Ask GBAtemp is kind of de-motivational for "helpers".

[exangel]

Here's my thing. I like to be helpful. That's what the majority of my post count is from- helping people solve DS flashcart, and computer problems.

Many of our forum members feel this way too. And I think Ask GBAtemp is a great idea.

My problem with Ask GBAtemp is that the more I answer, the less helpful I feel, because people often neglect to choose a best answer even if their problem is resolved.

Please don't think that I'm just being pissy that my ratio is low, I just think the ratio is a bad idea altogether.

I don't have any problem answering people's questions on, for instance, the R4DS or Acekard subforum when much of the time I get no thanks. But that's because I don't see a ratio of my helpfulness get worse and worse the more I try.

Spoiler: Original ideas to improve Ask GBAtemp's motivational system:

• Open questions for a publicly voted answer after an initial time period. The initial time period would be perhaps a 10 days*, during which the question poster could choose the vote, closing the thread off to voting for a best answer.
• A Karma point system, instead of a ratio
• A weighted ranking system for questions that get multiple correct answers; although this might overcomplicate things, it would help prevent weak/neutral answers from getting too much Karma

edit: Though 10 days might be kind of long a time period, the fact that the question remains "unanswered" after that time (although that's only because no best answer was chosen), surely there are a few different ways to ensure that a best answer actually gets voted for after the Poster's time limit ends.

edit2: Such a change to the system would also make it less unappealing to actually discuss the question because multiple posts to the Question Thread don't kill your ranking. Different participants in the discussion may get a weighted "karma point" such as:
+2 Solved question/problem and explained the solution
+1 Provided helpful information that helped resolve the question/problem
+0 Participated in the question's discussion
-1 Provided incorrect, unhelpful, information that wouldn't otherwise be moderated

Third edit (11/28/11) - Revised summary of suggestions:
1. If ratio is kept, don't count multiple responses from the same person as multiple answers (to facilitate troubleshooting without an added penalty to your "best answer" ratio).
2. Consider adding an improved notification system that members can opt-in to receive when questions from certain categories are asked.
3. Consider permitting a karma/vote system to allow the members to choose "best" answers to older questions if the OP doesn't pick for themselves. Perhaps it could also replace the "best answer ratio".
4. Make the Ask GBAtemp section more visible on the forums: Perhaps by in-line suggestions on applicable subforums or when creating a new thread in the form of question.
5. Consider an anonymity option for individuals posting questions, or possibly just remove postcount display.

 

[Magsor]

I used to be very active on ask.yahoo.com and that the way it worked(i dont know now) . You just go back and vote for yourself for few weeks old answers and your best answer ratio goes up up and up. Very fun if you can reward yourself at the least.

 

[Heran Bago]

I agree with the OP here.

 

[exangel]

I used to be very active on ask.yahoo.com and that the way it worked(i dont know now) . You just go back and vote for yourself for few weeks old answers and your best answer ratio goes up up and up. Very fun if you can reward yourself at the least.

This wasn't my intention and I would hope this wouldn't be possible while obeying forum rules.

 

[Magsor]

I used to be very active on ask.yahoo.com and that the way it worked(i dont know now) . You just go back and vote for yourself for few weeks old answers and your best answer ratio goes up up and up. Very fun if you can reward yourself at the least.

This wasn't my intention and I would hope this wouldn't be possible while obeying forum rules.

It not like it really matters but It is surely motivational.... Even more when you are the only one who did answers... Its not cheating to vote for yourself and it can be very fun to start voting around.

 

[PettingZoo]

Here's my thing. I like to be helpful. That's what the majority of my post count is from- helping people solve DS flashcart, and computer problems.

Many of our forum members feel this way too. And I think Ask GBAtemp is a great idea.

My problem with Ask GBAtemp is that the more I answer, the less helpful I feel, because people often neglect to choose a best answer even if their problem is resolved.

Please don't think that I'm just being pissy that my ratio is low, I just think the ratio is a bad idea altogether.

My ideas to improve Ask GBAtemp's motivational system:

• Open questions for a publicly voted answer after an initial time period. The initial time period would be perhaps a 10 days*, during which the question poster could choose the vote, closing the thread off to voting for a best answer.
• A Karma point system, instead of a ratio
• A weighted ranking system for questions that get multiple correct answers; although this might overcomplicate things, it would help prevent weak/neutral answers from getting too much Karma

I don't have any problem answering people's questions on, for instance, the R4DS or Acekard subforum when much of the time I get no thanks. But that's because I don't see a ratio of my helpfulness get worse and worse the more I try.

It kind of comes across that you're a bit pissy that your ratio is low and you're not getting enough recognition from that, perhaps your answer was not the best and therefore it wasn't chosen the best. I haven't really answered many questions but looking at your ratio doesn't really matter or really need great consideration since it's just a neat little stat tracker.

If you're so much of a helping person, why do you need some sort of trivial point system to motivate you to help people?

 

[s4mid4re]

True, I totally agree that having a % or ratio system isn't really motivational (5/23 with 21.74% T^T) and your other ideas.

But to add to that, I see that a member's post count is also displayed. The problem with this is that most people who ask questions in Ask GBATemp tend to be people who have never/barely posted in the forums, who are usually considered a 'noob.' I'm not saying that people start acting judgmental and prejudice when they see a post count of 0, but it's not very comfortable for the poster himself to be posting while being acknowledged as a 'noob.' In the contrary, people who have high post counts are misleadingly seen as 'productive' and 'helpful' which might skew decision on who is actually helpful. Every answer to a question should be considered equal (regardless of the member's post count), and then evaluated by how helpful it actually is.

Or even better, make every single question/answer anonymous. This way, every question and answer is considered totally equal and helps generate an accurate "Best Answer."

 

[exangel]

It kind of comes across that you're a bit pissy that your ratio is low and you're not getting enough recognition from that, perhaps your answer was not the best and therefore it wasn't chosen the best. I haven't really answered many questions but looking at your ratio doesn't really matter or really need great consideration since it's just a neat little stat tracker.

If you're so much of a helping person, why do you need some sort of trivial point system to motivate you to help people?

It's not just for me, it's to improve the community. I don't think I need to elaborate any further than that.

True, I totally agree that having a % or ratio system isn't really motivational (5/23 with 21.74% T^T) and your other ideas.

But to add to that, I see that a member's post count is also displayed. The problem with this is that most people who ask questions in Ask GBATemp tend to be people who have never/barely posted in the forums, who are usually considered a 'noob.' I'm not saying that people start acting judgmental and prejudice when they see a post count of 0, but it's not very comfortable for the poster himself to be posting while being acknowledged as a 'noob.' In the contrary, people who have high post counts are misleadingly seen as 'productive' and 'helpful' which might skew decision on who is actually helpful. Every answer to a question should be considered equal (regardless of the member's post count), and then evaluated by how helpful it actually is.

Or even better, make every single question/answer anonymous. This way, every question and answer is considered totally equal and helps generate an accurate "Best Answer."

Yes, very much, I don't think a question poster's postcount should be shown either - that's a great point. And I think every answer should be by default a 0 and no matter how many times you post in a question's discussion you shouldn't be able to get more than one acknowledgement for solving the problem, as I added in my second edit to my original post.
edit: I don't know about anonymity though.
Postcount shouldn't be shown on answering participant's posts either, I failed to mention. The karma ranking instead, is what I meant to add.

add:
www.justanswer.com, a paid service, was part of my reason for thinking of and suggesting improving the Ask GBAtemp site. I recently opened a ticket there that wasn't solved, but the speed with which my case was handled was because people were very motivated. XD

 

[Burton]

If you're so much of a helping person, why do you need some sort of trivial point system to motivate you to help people?

Because the whole idea of the ratio is to motivate people into answering others questions. That's why it was created in first place.

 

[exangel]

I had more to say in response to s4mid4re's reply, and that is that the karma ranking may not necessarily have to be numerical, if the function is to put potential "best answers" on equal ground. The numerical value could be known only to each person, or even be on their profile, but to the Ask GBAtemp threads, It could be simplified somehow.

To clarify, in this idea:

• An "Ask GBAtemp" karma-based value replaces postcount for participants
• The value doesn't necessarily have to be a "helpcount" or a "best answer ratio" but the best answer ratio alone is counter-motivational which is the whole reason I made my original post
• The person who asks the question can select anonymity for their post.

 

[Rydian]

I agree that the ratio is flawed for a certain reason.

When helping people you usually need more info than they may have provided in the first post, so you have to post in order to ask them for it first before you can help them.

This really skews the ratio.

 

[PettingZoo]

If you're so much of a helping person, why do you need some sort of trivial point system to motivate you to help people?

Because the whole idea of the ratio is to motivate people into answering others questions. That's why it was created in first place.

I'd say that the reason ratio was implemented was a way of tracking the number of answers people have provided as well as those that have been selected as the best, the ratio is no more greater a feature then the stats provided on your profile page of where your most posts are. Take Kill to Death ratios (k/d), it's just another form of stat tracking, not ~some feature implemented to motivate players~.

The only flaw with the system regarding maintaining proper stats is what Rydian has mentioned, there should be a way to add more information to your answer by editing it or something so it doesn't count as another answer.


I'd also like to point out I'm also a somewhat "helper" that you have mentioned, but I am no less de-motivated to help people by a ratio feature.

 

[Rydian]

Or rather, that each thread you post in is only counted once. Say you posted 5 times in a thread and fixed the person's issue, that's counted as one post, one fix. Post 5 times and don't fix it? Counted as one post, no fix.

 

[gifi4]

Or rather, that each thread you post in is only counted once. Say you posted 5 times in a thread and fixed the person's issue, that's counted as one post, one fix. Post 5 times and don't fix it? Counted as one post, no fix.

I quite like that idea, stops your ratio from being destroyed but then sometimes people just don't bother to choose the best answer, or forget, but then that destroys your ratio...

 

[jimmyemunoz]

Just throw away the ratio and add karma to this site. Problem solved.......for me at least. I don't like the whole ratio thing either. You answer and help them out but they don't give you credit...messed up, seriously.

 

[nryn99]

well, it's the "best" answer not the "right" answer ratio.
i agree that it should be karma points to know who really helps and who doesn't.
but it shouldn't be total karma points but a +/- karma points system, because it doesn't mean that a person with 50 karma points is better than someone who have 20 karma points if the person with 50 karma points actually had 70 karma points which 20 points was taken due to recent trolling. however there may be some people who learned from mistakes so the +/- karma points should link to the last(or maybe 5) point given so that the one asking could decide if the person was just trolling/not know what he's saying or really helping.

 

[exangel]

well, it's the "best" answer not the "right" answer ratio.
i agree that it should be karma points to know who really helps and who doesn't.
but it shouldn't be total karma points but a +/- karma points system, because it doesn't mean that a person with 50 karma points is better than someone who have 20 karma points if the person with 50 karma points actually had 70 karma points which 20 points was taken due to recent trolling. however there may be some people who learned from mistakes so the +/- karma points should link to the last(or maybe 5) point given so that the one asking could decide if the person was just trolling/not know what he's saying or really helping.

Adding something like a "last 5 answered questions" list to indicate where an individuals' recently acquired karma came from is a pretty good idea.

I don't want to overemphasize the importance of the karma points though, this is why I don't suggest something like a 5-star rating system.
This is somewhat less about personal achievement for participating in answering questions, and more about encouraging people to fully resolve questions/problems.

And in the case the question thread isn't marked as answered by the original poster, other readers can choose to vote for an answer, which could get up-voted Imgur-style. I think that the +2 weight karma point should only be granted by the question's original poster if they mark it as "Best", that only +1 can be earned by helpers per question thread if it's an openly voted answer. The reasoning for this is that hopefully, if a really good answer is provided, the question poster's acknowledgement outranks community recognition (since they so rarely actually pick a best answer).

Keep in mind, answering a question or solving a problem doesn't just help the question's original poster, it also helps anyone who's inclined to search existing threads before asking for themselves.

With the current system, on the surface, it appears that questions rarely get answered, although many or most of the questions I've seen actually have been answered, or people have, at least, earnestly tried.

 

[Rydian]

Or rather, that each thread you post in is only counted once. Say you posted 5 times in a thread and fixed the person's issue, that's counted as one post, one fix. Post 5 times and don't fix it? Counted as one post, no fix.

I quite like that idea, stops your ratio from being destroyed but then sometimes people just don't bother to choose the best answer, or forget, but then that destroys your ratio...

That's much less of an issue than the multi-posts thing, though.

 

[Ravte]

So you'll help as long as the carrot on the stick is a number on your screen.... e-peen much?

This is just my personal opinnion, we're all entitled to have them and in someplaces, even to share them with others. *gasp*

 

[exangel]

So you'll help as long as the carrot on the stick is a number on your screen.... e-peen much?

This is just my personal opinnion, we're all entitled to have them and in someplaces, even to share them with others. *gasp*

Quite the opposite, you really didn't read/comprehend the whole thread did you? I help elsewhere all the time. I said that in my first post even before I made any edits.
You're totally entitled to formulate opinions that totally don't address the point of making Ask GBAtemp more accessible and motivating for everyone, and these are just ideas to improve it.