Changing highlighted "solved" answer

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Level 3

598 points

Changing highlighted "solved" answer

Hi,

I had searched for this but only found very old content around this. Sorry if this has been addressed before.

I am helping out with a popular discussion thread that has a lot of incorrect information in it. Even worse, the answer that has been identified as "solved" is objectively false, and is pure nonsense. Users are coming to this thread from search engines very often and do not read the middle posts, and the highlighted solved answer is doing so much more harm than good.

Is there any way a moderator can adjust what this answer is, or if not, then modify the solved post with a footnote explaining that this is not endorsed by the actual vendor of the software having the issue and is not the correct answer?

For context, the issue is regarding Chrome and the Chromium team has gone on the record acknowledging the bug in the issue tracker, but the "solved" answer tells the user to reset their NVRAM, perhaps the most over dispensed piece of catchall advice in the entire Apple community. 😟 😟 😟

Thank you!

Posted on Mar 5, 2018 6:30 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

BobTheFisherman

Level 9

79,237 points

Mar 5, 2018 6:38 PM in response to Sam M.

The solved indicator can not be changed. You can add to the thread adding what you think is the correct solution. Only the thread originator can mark a post solved. So the originator must have thought the post solved their problem.

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Answer 2

Sam M. Author

Level 3

598 points

Mar 5, 2018 6:47 PM in response to BobTheFisherman

Thanks Bob, this is what I feared. The solved solution only happens to help (temporarily) because it is a byproduct of restarting another background process. I "reported" the post with a similar explanation, but I assume I will not receive the outcome of my report.

Anyway, I am emotionally divesting from this other topic since it's not realistic to expect others to read the entire contents of the thread, and there is no other practical way to share/highlight accurate information once an incorrect answer has been highlighted as Solved. This limitation on the Solved indicator is very unfortunate and I wish there was a mechanism so new readers are not misled in situations like this.

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Answer 3

Mar 6, 2018 10:10 AM in response to Sam M.

Although maybe not a perfect process I think the way it is currently implemented is ok. If anyone could change the solved indicator then we would have an unmanageable situation where problems could repeatedly oscillate between solved and unsolved. If the hosts could change the solved indicator they would need a much larger staff of system experts to review all threads and mark them accordingly.

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Answer 4

Sam M. Author

Level 3

598 points

Mar 6, 2018 10:10 AM in response to BobTheFisherman

Good point. Having to change it is more of an edgecase than anything, but when the wrong one is highlighted, it could potentially cause a lot of damage to unsuspecting users. Not in this case, but executing malicious commands in terminal, etc.

Thanks again for your reply (and your contributions to this community 😎)

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Answer 5

Mar 6, 2018 5:44 PM in response to Sam M.

Executing malicious terminal commands is a separate issue. If a post included such commands it would likely be that a more experienced member would alert the hosts to the situation and the hosts would edit the post containing the malicious commands. Situations often arise where posters post links to malicious sites and the hosts are alerted and edit the offending post.

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Changing highlighted "solved" answer

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