:19:14.215Z

    Right now, our users post "Problems" in our "Support" category, and "Questions" in our "How to" section.

    This mostly works.

    However, quite often, a user has posted a problem for which we find a solution. Currently, a problem can just be marked Closed / Fixed, but a problem cannot have a solution.
    It would be great if we didn't have to go through all the steps of changing the page type to a question before being able to mark a solution for the problem.

    It's worth considering whether or not a Problem should indeed also have the ability to have a solution (when you think about it in natural language, obviously problems have solutions).

    Solved in post #4, click to view
    • 9 replies
    1. Seems like a good idea to me.

      Maybe in a way ideas can have "solutions" too — say someone posts an Idea: "Let's make it possible to Fizz the Buzz". Then, some people reply: "I also want to do that", and "Me too", and "I use this workaround" — and eventually someone says: "This is already possible, do like so: ...".

      Then, the forum mods could rephrase the topic as a Question (edit the title to "How do I Fizz the Buzz?") and change the topic type — but maybe it'd be just simpler to mark the "This is already possible" reply as a ... solution? to the idea. Or what's the right word here. Question — Answer, Problem — Solution, Idea — ... implementation? How-to? Idea — Solution?

      Edit: Googling for "problems and solutions" (incl the quotes) yields 38 M hits, and "ideas and solutions" gives 24 M hits.

      1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
          2020-12-13 12:30:32.222Z

          Gotcha. I think the wording is something you could potentially change (just in the ui) for the more weird combinations later on.
          But yea, essentially, it would be great to not have to force it to become a question to be able to mark a solution.

          My hunch would be to call it all "Solution", at least as a starting point. It's too narrow to call something "Implementation". It wouldn't fit all types of answers to such a post that you'd like to mark as a solution.

        • In reply tochrscheuer:

          Ok now this should work. I'll change this topic to an Idea, and mark this reply as the Solution ...

          Reply2 LikesSolution
          1. ... It worked :- )

            But this is slightly fragile. There're auto tests for the old behaviour (Questions and Answers, Ideas Done and Problems Fixed),
            but not yet for the new Problem & Solution and Idea & Solution code.

            @chrscheuer I upgrade Prod earlier today so you can use this feature now

            1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                2020-12-20 20:54:28.657Z

                Awesome, thank you, I already noticed it :)

                1. CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                    2020-12-20 20:55:51.906Z

                    On another note – did you already make the change so that all threads are sorted by post date (instead of popularity)? I feel like I may have seen examples where it didn't feel turned on yet, but other examples where it felt like it was.

                    1. Old topics remains sorted by best (popular) first, until Talkyard re-renders those topics for some reason, e.g. someone posts a reply.

                      Or a Like vote could make that happen too I think. E.g. clicking Like, reloading the page, sort order changes?
                      Then maybe toggle the Like vote off (if you did that just to "bump" the sort order).

                      I think some time later, there can be a background job that slowly re-renders all topics, if changing sort order.
                      However then Ty would need to be a bit careful, so it won't self-DoS itself.

                    2. In reply tochrscheuer:
                      CChristian Scheuer @chrscheuer
                        2020-12-28 17:54:48.633Z

                        This change is great :) Also - merry Christmas - hope you're enjoying your holidays!

                        1. Thanks, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year you too