Hi, John.
The MVP award is not a popularity contest and unfortunately that is what
the web interface is promoting.
You mean a questioner might skip the first correct response to his question
and then mark only the correct response of a more popular poster as an
answer? Nah, I don't believe it. . . .
http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...6cd0&mid=0c97d905-7647-462d-b80c-8746fa816cd0
The idea is to create a searchable database of solutions to problems that
researchers can use to quickly find what they need, and to post questions
when they don't find the answers they were looking for. That intention has
nothing to do with the MVP Award or a popularity contest, but there are
observable side effects present where these factors apparently influence
which posts get added to the database of answers.
The MVP's are more well-known and are a little more likely to have their
replies marked as answers than non-MVP's, but I believe non-MVP's can get a
sort of "name brand recognition" to improve the chance of getting their
correct replies marked as answers, too. To test my theory, I became a
member of the Microsoft Community about a year ago and started posting
answers from the Web. The quality of my answers didn't change, but my
chances of getting my replies marked as an answer increased four-fold when I
answered a question using Microsoft's Web newsreader, vice using Outlook
Express, which I'd been using for years and I had thought had earned me some
familiarity within the Access community.
My member profile gave me visibility in that questioners could see that I'd
answered others' questions previously, since each member's profile displays
the number of questions answered correctly and how many different users have
been helped by the member. I think it's because people could see that I was
probably giving them the same high-quality answer that I'd given a lot of
other people previously, which gave them the confidence to mark my reply.
People didn't seem to have that same confidence when I answered their
questions while using Outlook Express.
If you want to call that increased visibility "popularity," then so be it.
I can report that it had a noticeable and measurable effect.
Also, the web interface dos not give an indication of the quality of the
answer.
Microsoft is approaching this with the reasoning that the reputation of the
poster indicates the quality of the answer given, instead of hiring or
getting volunteer judges to judge the merit of individual posts. In their
system, either an MVP or any member who has earned a contributor level badge
indicates a poster who gives high quality answers.
Google Groups has recently introduced a star rating system so that readers
can indicate the quality of any given post, but since it's fairly new, not
many replies have been given a rating. It will take time for such a system
to become a reliable means of quickly researching solutions to a problem.
And there's currently no way to sort on rated answers, so I hope Google
introduces this feature, as I think a star rating system holds the most
promise.
Other than Google Groups and Microsoft's Web newsreaders, I know of no other
publicly available system that indicates the quality of answers posted in
any newsgroup threads. The logistics to carry out a quality control system
for answers requires extra effort and resources, so I can see why this area
has been neglected.
What percentage of the answers actually get acknowledged as being helpful?
Last time I checked was about six months ago and 13% of questions in the
Access newsgroups had replies marked as answers.
In my home turf of the Visio newsgroups, less than ten percent of my
answers are acknowledged with an indication that they were helpful.
Different newsgroups have different rates. The rate is generally a function
of the amount of traffic (the higher the number of questions posted means
more people have been there before and are familiar with marking answers,
and may be more inclined to do so), difficulty level of the questions
(easier questions get replies marked as answers more frequently because the
questioner is more certain that it is indeed the correct answer), the skill
level of the responders, and the number of responders available (additional
experts available to correct any incorrect replies means the questioner can
read and understand the discussion on why one solution may be better than
another).
If you want to compare your rate to Access MVP's rates, six months ago
Access MVP's ranged from 7% to 19% for number of posts marked as answers,
with the average at 14%. Unfortunately, that includes posts advising people
that they were posting in the wrong newsgroup or multiposting, which aren't
going to earn marks as correct answers, so this phenomenon skews the average
for the individuals who are the most active in guiding people to the correct
newsgroups and in how to best post to get replies.
And if you think there's a low acknowledgement rate, there's something you
can do about it. It's not just the original poster who may mark a post as
an answer to the question. MVP's can sign in to the Microsoft Online
Community and mark posts as answers, too. Also, any member can sign in and
mark replies as "helpful" if they didn't post the question themselves.
There's a finite time period when a post can be marked, because after nine
weeks threads age off of the server. So if you see any outstanding replies
to questions that have been neglected by the questioner, feel free to sign
in as an MVP and mark the answers so that they go into Microsoft's
searchable answer database.
Though handy for the general user, the web interface is not designed for
how most MVPs read the newsgroups.
I'm not an MVP, so I must be one of your general users. I can tell you that
the Web interface ain't handy for responders, unless one has a tool that
automates it, as I do. Responders answering and following multiple threads
on a regular basis should be using a different tool than a Web newsreader,
if one is available.
HTH.
Gunny
See
http://www.QBuilt.com for all your database needs.
See
http://www.Access.QBuilt.com for Microsoft Access tips and tutorials.
http://www.Access.QBuilt.com/html/expert_contributors2.html for contact
info.
