Top Answer Feature on Beginners and Help Board

[Coin_trader]

I recently searched for an answer online in a different forum about the software I'm currently using. I just saw a forum that contains an exact question to mine and it has a special tag on the bottom part of the post that indicates the link to the solution same as the image provided below.




Then I notice that on our own search feature, There's a specific post showing on each thread result of my search which contains the words that I'm searching for. But when you go directly to the post, It didn't answer the question due to the obvious reason of keyword search.




I'm just wondering if it's possible to show only the top answer post which will be determined by the number of merits received of that particular answer the best possible method that community suggest below. I know that this impossible since this additional work to the forum. Just a suggestion for the future version of Bitcointalk.

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[NeuroticFish]

The top answer is not necessarily the one with the most merits. One example can easily be that somebody goes somewhat off-topic and that "branch" gets more merit.
Also in many cases the best answer goes unmerited, like the whole topic.

And, most important: this is a discussion forum, not a "fix my problem" forum, hence in many cases/topics there cannot be a best answer because the topic itself was not a question (and automatically picking an automated answer would look unprofessional at best).

[Maus0728]

When searching for a specific topic that comes from bitcointalk, I usually use the colon as my primary search parameter to search for keywords only in bitcointalk. It looks like this if I am searching topics related to Merit or How to rank up.

Code:

Ranking up:bitcointalk.org

However, I do not think the quantity of merits has anything to do with your problem. I mean, even if the issue has tons of merits but does not provide a solution to your concern, it may be meaningless, as opposed to unmerited/received few merits but solves your question, right?

[Coin_trader]

The top answer is not necessarily the one with the most merits. One example can easily be that somebody goes somewhat off-topic and that "branch" gets more merit.
Also in many cases the best answer goes unmerited, like the whole topic.

And, most important: this is a discussion forum, not a "fix my problem" forum, hence in many cases/topics there cannot be a best answer because the topic itself was not a question (and automatically picking an automated answer would look unprofessional at best).

Thanks for the comment. I forgot to indicate that the feature focuses on Beginner and Help board same as the screenshot that I attached. I understand that some best answers are still unmerited but this feature might help them to finally give them credits properly? Besides, I noticed that merit sources usually spend a lot of merits on this board so technically they will be the ones who will decide on the best answer by giving the required merits in able to become the top answer.

The merit is just my assumption criteria. you should not focus on that.  Thanks for the reply guys!

[DdmrDdmr]

<…>

It’s likely that, often, the answer really comes from an aggregate of bits and pieces from multiple posts, probably read in their original sequential order. Ordering by merits, whilst it may prove to be interesting in some cases, loses track of the proper context by resorting the sequence of posts.

I’m not acquainted with Bitcointalk custom scripts, but there is one by @hatshepsut93 that sorted the 10th Anniversary contest by Merits, though it looks generic and it may work on any thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5194870.msg52836909#msg52836909

[Bitcoin_Arena]

Bitcointalk search function results can sometimes be very annoying, especially if what you are searching for what has been posted in the board multiple times. You end up getting old useless posts while the new ones don't even show up in the search results.

I suggest you use tools like ninjastic.space. You can try to narrow down to the kind of search results you need. It may not be as accurate as the feature you want, but it's much better than forum's such function. I always use it.

[bitmover]

I recently searched for an answer online in a different forum about the software I'm currently using. I just saw a forum that contains an exact question to mine and it has a special tag on the bottom part of the post that indicates the link to the solution same as the image provided below.

As others have said, this is not something that we can expect to see here anytime soon

But I would like that feature. Not for beginners & Help only, but also for technical support boards.

I think this would be amazing.

The creator of the topic could choose between the normal format, pool (which we already have) or question/answer format.

[NeuroticFish]

or question/answer format.

This would open the door for a feature like what OP has been asking indeed (nice idea!).

For the rest, as I said, I fear that it has better chance to look unprofessional than actually be helpful. And to avoid this, I think that the most useful approach can be user scripts. (But I fear that if one can make use of the user scripts, he can also find better ways to search too).

[Upgrade00]

I'm in agreement with the bulk of responses here. Sorting replies by merits would be a very bad metric and make it quite difficult to follow discussions, as not all topics are questions requiring answers. It would also be misleading as many replies and topics (helpful or not) go without receiving any merits at all due to where they were posted or how far down the thread they are.

Userscripts are one solution. Another community generated one, would be the OP quoting the most helpful reply to them into the topic. This would be down to the discretion of the thread starter and may not be overall accurate, but could be a pointer to what posts to check out. Or just read through the discussion and filter the replies yourself.

[Smartvirus]

In line with the responses given, I must iterate that some threads or responses to them is likely not to get the most merit and that doesn't make it a bad post or project it to be irrelevant to your search. Even views on them doenst count and as such, the keyword search seems to be the best way to go. Reason being that, there are several materials in the form of threads or responses on them that treats a topic sentence and these topics are created repeatedly.

Hence, its difficult to narrow it down without you even getting to get the title in exact that relates to your question. Perhaps the ninjastic.space might be your best option to narrowing things things down. Although, there are functions on the forum that helps to narrow your search range down to specific boards or even user if need be. Keywords might be one good option as, the answer you seek is likely not to be in a thread or not discussed conclusively in a thread and as such, it gives you the variability you need to access several materials.

[OgNasty]

I think it’s a great idea but likely hard to implement. I don’t think using merit as the sorting method would be the best way to do it as others have stated.

A simple way to implement something like this might be to give the OP the ability to pin a reply as the first response so that they can select the response they felt best helped them. This could also lead to cool other uses to make threads more entertaining.

[Welsh]

Sorting by merit is a bad idea when it comes to solutions like others have mentioned. Though, you could use one of the userscripts which were posted here that does allow that, if you have some sort of reason too.

A simple way to implement something like this might be to give the OP the ability to pin a reply as the first response so that they can select the response they felt best helped them. This could also lead to cool other uses to make threads more entertaining.

Yeah, that's how I see this working as it is with other forums out there. The only problem with this, is it wouldn't happen a lot. A lot of questions come from newbies, which are here specifically for that question, and generally don't have any interest in continuing to post. So, likely a lot of them wouldn't pin these solutions either.

The other option is to have a community based voting system, but that probably isn't perfect, and has room for abuse or misuse, since not everyone will agree on the solution to the question. Even when there's a rather narrow scope for the answer, you might only get partial information from one user, and then another one expands onto the point. So, either way probably isn't a perfect system.  

[hugeblack]

Rearranging replies according to a specific mechanism, for example merits, account rank, and others may be good and useful in some boards such as technical one, but the best answer mechanism is against the nature of the discussions followed by the forum.

Getting the best answer does not mean that the user's problem has been resolved, and therefore even in technical discussions, it will not be very useful.

Rearranging replies  according to a given option or letting the user choose that would be a convenient solution, I think you can rearrange it in reverse (last replies first,) so I think adding "highest merits first" wouldn't be difficult.

[Despairo]

I think this feature is good to be implemented, but it's not limited to Beginners and Help board only. IMO only moderators can have this feature to arrange the good answer or the author that made a self-moderated thread (because the author can act like a moderator in his own thread). It could be abused, but trust feedback and active flag can warn the other users.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

And, most important: this is a discussion forum, not a "fix my problem" forum,

Totally agree with you, this is exactly what I thought while reading OP's post.
And I totally understand what op meant because i am a member of an android forum where users of Android devices of different brands go to, to post the problems they are experiencing on their devices seeking for solution(s), on that kind of forums, what op is proposing comes in handy for those who have the same problem, because it will save them the time of having to scroll through irrelevant replies on the thread.
But on this kind of forum which like you said "a discussion forum", such feature wont work because not every post or thread created here is a "problem seeking solution" kind of post or thread.

[OgNasty]

The other option is to have a community based voting system, but that probably isn't perfect, and has room for abuse or misuse, since not everyone will agree on the solution to the question. Even when there's a rather narrow scope for the answer, you might only get partial information from one user, and then another one expands onto the point. So, either way probably isn't a perfect system.  

Community based anything here is likely to not work due to the manipulation of community members and the urge to create multiple accounts to have an oversized influence on whatever the issue is.  Just look at the DT network.  It's more of a fear based system to get in line with the manipulators or face continued attacks via having trust inclusions removed or being outright distrusted for not going along with empowering manipulators.  I can only imagine how if left up to the community this would become yet another way they attack users.  The "community" here is really a much smaller number than most think with a lot more alts than most believe could be true.  

[Pmalek]

You end up getting old useless posts while the new ones don't even show up in the search results.

There is a way to adjust that. When you search for something, pay attention to the Message age field. It's set to between 0 and 9999 days by default, so just adjust that to a shorter timeframe. For example, 0-31 days if you are sure the post/thread you are searching for was written sometimes in the last month.