Larry Jones
Anderton
The problem is that the majority of the OPs don't mark their own posts promptly, or put "solved" in the thread title when it's solved, even when they say in a thread that it's solved...they're happy the problem is solved and they go back to making music.
But don't you think we should at least try to get the original poster to mark his/her own post? Maybe with a PM if they don't respond to a suggestion in the thread?
In an ideal world where there are 96 hours in a day, sure. But if they come to the forum, see "solved" where it's appropriate, are asked to do so in the thread, and don't, am I going to take the time to write a message, check that it was received, reply if needed, go back to the thread to make sure they really did mark it, and deal with my already overflowing private message box? Or worse yet, write a note saying "Hey, when you said the problem was solved, did you really, really, truly mean 'solved' or did you maybe mean something else? I just want to make sure we agree on what 'solved' means before I mark it 'solved' if you don't, but it's really important to find out, lest someone think I'm being deceptive for accepting your saying something was solved at face value, when for all I know, it might not have been because some other problem cropped out a day later."
Multiply having to contact all these people by the number of issues that are solved every day, and jeez, what a waste of time. As it is, there are already plenty of issues that are solved but are
never marked as such because no host has the time to read all the threads and evaluate if something has been solved when the OP doesn't take the trouble to indicate one way or the other. In a case like that, no host even knows that the problem
has been solved, and therefore won't write an email asking someone to mark the thread "solved."
Larry, life's too short. The fact that anyone would see putting "solved" in a header as "deceptive" instead of an attempt to help people find answers to problems faster truly boggles my mind. It's just a friggin' peer-to-peer internet forum. I think my head is going to explode. Then again, if someone wants to point out all these threads that say "solved" where nothing was actually solved, bring it on and I'll correct them. But let's see how many are cited before deciding this is some major problem.
Larry Jones
Anderton
If I add "solved" for any reason other than the two above, I will post in the thread saying I added "solved," and explain why.
This, I think, is a good idea. Why not always post in the thread to explain when you alter somebody else's header?
Because it takes a couple minutes to write a post and explain "Hey, I put 'solved' in the header because that's what we do around here to help highlight solutions to problems. You should be doing it yourself, and if you had any powers of observation whatsoever, you'd see that's the protocol. But I certainly understand your joy at having some helpful person solve your problem so you can get back to making music. Fortunately, there are people who can take care of it for you, so you can keep on enjoying making music, even though you really should be doing it yourself, and if we do it, we will be accused of being deceptive. We hope you understand, and you're not tooooo upset that we did something it would be nice if you did, and we sure hope you do it in the future. We also hope that when you said it was solved, it was really solved and you weren't just making stuff up."
Or I can take five seconds, put "solved" in the header, and move on. Of course that doesn't take into account the time required to explain to people why it's a good idea to do so, and how it makes it easier to find solutions, but overall I still think it requires less time.
I hope no hosts or staff see this as critical. I mean it only as a way of improving this great forum. Sometimes we ruffle feathers without meaning to, and that takes away from our purpose here.
I don't see it as being critical
at all, and totally understand the spirit in which it is given. I also believe you are making a sincere "can't we all get along" pitch and I appreciate that. But speaking as someone to whom time is extremely valuable, I do see it as asking us to go out of our way to accommodate people who have no rational reason whatsoever to be upset about what I feel is such a trivial matter.