Pet Peeve: Answers provided as comments

Question

First off, I love G2G - it is and has been a valuable resource; however, one of the pet peeves that I have is when a user posts a comment that contains an answer to a question:

Reasoning:

1. Comments can not be selected as the best answer. If a comment is posted and accurately solves the question, that comment cannot be chosen or selected as the best answer in order to help close out the question.
2. Comments that clearly contain the best answer (since they cannot be selected) on a question that otherwise has no "answers", will not remove the question from the Unanswered feed, and it looks as if no one else has participated in the thread.
3. When a user starts to ask a question in G2G, they are given a list of questions that were asked previously that may be the same as their question. If those users are anything like me, they will skip through a long discussion thread with multiple "answers" and hundreds of comments looking for the post that was tagged as the 'best answer'. If the answer is actually nested deep in a set of comments, it is very hard to find.

Similarly, "Answers" on questions, that should probably be comments, also cause some minor annoyances:

1. I have seen quite a few "Answers" posted that may only address 1 specific question in a post (of multiple questions), or that ask follow-up questions to original questions. These types of posts will remove the question from the Unanswered list, and it appears to other users that an answer has already been documented - possibly discouraging other users from viewing the thread.

Sorry for rant, I just thought I might share my thoughts.

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Edit #1:

Based on a few private emails I have received already since posting this thread, it seems already a common sentiment that users are worried about receiving 'negative votes' here on G2G - so they choose to post mostly as comments for fear of receiving negative votes by the community.​

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Edit #2:

Similar Topics for browsing:

• Comments vs answers, etc.

• Please post answers as answers, not comments

• Answers vs Comments

• Best Answers

Comments

Guilty, I'm not into gaming and get upset by negative votes.I often answer in  a comment.
I also regret that I have given some minus votes myself.(some were accidents using a phone)

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"Based on a few private emails I have received already since posting this thread, it seems already a common sentiment that users are worried about receiving 'negative votes' here on G2G - so they choose to post mostly as comments for fear of receiving negative votes by the community.​"

And that's why I answer with comments, and will continue to answer with comments. I've given out a few myself, some accidently unfortunately, and one I regret. I wish I could find those threads and upvote them. Still, whats done is done and it takes one heck of allot for me to vote down.

I think selecting a best answer is a real positive in here and the ability to do that should be ongoing, but it's time wikitree got rid of the up/down voting system in g2g. Negative votes are not "friendly".

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Hi Steven,

As a newbie to G2G I am reluctant to use 'answer' as, even though I have experience, I'm new to this community.  Also, as a newbie, the comment/answer system is a little confusing (and I'm very familiar with discussion boards).

To be honest, I don't like the comments vs answers thing as the discussion can be very difficult to follow.  And, there are a lot of times when no answer is the best answer (or a fulsome answer) and I'm a firm believer that you can always add something to a discussion.  This, of course, doesn't apply to queries such as 'I would like Granny Smith's 1851 census return please, can you provide me with details'.

Also, given the (for a newbie) somewhat disturbing comments regarding popularity contests and negative voting (all sounds a bit Hunger Games if you ask me and at odds with the ethos of WikiTree), may it be a good time to review this system?

Perhaps removing the voting system and threading G2G with the opportunity of closing a post might be a 'kinder' way of doing things.

Just my 2c as someone who has spent, I don't know, five minutes here!

In Peace.

**Edit** Argh!  As I hit 'reply' to directly reply to your post this has come up as a comment and not an answer!  So, perhaps it's a systems issue that needs a little fine tuning.  Those who only occasionally post (which is also me at the moment as I'm new) may run up against this too and may be unintentionally commenting as opposed to answering.

And, to add, I can't seem to fix it.  Can't change it to an answer, can't delete this and re-post as an answer... or, am I missing something?  

I guess the 'good news' is that my post has inadvertently highlighted some of the issues around commenting/answering itself... since I've stuffed it up!! :)

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Hey Tamara, thanks for sharing your thoughts. From what I recall, G2G was not made by the WikiTree team, but is rather a service that is used in which they have limited control over. One of the items we have noticed is that you can turn an answer into a comment (downgrade it), but you cannot turn a comment into an answer (upgrade it). We have found a few ways around that, although it is not worth the time for users to do so what should be answers end up as comments.

Also, given the (for a newbie) somewhat disturbing comments regarding popularity contests and negative voting (all sounds a bit Hunger Games if you ask me and at odds with the ethos of WikiTree)

Please understand that this is just my personal opinion and is in no way the feeling of all members. I generally consider the primary WikiTree site and the G2G side completely different systems (I mean, they technically are separate systems) so what happens in G2G is not always related to the main WikiTree side of things. I hope that makes sense...

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Hi again,

Thanks for your insightful comments :)

Interestingly, I have been using 'answer' and 'comment' and screwing up both of them and this is from someone familiar with forum posting (and having moderated a forum at some point or other).  So, I think the answers vs comments situation is a systems issue rather than a user issue.  I completely understand the challenges of fixing 'back end' issues with forums and I know that it can be beyond the scope of the site in question.

As for the voting system (and, of course, those opinions I don't consider yours but I'm glad you shared them) I think if you want to rank a question that is of value to the whole community you could do that by upvoting (handy for a newbie who can trawl old questions, I've picked up a lot of information doing so) but you could remove downvoting and call it a 'thanks' or somesuch.  Of course, this could be beyond the functionalities of the forum.

The internet is an 'interesting' place.  I think it will be fascinating for the social historians of the future to study this period of tremendous transition in relation to online behaviour.  I tend to only use the 'upvote' function and I tend to lurk.  I've learned that behaviour from time spent in some very 'interesting' forum environments!

Answer 1

This is something which has been a 'pet peeve' of mine for a very long time.

Some over-helpful browsers (I'm looking at you, Chrome) will offer to make a question mobile-friendly on a phone - which means you will see the questions, and the answers - but NOT the comments.

When you go to your G2G Profile, it will show you the questions you have asked, and the answers you have given - but NOT the comments you have made.

But the thing that annoys me the most is the tab 'Unanswered' at the top.  It used to be part of my assignment in Integrators to make sure every question had at least one answer.  So I would go to 'Unanswered' - only to find that there were lots of comments (which included the solution!) but the listing made it look as if there were no 'answer'.  Made me so angry, I had to leave that project.

Comments

Ros, I completely agree and that is a big part of my frustrations. I am not under a project that would have any such direction, but after spending some time with WikiTree, I feel like I have the time and ability to help answer questions where I can in G2G. I start by checking the Unanswered feed to see where I can help out, and just as you said, when you open a thread with no 'Answers', the comments contain the solution.

I eventually end up getting annoyed and jump over my tag feeds and browse through those for no reason other than I had some time to kill and I don't know what questions are open that really need attention.

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Ros, When I run across a comment that answers the question I will repeat the comment, giving credit to the original poster, as an answer. That way if the person asking the question so desires they may choose a best answer. I have received my fair share off down votes but I just don't let that bother me, to me all opinions count even if they disagree with mine.

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This is why I usually avoid posting the first answer.  People will think the thread is dealt with.  But few questions are adequately dealt with by the first answer posted.  Many questions haven't really been answered after several answers have been posted.

Answer 2

Some people take it too literally and don't bother reading questions that have already been "answered".

But how do you know if you're answering the question?  You might have got the wrong end of the stick entirely.

Comments

But how do you know if you're answering the question?  You might have got the wrong end of the stick entirely.

This is a valid point. I have seen a few times where people lead off with something similar to: "If I understand your question correctly, then..." - and I agree this is fine and would not be part of my annoyance.

However, I do think this leads up to another issue, where G2G is often times seen as a popularity contest. When users should be focused on helping others to the best of their ability, often times I see that is treated as a rating game. As an example, I witnessed a duplicate answer by a 'more popular user' was awarded 'best answer' and received more votes than the same answer that was posted by a lesser-known user almost 2 hours before on the same thread.

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I think we should not be attributing motive to something like this. They might just have not seen it, or thought the other was worded better.

As regards up and down votes, at the end of the day it's all just numbers and not worth worrying about.