LQ Zero Reply Drive
 

One of the main goals of LQ is to help members get questions about Linux answered. One way we help facilitate this is with the "Zero Reply" functionality, which allows you to easily find threads with no replies. In the spirit of helping other LQ members, I'd like to have a "Zero Reply Drive" for the next 48 hours. Starting at 10PM LQST tonight (approximately 30 minutes from now) I'd like to invite everyone to click http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...p?do=noreplies and attempt to answer as many questions as they can. At the time of this posting there were 496 threads in the last month that have yet to receive a reply. Let's see how low we can get that number in the next 48 hours. Keep in mind that if you'd like to search for threads on specific topics that have 0 replies, you can do so using the advanced search (Find Threads with -> At Most -> 0 Replies). While we appreciate you regularly checking the Zero Reply list for threads you can help answer, I'm hoping a concerted effort raises the bar here at LQ further. If this is successful we'll consider doing it more regularly. Your help is much appreciated.

If you have any ideas on how we can further facilitate questions being answered at LQ, please let us know in this thread.

--jeremy

Of course, no going into 0 reply threads, posting "zing! another 0 reply bites the dust" and not helping. :)

TG

lol

Just a note: If you'd like to help answer Zero Reply Threads on a more ongoing basis, you can subscribe to the "Zero Reply Email", which sends 25 threads with no replies once a night.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...do=editoptions ( Messaging & Notification -> Receive Zero Reply Email)

Thanks!
--jeremy

Another note: There's also an RSS feed for Zero Reply Threads: http://www.linuxquestions.org/syndicate/lqnoreplies.xml

We've currently reduced the number of threads with no replies by 10% since the drive started. Keep up the good works and thanks for the help so far!

--jeremy

quick question
 

i've actually never asked a question here -although i come here all the time for problem solving- because there is almost always someone who has already faced and asked the question i'm looking for.
reading all the answers and different opinions in response to someone else's question seems a much better idea than asking the same question again and waiting for the same replies.
so..
for many of the zero-reply posts out there, a simple search in the forum (or google) would yield many (relevant) results in a very short amount of time.
this may be a reason why no one has replied. Its not that they don't want to help, its just kindof a waste of time to keep answering the same questions over and over
usually one should make a bit of an effort before asking, wouldn't u say?
in which case i'm not really sure what the solution is..

I have to catch a bus, but I do have some quick thoughts on this.

When I have browsed the zero-reply list, there have been quite a few things that were pretty specialized and/or obscure (An elegant way of saying "above my pay grade".) What if there could be some "super-gurus" recruited who would agree to deal with some of the toughies at regular intervals---or perhaps upon getting a special notice.

Another category is the questions that I--for one--simply get tired of answering. Could we build some canned responses for--eg--"how do I setup dual-boot", or the ever-popular "Which Linux is best". I would not mind clicking the canned response while browsing around the forum with the brain set on low..........

Back some time ago, I would have agreed with you. But I realize now some people are so "newbies" they don't even know how to search (or they may simply not know what to search for in a given case). Considering this, I might be helpful to answer their question with the URL(s) of previously answered problems and maybe a URL and/or note asking them to search for it next time.

On the other hand, I agree some just didn't want to search it themselves: to those I would usually respond with solely a Google link with the three keywords they should have typed or so (though I must admit giving a 'letmegooglethatforyou' link does entertain me at times).

Now, as to how to distinguish between the two types, I don't know of any sure way, be your own judge. Still, I try to stay cordial and helpful no matter what (after all people who did made a research might stumble on this particular thread).

Regards,
Vhann

could this have anything to do with the zero replies?
 

dslkniste, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

1. Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
2. If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

My own experiences with this
 

Hi,

I've looked at a few of the replies so far. I am not really in a good place to help with most of the questions I see here but I have helped a few people over the time I've been on LQ. I have also found a lot of help for issues of my own or on behalf of others in my local community.

The biggest problem is knowing when to not rant about people who "won't" do their own searches <never in public>. Too often a search only turns up 700 rants and no solutions. Fortunately that is rare on LQ. Why would newbies (or anybody else) ever want to do a search if thats all they are going to find? The comments about people who really don't even know "what" to search for or what question to ask are spot on.

I am reluctant to post to many of the threads so as not to add useless bulk. One search process involves looking for threads that have several replies. It's disappointing if all the replies are rants or "me too" replies. I don't have computer science degrees or (gawd!) Microsoft certs, just a lot of experience that used to be referred to as a "power user". A lot of the questions I see here are not in the same woods where I work so I would be barking up the wrong tree if I reply. That probably accounts for a lot of zero reply threads. I'm sure other people here do know when to keep quiet if they have nothing helpful to add.

Finally... I thought I had subscribed to a zero reply notification in the past. I remember seeing a list from time to time from LQ that I looked at to see if I could accidentally help somebody. I don't know how that might have been turned off. I'm going to reconnect to that.

I'm going back to my lurker status now.

Bill

Me Too! ;-)
Gimme tha list an I answer ya!
I feel the miss of canned recipies. Google has a merge feature that could be usefull here. Users could by vote merge or point a solution as a recipy, a merited tutorial, or so.
In the end a search in google would qwickly bring it there.
A few extra icons I d suggest under threads:
( ) this is relevant
( ) this is what call a tutorial, merge it
( ) life saver answer
( ) probed, worked for me
( ) Mee Too!

regards
mario

To rant or not to rant
 

If you want to keep your karma in good shape, the time not to rant is always! Or to put it another way, the time to rant is never (just to cover all the angles)

:o (I know this smiley is officially for embarrassment, but it looks like meditation to me. Om!

With the zero replies, sometimes the best answer to a post is "can you provide more information such as the output from lspci (or whatever)". Often posts get no response because there's either insufficient data or the question is worded in a way to make it incomprehensible. So get clarification, you may not be able to answer it after clarification but it may make it easier for someone else to do so.

dslkniste, I'm not able to reproduce this, but you are the second member who has gotten this message. Can you send me the *exact* URL you're getting this for? The 0 reply search should not even require you be logged in to access it. Thanks.

--jeremy

As an update: with roughly 12 hours left, we're currently down to 305 Zero Reply Threads, which is almost a 40% reduction. IMHO, that's absolutely fantastic. Thanks for the dedication so far!

--jeremy