Is there a way to mark my own reply as the correct answer?

[michael2014]

I asked a question by creating a new discussion. I ended up solving the problem myself but don't see a way to mark the question as being answered.

Someone else responded but didn't provide the solution I was looking for. Seems like there's a button to make that user's reply the correct answer.

However, when I put in my own response with the correct answer, I don't see that same button.

Is there a way to mark my own response as the correct answer? I'd rather not confuse anyone asking the same question I had. 

[Jon Marshall]

Michael

No there isn't.

I guess the reasoning behind it is that people could misuse it ie. post a question and then an answer and then mark it correct.

In addition if you are not the author of the post then you cannot mark any answer as correct although anyone is free to rate any post (other than the question itself).

Quite often if an OP comes back with their own solution others will rate the answer if they see it.

Jon

[Dan Lukes]

I disagree with you.

I someone is going to cheat, then it's easy, he needs just two registrations. Cheaters should be reported to moderator- there is button for it under the message already.

Such restriction doesn't block cheaters. It punish most active community members. I bless any user actively searching for solution by self, despite asked others for help. The nearest helping hand is your own. Unfortunately, Cisco doesn't honor such approach. 

Rating can't be considered alternative to "answered" flag. If someone is searching for solution, then he is searching for answer. And the UI allow filter the threads shown by answered flag, not by the rating. Answered questions should be marked as answered - it will help others to found the solutions.

Just my $0.02

[Jon Marshall]

Dan

I disagree with you.

Fair enough, it was just an opinion.

The nearest helping hand is your own. Unfortunately, Cisco doesn't honor such approach. 

Is there anything that you think isn't Cisco's fault ?

Jon

[Dan Lukes]

Of course. Cisco designated me to be VIP. May be that Cisco is feeling it's fault here now ;-)

OK, fun is over.

Yes, I'm focused to the things I feel wrong. Positive feedback doesn't push things to be better. It's Cisco sovereignty to decide it's helpful or I should shut up. It's Cisco forum, not mine.

Also, my English skills are just insufficient for diplomatic style of speaking.

As I declared in other message, just ask me to stop barking here. I will have no problem with it. Be sure I will not spent my time to unwelcomed activities.

By the way, saying "Cisco doesn't honor it" I mean that Cisco's opinion is different than mine. Bot nothing more. You (not me) named it "fault".  I fully recognize between different feeling and fault. Lagged discussion index is fault. Threads content broken by migration is fault. But to allow or not to allow the author to mark it's own response as "correct answer" - it's decision. Different opinion doesn't constitute other's fault here.

[Jon Marshall]

Dan

Sorry, i couldn't resist the last comment but it was mainly in jest

Yes, I'm focused to the things I feel wrong. Positive feedback doesn't push things to be better.

I don't think anyone is saying they don't want feedback about what is not working because as you say it helps to make the site better so i doubt anyone wants you to stop.

But Dan and the team are only human and a lot of the comments (not necessarily yours) have just been critical without any real constructive feedback and i don't think anyone enjoys that.

Considering they are working very hard to get the site working as everyone wants, and considering there have been signficant improvements since the initial rollout which has made the site much more useable, a bit of positive feedback wouldn't go amiss in my opnion.

Jon

[Dan Lukes]

I didn't feel offended in any way. Be sure.

Written discussion are so limited so feeling can't be expressed clear even when both speakers speak it's mother language. I'm so old, so I'm not only know it, but I feel it all the times.

just trying to balance things out a bit

Then we have same motivation. When I "hall of fame"/"founding member" responded to a newcomer "no, it should not be" i feel the things should be balanced a lot, so I'm responding "yes, there is a reason to do it". ;-)

[Jon Marshall]

Dan

When I "hall of fame"/"founding member" responded to a newcomer "no, it should not be"

But i did not say it "shouldn't be".

I simply said that you cannot mark your own answer as correct and then speculated as to the possible reason why. 

Not sure what me being an HoF member has to do with anything.

I agree, it can be hard sometimes to express in a discussion what we are trying to say

Jon

[Dan Lukes]

... especially if you need express it in foreign language ...

Thank you for this discussion. I will try cool down my feelings a lot ;-)
 

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Dan & Jon,

I thought you both had some excellent points in this thread (+5 )

I agree that it is hard sometimes to convey our thoughts in writing especially as IT peeps and not professional writers ;-)

I did want to note as well that the ability to mark your own thread/answer as "correct" has never been available in any of the CSC versions so it is not new or changed behaviour with the new site.

Cheers!

Rob

[Dan Lukes]

ability to mark your own thread/answer as "correct" has never been available in any of the CSC versions

I'm aware of it. I complained about it even in the previous version of CSC. By the way, I never got a response from anyone. I recognize that the new CSC is better, as someone is responding to my complaints. (Hi, Jon, I found something positive )

[Daniel Bruhn]

Dan,

Jon is correct.  Allowing users to mark their own responses as correct would only encourage misuse of the rating system.  As a VIP you do have the ability to "endorse" content and that is meant to help offset this exact situation.  

As an alternative we could look into allowing users to mark their own responses as correct but not giving any points under that condition.

Dan

[Dan Lukes]

Allowing users to mark their own responses as correct would only encourage misuse of the rating system.

There has been no word about rating in my messages. According the rating, you mentioned solution (no rating for self-answer). Or we can just trust the forum moderators. Nobody cares about five or ten points, but if someone gain tenths points because of self-answering then moderator should decide that unusefull threads will be deleted from scratch. Or we can give community members the right to assign negative rating to (unusefull) message.

But all those things are low priority now, of course. In advance, my opinion my be affected by the fact I'm most active in forums where rating is rather rare at all so I don't recognize the rating as substantial part of the project.

As a VIP you do have the ability to "endorse" content and that is meant to help offset this exact situation.  

It doesn't help as long as users can't search for answered OR endorsed threads in one step. Currently it's possible to search for answered only, search for endorsed messages is on TODO list, but I suspect it will not allow 'OR' of flags (e.g. answered OR endorsed).

Unfortunately, most users will not search the same question twice, first time for answered threads, second time for the threads with endorsed message in it. Endorsed messages in unanswered thread have little chance to be found at all. Just my $0.02

[Dan Lukes]

For completeness, I would like to provide example as I hit the one today. See ...

SPA232D & CID

... thread. This thread may help to users with similar problem,  but no way to mark them as "answered".

May be the moderator of space should act in such case ...