06-27-2010, 07:26 PM

I wonder if there's a way to show who has responded to a thread question without actually opening the link.

I see the name of the latest person to respond, but not those 'who have gone before'.

For example, if I see that so-and-so, whose experience and knowledge I respect, has answered a question, then my thought is "I needn't go there, since all I'd be doing is endorsing or agreeing with what's already been said."

That's not necessarily a bad thing, nor a senseless assumption, rather an intention to offer assistance to someone else who may need it more.

Needless repetition is a pain in the aftermath, little or no help, ranking right alongside "I don't have a problem with MY Mac XXYY, it works fine with application AABB ". Aaaaaagh!

06-27-2010, 07:54 PM

Originally Posted by hughvane

I wonder if there's a way to show who has responded to a thread question without actually opening the link.

I see the name of the latest person to respond, but not those 'who have gone before'.

For example, if I see that so-and-so, whose experience and knowledge I respect, has answered a question, then my thought is "I needn't go there, since all I'd be doing is endorsing or agreeing with what's already been said."

That's not necessarily a bad thing, nor a senseless assumption, rather it's my intention is to offer assistance to someone else who may need it more.

That's a very interesting question...and I can totally see what you're saying about possibly skipping threads that may have already been answered sufficiently...and devoting efforts to unanswered questions or questions that may need additional input.

It would be interesting to know if what you mentioned is possible!

- Nick

06-27-2010, 08:20 PM

Apple's official forum has their own solution to this problem. What they do is allow the OP mark the thread as answered so that everyone will know without having to open it. When you see the thread subject line it will have a star next to it meaning the question has been answered. Unanswered questions have a ? symbol.

06-27-2010, 08:40 PM

As far as I know, there is no way to do that with the vB software or most forum software.

dpreview's forum you can see a list of the respondents without opening the individual posts - but it even requires opening the thread first

06-28-2010, 10:21 PM

The issue with any system like that is it assumes the primary purpose of the site is simply to have questions answered rather than spur community which is why we don't emulate Apple's support site with "answered" status on threads.

06-29-2010, 12:33 AM

You do have a good point schweb. Apple's forum is very technical and it has an almost business like "question, answer, question, answer" feel to it and less of the community feel like you are talking about. I would hate to see this forum go that route also and lose the community feel.

There have been some threads were the OP's questions had been answered but there were further interesting discussions that came from the original topic.