The German Drupal community forums have a handy link to a list of all unanswered forum postings (http://www.drupalcenter.de/unanswered). This is a great way to see where help is needed (and not given yet).
Is there a similar listing for Moodle? If not, that might be a suggestion for improving the efficiency of the forums.
Kind regards,
Frank
Listing of all unanswered forum postings?
Number of replies: 6Re: Listing of all unanswered forum postings?
Frank,
I think we would need a bit more than a page. I thought I recalled at some point discussion for working up some type of metric for this though. What would be the indications that something is unanswered? I know it sounds obvious but are you talking about a discussion with no reply posts? What about folks who ask a question as part of an existing conversation? I recall something about the amount of time passed since the post was posted being a factor so that the oldest stuff gets pushed to the top of the list. To a certain degree, I feel that the tracker is a better tool for keeping track of official issues and there we can see where an issue is unresolved. I think we need to be careful not to conflate the purposes of the forums and the purpose of the tracker. My inclination would be to have a list of all unanswered discussions sorted by forum. So a page like:
Assignment Module
Unanswered discussion #1 (sorted by descending date?)
Unanswered discussion #2
Forum Module
Unanswered discussion #1
Unanswered discussion #2
etc., etc.
where the unanswered discussions are URLs to the discussion. I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Peace - Anthony
I think we would need a bit more than a page. I thought I recalled at some point discussion for working up some type of metric for this though. What would be the indications that something is unanswered? I know it sounds obvious but are you talking about a discussion with no reply posts? What about folks who ask a question as part of an existing conversation? I recall something about the amount of time passed since the post was posted being a factor so that the oldest stuff gets pushed to the top of the list. To a certain degree, I feel that the tracker is a better tool for keeping track of official issues and there we can see where an issue is unresolved. I think we need to be careful not to conflate the purposes of the forums and the purpose of the tracker. My inclination would be to have a list of all unanswered discussions sorted by forum. So a page like:
Assignment Module
Unanswered discussion #1 (sorted by descending date?)
Unanswered discussion #2
Forum Module
Unanswered discussion #1
Unanswered discussion #2
etc., etc.
where the unanswered discussions are URLs to the discussion. I'd be interested in your thoughts.
Peace - Anthony
Re: Listing of all unanswered forum postings?
Thanks for your reply, Anthony.
DrupalCenter only lists discussions with no reply yet as "unanswered" (sse screenshot). That's by no means the same as "all unresolved" posts, I agree.
Those are often posts by new members of the forums and I think it's important to give those special consideration because their "unansweredness" often stems from the fact that the questions are not precisely phrased.
From the perspective of "those in the know" this list helps to increase the effectiveness of the forum(s) because often a quick intervention can bring the discussion on the right track, e.g. re-phrasing the question, giving a link to the handbook pages, etc.
DrupalCenter limits the number of forums to a handful (or two) which helps to keep track of the discussions. Getting an overview of what's going on across separate forums might also be desirable for Moodle but is difficult due to the large number of forums.
I will say something about the use of the Tracker in my next post
Cheers,
Frank
DrupalCenter only lists discussions with no reply yet as "unanswered" (sse screenshot). That's by no means the same as "all unresolved" posts, I agree.
Those are often posts by new members of the forums and I think it's important to give those special consideration because their "unansweredness" often stems from the fact that the questions are not precisely phrased.
From the perspective of "those in the know" this list helps to increase the effectiveness of the forum(s) because often a quick intervention can bring the discussion on the right track, e.g. re-phrasing the question, giving a link to the handbook pages, etc.
DrupalCenter limits the number of forums to a handful (or two) which helps to keep track of the discussions. Getting an overview of what's going on across separate forums might also be desirable for Moodle but is difficult due to the large number of forums.
I will say something about the use of the Tracker in my next post
Cheers,
Frank
Re: Listing of all unanswered forum postings?
Regarding the Tracker.
I agree that the Tracker is a better means for keeping track of official issues.
Drupal uses a similar approach with a project page for each module and an associated issue queue (see screenshot). But different from Moodle, the issue queue actually _is_ the forum for that module. The advantage is that you got everything in one place.
And the system is more democratic than the Tracker insofar anybody can change the status, category or priority of an issue.
My experience with the Tracker is that it leads a very separate life from the forums and is by far not that much used. If a problem is solved in the Tracker that fact doesn't reflect in the forum(s) and vice versa.
(I came across this discussion (http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=76411) and see the danger that the Tracker becomes a bottleneck (or even a black hole) - but that should be left to a separate discussion.)
Cheers,
Frank
I agree that the Tracker is a better means for keeping track of official issues.
Drupal uses a similar approach with a project page for each module and an associated issue queue (see screenshot). But different from Moodle, the issue queue actually _is_ the forum for that module. The advantage is that you got everything in one place.
And the system is more democratic than the Tracker insofar anybody can change the status, category or priority of an issue.
My experience with the Tracker is that it leads a very separate life from the forums and is by far not that much used. If a problem is solved in the Tracker that fact doesn't reflect in the forum(s) and vice versa.
(I came across this discussion (http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=76411) and see the danger that the Tracker becomes a bottleneck (or even a black hole) - but that should be left to a separate discussion.)
Cheers,
Frank
Re: Listing of all unanswered forum postings?
One need only browse the tracker to see that is is indeed in some respects a black hole - LOL
In part I think this is related to the discussin that continues to make the rounds from forum to forum over time, and that is the purpose and usefulness of the various elements available for users at moodle.org. Are forums for discussing issues or for solving problems (there may be a diff) and should they be used at all as a source for solutions?
One of the forums I subscribe to, sorry but I can't recall which one posts a notice if no one posts responsively to a new topic that the forum apologizes that no one has responded or something to that effect - LOL which I always felt was more of a slap in the face than anything else - LOL - but the point is that the forum in question essentially expected "problems" to be posted as "new topics" , so that made it easier to track situations where someone is trying to get help and has not heard from anyone.
But another way to look at things would be to have a single locus for "help me!" items, All help questions could be posted there and PHMs and others could subscribe and post pointers to docs, etc, while the discussion forums would be reserved for, yes, discussion..... which might also mean that one could subscribe to this or that forum without being bombarded by a dozen queries a dasy about how to change the file upload limit ;=} It would also avoid cross posting in multiple forums as well as posting in the wrong forum (eXe question in hotpot forum, etc) Indeed, one could argue that Moodle Partners be required to staff such a forum (while PHM's would undoubtedly offer their time without such encouragement - LOL)
This kind of thing would also work with an activesearch component, (plugplug) and
In part I think this is related to the discussin that continues to make the rounds from forum to forum over time, and that is the purpose and usefulness of the various elements available for users at moodle.org. Are forums for discussing issues or for solving problems (there may be a diff) and should they be used at all as a source for solutions?
One of the forums I subscribe to, sorry but I can't recall which one posts a notice if no one posts responsively to a new topic that the forum apologizes that no one has responded or something to that effect - LOL which I always felt was more of a slap in the face than anything else - LOL - but the point is that the forum in question essentially expected "problems" to be posted as "new topics" , so that made it easier to track situations where someone is trying to get help and has not heard from anyone.
But another way to look at things would be to have a single locus for "help me!" items, All help questions could be posted there and PHMs and others could subscribe and post pointers to docs, etc, while the discussion forums would be reserved for, yes, discussion..... which might also mean that one could subscribe to this or that forum without being bombarded by a dozen queries a dasy about how to change the file upload limit ;=} It would also avoid cross posting in multiple forums as well as posting in the wrong forum (eXe question in hotpot forum, etc) Indeed, one could argue that Moodle Partners be required to staff such a forum (while PHM's would undoubtedly offer their time without such encouragement - LOL)
This kind of thing would also work with an activesearch component, (plugplug) and
Re: Listing of all unanswered forum postings?
CONTRIB-2103 is intended to fix some of the sql issues with the unanswered discussion block. If we could get some testing then we can make a push and vote for MDLSITE-942 which encourages consideration of adding it back to the Moodle.org forums. Peace - Anthony
Re: Listing of all unanswered forum postings?
Thanks for keeping track of this issue!
JFTR "Unanswered Discussion Block seeks maintainer" - already found: Michael de Raadt
JFTR "Unanswered Discussion Block seeks maintainer" - already found: Michael de Raadt