How many of your posts are replied?

[raul_]

I'm just curious.

How many of you guys have had unreplied posts?

How do you define it? Often, rarely, never..? Of course, do this rationally. If you have 2000 posts and 15 unreplied, that's nothing, but if you have 30 posts and 15 unreplied...well...that's preocupating.

PLEASE DON'T MAKE THIS A (whining) LIST OF ALL YOUR UNRESOLVED PROBLEMS. THIS IS JUST TO MAKE AN ESTIMATIVE OF WHAT THE MAIN UNRESOLVED PROBLEMS ARE

Say how much (again...rarely, often, never, things like that), and what they were about

[Tundro Walker]

For every sentence in your initial post, reduce post-reply likelihood by 5%. In other words, if your initial post is very long-winded, folks won't read it and it won't get replied to.

If your post title is ambiguous in nature (EG: "what do you think about this?", or "help! got a problem!"), or rude (EG: "help now!"), lower your reply rating by 10-20%.

If your post is just stupid in nature (EG: "look at how cool my hamster is!"), your post reply likelihood will be +/-50%...this is the catch 22...folks sometimes love replying to the dumbest stuff, other times they avoid it like the plague.

Folks are bombarded with information every day, and they either don't want to read, or just don't have the time. Likewise, if you don't get to the point, people will lose interest quickly and won't reply.

I don't post much, but I'm guilty of this in replies. I type fast, so I tend to get very long-winded, hence folks skip over my replies.

[aysiu]

I'd say about 1/4 of my threads go unreplied--mainly because they are obscure problems no one knows the answers to. I always search before posting a question, so the likelihood that someone will know the answer is pretty low (if the information were available through a simple web or forum search, I wouldn't have posted in the first place).

[Tundro Walker]

Side Note...

I'm reminded of this guy on YouTube who showed how you can get your movies to have the most hits. What he would do is take other people's really lame, stupid movies (EG: a 15 min movie of someone's cat sleeping...*yawn*), and re-post it with a thrilling title...like

"OMG! TOTALLY INSANE CAT!..ATTACKS OWNER! LOL!"

...or...

"OUTRAGEOUS CAT! TOTALLY TEARS OWNER A NEW ONE! MUST SEE!"

You'd watch the movie and it was completely lame. But, he made his point. It's all in the initial sales pitch.

That's not to say you need to title your posts in an obscure or misleading way. Folks will remember such and learn to ignore anything you post....

"GIRLS GONE WILD! UBUNTU GIRLS NAKED! TOTALLY INSANE! OMG!"

...or...

"UBUNTU USED ON LATEST NASA JUPITER PROBE! RUNS NEW ION DRIVES! OMG! MUST SEE!"

...they start reading your post and it's about Microsoft Patent issues. Wow, you'll have folks requesting to ban you... false advertising. LOL!

"UBUNTU CAUSES GIRLS WITH ION DRIVES TO GO WILD ON JUPITER WITH NASA! OMG! INSANE! MUST SEE!"

Lol!

[ticopelp]

I've only had one thread go unreplied; it appears to be a common error with DVD playback. That and my sound recording issues (also apparently very common) are the only issues in Ubuntu I've been unable to resolve.

I've rarely needed to start a thread to get help, though; a quick search has resolved 99% of my problems.

[mills]

1 in 10 at a guess

those 1's are usually because i worded the question badly so they didnt make sense or were too vague i think.

[aysiu]

Well, I have seen people use false advertising to get attention for their threads, and I think the behavior is parasitic. And, on these forums, it's completely unnecessary.

If your question is an easy one to answer, it will usually be answered very quickly, no matter what your subject title is. If you ask "How do I burn an ISO?" you'll get an answer within minutes, if not an hour, even if your subject title is just "Hey" or "Help me, please..."

If, however, you have some weird error that no one has ever encountered before, then it won't matter if you call your title "Sexy Ubuntu pictures" or "Mark Shuttleworth is a terrorist." People may respond to your thread, but they won't be able to solve your problem.

[Tundro Walker]

Aysiu eluded to the "where you post" is also important.

Anything posted in "Absolute Beginners" will generally get answered, even if it is a "bump" to get it some more attention the next 24 hours.

If you're posting in Community Cafe or The Backyard, and you're not getting replies, it's probably more common. Folks show up there to just grouse about every day stuff, and sometimes a topic is either over-played or just not interesting.

I mean, how many posts about "Microsoft Patent Infringement!" can you read/reply/put up with until you get tired of it and purposefully filter those out of your sight for the next week or so.

[FuturePilot]

I think currently I've got about 5

[raul_]

I find that the most unresolved issues are about Wireless and networking, because at a certain point, there's nothing you can do withouth appropriate drivers.

I also got a few unreplied about little known applications like kazehakase (that has no support page)