What do you think?
Some posts get 0 responses and are thus easy to find by the search.
Some posts get responses, but don't get solved. (See here for a discussion on such threads.) Unless the user BUMPs their thread, it will become hard to find among all the other old threads.
Most people don't mark their threads SOLVED (see here), even when they are, so solved and unsolved old threads are not distinguishable from each other.
My suggestion:
As an alternative to BUMPing, allow people to mark their thread UNSOLVED.
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Pros:
+ Helps find old threads where the owner is still hoping for advice
+ Reduces unnecessary BUMP clutter
Cons:
- Marking all threads as UNSOLVED probably wouldn't be a good idea (and would add some visual clutter), so shouldn't be encouraged
- Possibly leaving the UNSOLVED marker "on" even when the thread gets solved? (In my opinion more unlikely than the current practice of not marking a thread SOLVED. Could also be easier though for passers-by to ask for removing the incorrect UNSOLVED-marker than the other way around, i.e. asking for someone to mark their thread SOLVED.)
Suggestion to deal with the cons:
* Perhaps it should be made a "policy" / recommendation that active threads (new threads, threads with responses newer than a couple weeks) should not be marked as UNSOLVED, but that this feature should only be used for threads that have fallen down, AND where the poster is still hoping for advice.
Other things to consider:
/ Also, a lot of people might not bother with this feature either, just as they don't bother with the SOLVED -feature. Partially as a side effect of not all people using it, this could become a useful (and potentially unintrusive) alternative to BUMPing. More choice wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing here.
/ As for the implementation, there would be three alternative states, [none], SOLVED, and UNSOLVED, and you could only switch between these states, not have both options "on" at the same time. (The "Thread tools" menu would, at each time, contain two options, and choosing either would remove the current state and change to the one indicated by the menu choice.)
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So, useful or not, implementable or not?
EDIT: Now I'll be darned if I'm going to BUMP this. Now that this thread has aged a week and had time to mature (...), does anyone at all think this idea is worth considering? Feel free to rob this thread of its 0 replies status...
EDIT2: The new search with "Find Threads with At Most N replies" where N can be anything is really good - better than only searching for threads with 0 replies - but still not really a substitute for marking a thread UNSOLVED while it so remains.
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N.B.: Due to the forum upgrade my signature is temporarily out of order. I am expecting the feature to be fixed though.
EDIT3: My signature is in working order again, the feature has been restored.
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