Implement a new method of encouraging the best / most accurate / helpful solutions

[joshuaburkhow]

Problem:  We are finding many discussion posts solutions that either are exactly the same as a previous solution on the same question or slightly different and in addition they are being marked as solutions. This doesn't help the community if there is no premium on either expanding significantly on the previous answer or answering completely differently but also correctly. Users are being rewarded on just posting an answer not on posting a thoughtful, useful, and correct answer.

Solution: Stack overflow as an example handles this quite nicely in that they offer many different responses but also with the ability to upvote OR downvote a response. This would radically improve the responses along with the metrics that guide many other programs in play on the community.

[LeahK]

This is an interesting conversation, and something that we've discussed in great detail with several users. Today, marking solutions is the eye of the beholder (the original posters). 

First things first, downvoting replies (ie the stackoverflow experience) is not possible with the underlying technology we use to power the community.

What other ideas to folks have to highlight/reward the best solution? (open to programatic ideas, as well as technical suggestions)

We've experimented with enabling trusted users to mark accepted solutions or identify the best solutions, but the uptake and commitment from volunteers did not have a significant impact -- perhaps we need to re-engage a new audience?

I also think part of the issue is education -- Any suggestions or volunteers to help empower the community at large? Several years ago @SeanAdams wrote an amazing article about how to post for fastest possible solution  -- and it kinda seems like we need the reverse of this: how to craft a great solution.

Generally speaking, developing enablement content is a great first step. It opens up opportunities to strategically serve that content to specific audiences to encourage the behavior we want to see. 

[kelly_gilbert]

First of all, I love the "how to craft a great solution" documentation idea... I think that is a great idea regardless of interface options.

Also, it would be helpful to make that front-and-center when someone replies (or click a "I have read the posting guidelines" box before submitting). In the Ideas section of the community, the steps to submitting an idea are right there across the top of the page, and there is another reminder in the sidebar when you actually add your idea, reminding the person to double-check that the idea doesn't already exist. It seems like a sidebar reminder could be useful for solutions, too.

@LeahK mentioned that there isn't a way to downvote posts, but is there a way to sort them by upvotes (stars)? Having nested/threaded conversations would help here, since replies could be sorted along with their parent reply.

I do also like the idea of having some subset of trusted users (based on certification and/or community rank?) be able to flag something as a "good" solution. However, I know that getting people to volunteer their time for this can be an issue.

[Horn]

@LeahK I believe the point you made on We've experimented with enabling trusted users to mark accepted solutions or identify the best solutions, but the uptake and commitment from volunteers did not have a significant impact -- perhaps we need to re-engage a new audience? is the best solution forward I believe engaging with key members as audience and narrowing your demographic on volunteers is a challenge but achievable the Alteryx community is always willing to help.

[SGolnik]

Maybe multiple people can mark the solution and multiple solutions can also be marked within a thread which can be the equivalent of "up voting". The color box around the solution changes based on the number of "votes" and that moves that to the top at the best solution. See the image for a mock up of what I am thinking....

[Horn]

@SGolnik I like your thoughts on the matter, believe possibly customizing it a bit further to make the feature as unique to Alteryx as possible would be key from a marketing standpoint but from a technical aspect the simplicity of your up vote solution is key for filtering.

[DawnDuong]

A good idea! There are quite a questions on the same thing. For example there are 3 questions on "not receiving certificates after passing core example" on page 1 the last time i checked.

[WillM]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone!  We'll be looking into this to check out what it would take to implement and whether we can make it work well in our community.

[WillM]

There's currently no ability on our platform to implement this - we may be able to revisit in the future, but at this point after scoping there is no way to implement downvotes in the community.