I *hate* the new “Did this topic solve your issue?” feature

To the extent that the generational buzzspeak in which the question is cast can be divined to have either meaning or purpose— how can the 'topic', the central concern of the discussion, as opposed to the discourse itself, 'solve' or bring conclusion to an 'issue' or outcome?—it may be intended as a crude means to evaluate the utility or worth of these discussions. Metonymy meets grandiloquence!

The meaning might well have been clearer in the simple, unadorned and less inflated question, 'Has this discussion helped you?' But wait. There may be improvements to come. We may soon be asked to quantify the 'solutions' on a hedonistic scale of 1 to 10 ... or, in geekthink, 0 to 9?


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Thanks for that, I have done, and it has.

Now I just need to mark some random entry in every post I am active in to make them easier to read.

Regards,
Colin R.

At least you can make it go away by clicking on one
of the choices.

Which also makes no sense. Say the topic doesn't solve your issue (whatever that means) after three posts to it, but later, after 10 posts, it does. Clicking "no" shouldn't opt users out from clicking "yes" later, at least until the thread is closed.

This "feature" needs some serious rethinking.

I understand the why of the new feature

You do? Would you explain to me please? I don't see how you could possibly glean any relevant/valid data from this.

John

I think it will have something to do with points, here's a good example: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=723761&tstart=0 - it's a thread I replied to, now I do not see any buttons anywhere. I assume, others can see this and not the posters or maybe eventually only the OP will be able to see the buttons, almost forcing some points to be handed out...

Do you see the buttons? Rick

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Rick,

The Announcement states

"Submitting your feedback in this way has no effect on the way discussions are displayed, and it won't change the level or point count of those participating in the discussion.".

The OP in the thread you Linked To, marked the topic as answered, but did utilize the Helpfuls or Solved options. They are still available to the OP. "Helpful" answers available: 2. "Solved" answers available: 1.

As you were only a respondent, you will not see them, nor will there be any awards visible to anyone viewing the thread, until the OP marks a post as such.
This is as it has always been. The new feature does not force anything.

ali b

Yes, I see the buttons. You can click on any random Yes/No button and they'll be invisible to you in that thread. The fact that you can click on any random button is what makes this useless (if it is linked to the post and not the thread).

If you read the announcement, this isn't to be tied to points in any way. If it were, you could give yourself points all of the time by clicking on your own replies. I'm sure there's a purpose to this but it's not clear at all.

Rick,

If you no longer see the Yes/No buttons, it means that you have already clicked on one of them in any given thread.
You will not see the buttons there again, but they will still be visible to any other member who has not yet clicked on one.

ali b

David et al,

It certainly sounds like the "nays" have it........has anyone seen something positive yet about the feature been said?

littleshoulders [:-(

Include me in the "nos". This feature adds nothing except confusion.

H

Another resounding NO here too, especially as it's broken already. I just clicked 'Yes' on littleshoulders' post to get rid of the wretched missive and was returned to the top of page 1 of this thread. I then selected page 2, and all the yes/no.s were back.

Ho hum…

Adrian

I just realized how really confusing this feature is!

If my reply to a poster's topic "issue" has the "Did this topic solve your issue" Yes No buttons......why would I want to select if it solved "my" issue? I am not the one with the issue that is being solved. Am I missing something in the logic here? Why would this show in my reply when I am not the one having the original issue?

I think I'm having an "issue" with this feature......I'm sorry but I just don't "get" it!

littleshoulders [:-)

From the announcement:

Clicking the Yes or No button removes the text and lets Apple know if you found the topic helpful.

Perhaps Apple are trying to quantify the overall usefulness of the forums?

Perhaps one should always click "Yes".

H

Perhaps Apple are trying to quantify the overall
usefulness of the forums?

Maybe so, but what it is actually doing is reducing the overall usefulness of the forums to its users. This "feature" needs at least one more button: the "HUH?" button to quantify how confusing it is to users.

Better still, but too long for a button would be the "This is annoying & confusing -- please make it go away" button. More concisely & much more useful, how about a "What was Apple thinking?" button that takes users to an explanation of what this abomination is supposed to be for?

Apart from the extra visual clutter, this new feature also seems confusing to me.

The fact that every post has the boxes makes it look as though one has to rate individual posts, whereas the text implies it's the whole thread.

Also the threads are dynamic, i.e. changing. You might mark a thread as "No", but later a post appears in that thread which does solve your issue. But you can't change your rating. This suggests you should wait before rating a thread as "No" – but how long?

So the system might be good when people use the search facility and check through mature threads. But not so good if they are just browsing through the latest pages.

Suggestions:

• It's a new idea and Apple want people to notice it, so how about displaying it prominently at the top & bottom of every page instead of in every post?

• Have the feature appear automatically when one uses the search facility, but not when browsing through topics via recent pages.

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