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Shifting Top Answerers RRS feed

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    I'm not sure if this is actually a bug rather than curious behavior, but in at least the VB General forum the Top Answerers list keeps shifting its order -- reliably within the first 15 seconds of loading but sporadic after that.  I assume it has to do with an attempt to keep the list refreshed at certain intervals without manually refreshing.  However, the shifting is very unrealistic -- #4 drops to #9 then in another 15 seconds it climbs back up to #4.  This can;t be the expected behavior.  Are there variable factors in this calculation (can't imagine what)?  If so then they need to be fine-tuned.
    Friday, June 20, 2008 5:26 PM
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    Dig-Boy:

    Yes, i have noticed that too, on occasion. But frankly this Top Answerers is a feature that (a) many find offensive and (b) takes up useful real estate that could be used for something more useful.

    For example, this space could show the properties of the currently selected thread, information that is currently displayed only in the thread view.


    David Wilkinson | Visual C++ MVP
    Friday, June 20, 2008 5:58 PM
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    I agree...  but to play devil's advocate there are people who consider their role as answerers on the forums with a great deal of pride and appreciate the recognition that the feature provides.  While this may not be enough reason to retain the feature I think a more convincing argument might be it's ability to spur those answerers to contribute just a little bit more to move up the ranks.  From the MS perspective this has a lot of value since the success of a forum can be measured by:

        a) how fast solutions are provided; 

        b) how many contributors there are to that solution, and; 

        c) how many "highly active" members there are browsing around for threads to assist on.


    All of these things are encouraged by having a competitive stats feature.
    Friday, June 20, 2008 7:35 PM
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    We found that we were listing the right users, but sometimes in the incorrect (read: random) order. We've got a fix for it that we're currently testing.

    Matt
    Matt Fraser, STO Forums Software Developer
    Friday, June 20, 2008 8:41 PM
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    Dig-Boy:

    But there are other, more meaningful, means of recognition. The MVP award in particular. Microsoft does not need the Top Answerers display to figure out who to award MVP status. And anyway, Browse Users is available if you want to see user posting statistics.

    The Top Answerers display for any given forum changes only slowly over time. I look at it today and it looks much the same as yesterday. So why is real estate wasted on showing it?

    For me, Ajax provides the opportunity to have a forum interface that works much like an NNTP newsreader (at least in online mode). All the panes in an NNTP newsreader are used for something useful.

    David Wilkinson | Visual C++ MVP
    • Edited by davewilk Sunday, June 22, 2008 10:13 AM Typo
    Saturday, June 21, 2008 11:50 AM
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    This was fixed (by various updates over 3+ years). Thanks!

    Ed Price a.k.a User Ed, Microsoft Experience Program Manager (Blog, Twitter, Wiki)

    Wednesday, February 8, 2012 1:09 AM
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    Thanks Ed!   Boy, it was real head-scratcher when I saw the title of this thread show up in the mailbox with me as the one who started it...  I guess 3 years of stuff had shoved this thread to a dusty corner in my brain :) 

    I wonder what else is back there.  Hopefully nothing important.

    Wednesday, February 8, 2012 1:46 AM
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