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

I spend a lot of time in these forums trying to help other people solve their problems rather than looking for solutions. The new “feature” makes my job harder by adding unnecessary clutter to every post I read, even to those from myself. It makes looking at the profile info at the bottom of the posts (which I must do every time before replying) particularly painful.

Is there a way to disable that “feature” or, at the very least, make it less prominent? If not, could someone please consider this post as a feature request? It’s driving me insane.

TIA.

PS: Before someone replies saying that it’s no big deal, please note that I’m talking about reading (and writing) a lot of posts which don’t solve my issue each and every day.

iMac G5 17" (iSight), Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Nov 6, 2006 9:29 PM

Best reply

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Posted on Nov 6, 2006 9:48 PM

I agree with you David - most annoying.

It seems unfortunate that while so many niggles remain, like regular major slow-downs, a not really finished Search function etc. - we should be saddled with something like this too.

& it's sure to increase any newcomers confusion regarding Solved,Helpfuls & points.

So Please apple - take it away - make it tinier, let us opt in/out of it being there.

View in context

83 replies

joeuu

Level 5

5,089 points

Nov 7, 2006 4:08 PM in response to R C-R

It is also pretty cool that a mouse-over or mouse-hover on either the new Yes or No button yields the same result--i.e. That the issue IS solved?

Sloppy HTML

Joe

Barry

Level 9

59,867 points

Nov 7, 2006 4:36 PM in response to David Gimeno Gost

Add me to the negatives as well, for all of the reasons already listed.

So if it doesn't affect the display of the message, and it doesn't affect points or levels of the authors, what IS the purpose of these annoying new buttons?

Barry

Nov 8, 2006 12:31 AM in response to Barry

IF you remove all your cookies-the buttons come up again.
Seems to be that you can only press yes/no once while logged in.

Nov 8, 2006 2:34 AM in response to mrtotes

Sorry Adam,

To answer your question: yes.

This would send a message that we are all in agreement with David.

How would the 'Powers That Be' cope with the paradox?

Dictionary definitions:

Endless loop: see Loop, endless.

Loop, endless: see Endless loop.

As with the old system of positive/negative votes, I see this as a way of rorting the system. Never mind that there are no points awarded. This system is open to abuse.

Nov 8, 2006 7:56 AM in response to David Gimeno Gost

One more voice here to add to the general consensus. I agree with everything negative contributed already. The Announcement is confusing in the extreme. The Yes/No text makes no sense. The fact that the rollover tooltips are the same for both buttons is inexcusable. This is totally ridiculous. No marks at all to whomever came up with it.

Nov 8, 2006 12:27 PM in response to Jim MacCormaic

Darn.....Here I thought Apple had given me "supreme powers" to decide for everyone else whether the "topic solved the post??? Perhaps this is a test run for perks afforded to the coming Level 6?

BTW, I'm very much against this added question. The language used makes absolutely no sense at all. If anything, it ought to read "did this reply solve the original question?" and be hidden from the OP. As it stands, it sure adds confusion to the thread.

iMac G5 Rev C 20" 2.5gb RAM 250 gb HD/iBook G4 1.33 ghz 1.5gb RAM 40 gb HD Mac OS X (10.4.8) LaCie 160gb d2 HD Canon i960 printer

F Shippey

Level 7

21,500 points

Nov 8, 2006 1:47 PM in response to David Gimeno Gost

It may just serve a 'housekeeping' function. Since the button refers to the topic (in general) and not a message (in particular), perhaps Apple wants to gage the usefulness of a topic so that 'useful' topics do not roll off the AD as fast as 'non-useful' topics.

Tuttle

Level 7

29,541 points

Nov 8, 2006 2:05 PM in response to F Shippey

perhaps Apple wants to gage the usefulness of a topic so that 'useful' topics do not roll off the AD as fast as 'non-useful' topics.

I think it's more likely that these poll results have nothing to do with the usefulness of specific topics or posts to its customers, but to the general usefulness of Apple Discussions to Apple.

TildeBee

Level 7

31,917 points

Nov 8, 2006 8:03 PM in response to David Gimeno Gost

As one of our venerable L-4's mentioned elsewhere --

Hover your cursor over each button.
BOTH of them are programmed to be positive,
i.e., both of them say:
"Click to mark that this topic solved your issue."
The "NO" button has the same message.

So, according to the explanation of the full import
both are positive responses.

So it really doesn't matter what the original intent was really.
Both buttons initiate the same response.
Now, that "Think Different" if I ever saw it !!!!

andyBall_uk

Level 7

20,516 points

Nov 9, 2006 2:06 AM in response to TildeBee

Hi Bee

although the hover text says 'solved' for each button - the code does actually produce different results for each one. A yes gives a "threadrate = 1" and a No gives threadrate=2.

The whole thing smacks of being hurriedly knocked together for some reason - I wish they'd do something constructive instead, like making the specs visible in the reply window as just one little example.

mrtotes

Level 6

11,836 points

Nov 9, 2006 3:07 AM in response to HD

I'd even quibble Apple's use of the word feature. 😉 As the announcement states that it doesn't actually do anything; does it even qualify as a feature?

Hope all is well is Bath (my work rents a property in Marshfield for a couple of us to use but I haven't been down for a while!).

mrtotes

JMEH

Level 4

2,470 points

Nov 9, 2006 5:47 AM in response to mrtotes

I think if the entire premise is to retain usable threads that do solve a good number of issues, than only the YES button should be displayed. The number of YES clicks would determine whether the topic answered or helped. The number of NO buttons are useless and take up some of bandwidth...

YES clicks would show something, NO clicks would indicate nothing at all as far as any database is concerned. So, whoever came up with the idea, think about it, one less button , less clutter and you still get good info...

mrtotes - Thanks for the other thing, much appreciated! From the now brilliant azure BLUE skies of the Northeast - Rick

iMac G5 iSight 20" - 30G iPOD in Slimming Black - Mac OS X (10.4.7) - HP Pav 15" WS and Toshiba Sat 17" WS LP's - Canon 20D & A620

Nov 9, 2006 5:55 AM in response to mrtotes

I'd even quibble Apple's use of the word feature. 😉 As the announcement states that it doesn't actually do anything; does it even qualify as a feature?

Might I suggest it qualifies as a feature but one that just happens to be lacking any discernable purpose ... which I'll have to admit probably doesn't make it the best sort of feature one could hope for.

Personally, I have no intention of using the feature. My main concern with the change, though, is that it may further reduce the number of Original Posters that participate in the Apple Discussions' egregious and ineffective Rewards System.

I don't want to re-open that can of worms again other than to say that we now have one year's worth of evidence that most OP's aren't interested in clicking any buttons ( Helpful, Solved or Answered).

Of the small number of OP's that are inclined to mark their posts in the first place, how many will be confused by this new option, i.e. how many will say " Yes this topic solved my issue" and assume the "game" is over?

My guess is that it will be quite a few.

mrtotes

Level 6

11,836 points

Nov 9, 2006 7:41 AM in response to JMEH

If that is what is going to happen then I would be for the feature so that the most useful/common posts could be retained for other OPs but the announcement clearly states that it will not alter how these posts are displayed.

I like your idea of a single button per thread (not per post) which read "Would this thread be of value to other users?".

I think the main issue here is that everyone bar none who has posted in this thread is someone who routinely comes to Discussions to participate rather than solve issues (although I for one certainly ask questions too!) so in our cases the Question "Did this topic solve your issue? " rarely applies.

mrtotes

P.S. It was a great catch in the other post so the least I could do; plus a gentle reminder to me how machine specific issues can be! 😉

Now if ony I could remember what a blue sky looked like!

Jpfresno

Level 4

3,020 points

Nov 9, 2006 2:19 PM in response to andyBall_uk

although the hover text says 'solved' for each button
- the code does actually produce different results
for each one. A yes gives a "threadrate = 1" and a No
gives threadrate=2.

Hi andy. How did you find that? Genius.

Not much to add to the voluminous above. PITA

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