do you help by sorting threads by # of replies?

[tebibyte]

I just checked and there are 393 posts in desktop support that have no replies. When trying to help people do you sort soley by date, or do you sort by the amount of replies received and then the date. I think it would be most benifical to help people by looking at the number of replies, and then by date. What are your opinions on the matter?

[23meg]

I evaluate based on the subject mostly; if the subject is something I have no expertise on, I don't intend to help. This is why I love subjects such as

"HELP!!!!"
"BIIIG Problem!!"
"OMG I messed up big time!"
"If you don't fix this in five minutes I'm going back to Windows ME :(";

they are very helpful in letting me decide whether I can help.

However I do check the unanswered posts list everyday to see if I've missed anything I can help on.

[tebibyte]

I evaluate based on the subject mostly; if the subject is something I have no expertise on, I don't intend to help. This is why I love subjects such as

"HELP!!!!"
"BIIIG Problem!!"
"OMG I messed up big time!"
"If you don't fix this in five minutes I'm going back to Windows ME :(";

they are very helpful in letting me decide whether I can help.

However I do check the unanswered posts list everyday to see if I've missed anything I can help on.

There are so many subjects, and you can't sort by them. wouldn't it be better to sort by replies, and then you can eye the subject? (just asking :smile: )

[23meg]

The number of replies may be misleading because the original poster might not have gotten a satisfactory solution to their problem even if it's been replied to many times. The opposite is true too: if a thread has gone unanswered for many days the poster may have figured out a solution themselves or found one elsewhere. It's the quality of the replies that matters, not quantity, and you can't be sure whether a solution has been found without checking out the thread. Which brings us to the importance of appending "Solved" to the subjects of threads where problems have been solved, and of posting back to a problem thread you've opened with the solution you've found, if someone else hasn't helped about it.

[matthew]

I generally look at
1) the subject line
AND
2) the number of replies

to try to determine if

a) the topic is one I know something about
and
b) whether the poster has received help yet

There's no fail-safe flow chart in my method...I'm more of an artistic type anyway so I tend to look at every piece of information I can get and then make a decision intuitively as to whether/how to help someone.

In other words, the more solid info a person gives about their setup and their problem the more likely they can be helped. Then the question for me simply becomes one of my ability to solve the problem.

If no one else has helped out I try to at least take a look.

[Dragonfly_X]

I just try to give assistance where it is needed, I'm not bothered with dates or amount of replies.

[giftnudel]

Hi,

I try to answer unanswered posts first and try to give the user some kind of starting point even if I don't know the complete solution to a Problem.

giftnudel