Answers only being shown at top

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:32:35 Z

I don't know whose idea this was or if it's a bug, but answers no longer appear in their original place. It used to be answers would be at the top of the thread and where they originally posted it, now it's only at the top. It's impossible to read through the thread now, especially if there are multiple posts marked as answers. Please change it back.

Answers only being shown at top

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:39:11 Z

It's been noted already (there are other threads on this) and is being fixed so that turning off answers will work and the threads go to their right place. But if you don't turn them off in your profile then you get only the answer not the answer and then the post repeated in the thread.

WSS FAQ sites: http://wssv2faq.mindsharp.com and http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com
Total list of WSS 3.0 / MOSS 2007 Books (including foreign language) http://wssv3faq.mindsharp.com/Lists/v3%20WSS%20FAQ/V%20Books.aspx

Answers only being shown at top

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:50:26 Z

Well might I suggest that the option be between having the answer in the correct place or having it in both places, as having it just at the top is useless. It's only useful if you're not going to read the rest of the thread, and if that's the case having it in both places works the same.

Answers only being shown at top

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:06:02 Z

Look for the thread in which the MS guy explained their thinking.

Answers only being shown at top

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:52:34 Z

It's been noted already (there are other threads on this) and is being fixed so that turning off answers will work and the threads go to their right place. But if you don't turn them off in your profile then you get only the answer not the answer and then the post repeated in the thread.

I think that compatibility requires that any time when there appears some feature alternative to already
existent, the old one must be set as default in users settings. At least for already registered users.
Whereas the new ones can be forced to get accustomed to the new design :).

Because for those accustomed to the old behavior it often requires non-trivial efforts to apply just to
discover the way of restoring the old behavior. In this concrete case my way was the following one.
I suggested that there should be many people dissatisfied with the new design. Just because in many cases
the answers are context dependent, i.e. their true meaning depends on posts placed before them;
besides, the meaning of many posts that are not marked as "answers" depends on the "answer" posts
placed in their original chronological place.
Accidentally I knew of the existence of the current forum (whereas most of users do not suspect, that such thing exists).
I came here and saw, that one of the first threads in this forum is (naturally :() devoted to the subj.
Then I saw the quoted post and understood that there exists a way to return good old behavior.
I came to my "profile" and saw that there is no way at all to change something in my personalized user interface :((
After about half an hour of search I've discovered the "My settings" link. Which I had not even noticed before,
just because I was quite satisfied with the old default settings. I pressed the link and saw the checked box
"Always show answers first on thread page". The label is ambiguous, because in both versions of interface
the duplicates of answers are being shown first. What changed, is that now the answers just disappeared
from their natural positions. Nevertheless I unchecked the box. Then, at last, I became happy :)

To conclude with, the new feature is, imo, not only useless, but even harmful. Because, as I said,
displacing answeres from their original contexts often makes the whole thread (or big parts of it) unintelligible.
A useful feature would be (again imo) the eventual possibility to not duplicate answers at the begin of the thread.

Answers only being shown at top

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:21:49 Z

Look for the thread in which the MS guy explained their thinking.

Would You, please, give the link to the thread?
I'm very interested in understanding the way MS guys are thinking,
when developing user interfaces. I often have the impression
that these guys never use themselves the products, whose interface
they are developing. Otherwise they would see how unergonomical
they are sometimes. Example: the disappearence of Menu bars
from latest versions of Office, Windows Live Mail, Win Explorer, etc.. I am not
using neither Office 2007 nor Win Explorer, but Windows Live Mail
is my only e-mail client in Win7. The necessity to press Alt any time I wish
to go to the menu (which happens very often) is too tedious. And I failed
to find quickly the possibility to return old classic behavior with the menu
always present. I do not even know whether this possibility exists at all.

Answers only being shown at top

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:02:04 Z

>Would You, please, give the link to the thread?

Just like you, I'd have to find it ...

Answers only being shown at top

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:03:40 Z

By the way, I've just have noticed (in the current thread), that not only floating "Answers"
create a mess. Floating "helpful answers" create the mess as well. Thank God, the number
of such posts is negligible in "ordinary" forums, where most of visitors are laymen, appearing
in the forum once or twice only just to get an answer to their particular question. They are, as a rule,
unaware of this possibility (even when, in the old interface, this possibility was shown explicitly
"Mark this answer as helpful" instead of current small green "alien" triangle,
the meaning of which is unclear to the most of visitors (it was unclear to me as well a pair of hours ago :))
as well as of their rights to mark posts as answers to their own questions
(so that much to often they expressed their "thanks" in emotional posts instead of just pressing "Mark as an answer").

So I think that not only answers, but helpgul posts as well must be present
at their original chronological places. For those who prefer "simplicity"
one can be given the alternative of duplicating helpful posts at the top of the thread.
Together with duplicated answers.

Answers only being shown at top

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 19:18:32 Z

Mike, if you found it before, you should have an easier time finding it than the rest of us who don't even know where to look. Is it in this forum or somewhere else?

When you say "Look for the thread in which the MS guy explained their thinking", you don't give us a lot to go on.

Answers only being shown at top

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:27:06 Z

The problem here is that it's ignoring your setting preference and always displaying "answers" first. This is a newly introduced bug (last forum update), it used to respect your setting value.

Answers only being shown at top

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:35:07 Z

Yes, I've just checked -- You are right! So it seems that it was only my illusion, that unchecking
the checkmark will return copies of "unswers" to their original places :(
Or this new bug (or the irrevertible feature?) has appeared somewhere between yesterday and today...

In any case this feature will turn many of the threads on this forum
into something like Ionescu's absurd theater texts :((
I want to know the name and motives of "MS guy"
who did this absurdistic change >>:<{

Answers only being shown at top

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:45:14 Z

>Mike, if you found it before, you should have an easier time finding it than the rest of us who don't even know where to look. Is it in this forum or somewhere >else?

It was either here in this forum or in the renamed Forums Issues forum.

I saw it in passing. I have no particular interest in finding it again, unlike the person here who asked where it was.

Later: However I have now just seen it again ... It's Brent's comment maybe six down in this thread http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/reportabug/thread/a3dd70c0-f8f9-465e-bab6-71071998fe48

Answers only being shown at top

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:02:42 Z

It was somewhere in this forum. I saw it too, but now I can't find it either. Looks as the thread has been removed. It was something about guiding people directly to the answer in case they come from a search engine.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans understand.

Answers only being shown at top

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:45:19 Z

In regards to how difficult it is to find the post discussing this, could we get the team to take a little time and put in a useable search feature? It's kind of sad that the free boards you can get have much better search capabilities than this one.

Answers only being shown at top

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 19:33:32 Z

Scotty:

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think they are just hooking into Microsoft Search, which is now using Bing.

There is a separate forum for MSDN and TechNet Search Feedback, which could be helpful.

Brian

Answers only being shown at top

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:08:01 Z

>There is a separate forum for MSDN and TechNet Search Feedback, which could be helpful.

Speaking as someone who helps MS by doing regular moving of off-topic posts from that forum, let me advise against posting anything about the way the forum software works to that forum.

It is about search issues in connection with MSDN and TechNet, nothing more.

So whereas a question on poor quality of search results when searching the forums could - at a stretch - be posted there rather than here, anything to do with helping people (using the dubious techniques discussed in this thread) by making it easier for people who have come via a search engine to read threads (!) does NOT go to the MSDN and TechNet Search Feedback forum. It's not a search issue; it's a forum software developers decision (which I hope they will revise).

Answers only being shown at top

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 01:44:19 Z

moderators read these posts as well.
we do have some good moderators, so the information should be already sent to the tech team as well by now.. i for one believe in that.

i have posted a similar thread on a forum and i plan to leave the thread there for other forum members to view and reply as well..

my post on Visual Basic General:

THIS MUST BE FIXED! SOON!

and the thread's address in case the link does not work:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vbgeneral/thread/c7c0ce31-bf31-4025-877e-871e2a889c02

i hope i can also help solve this mystery of the senseless threads..
trujade.

help out microsoft for helping you.. test run 7

EDIT::
i apologize for most replies in the thread link above..
these guys do not understand that i do not work for them, so all the lecturing, well it is not vb.net stuff, so i would not bother reading..

i just wanted to add the link to the thread so i do not double post.
just the reason for the post is necessary to read.

apologies again, on my behalf.
although it does make some good reading.
trujade.