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. As previously announced, we've made the "Zero Reply Drive" a quarterly event here at LQ. The latest LQZRD will start at noon today (LQDT) and run for 96 hours. During that time, I invite everyone to click http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...p?do=noreplies and attempt to answer as many questions as they can.

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).

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

--jeremy

The latest Zero Reply Drive has officially started with 306 Threads with 0 replies (from the last month).

--jeremy

Add reputation points for answering zero-reply threads? Or have a seperate stat that says "This person has answered: 104 questions when no one else would."

Zero-reply threads are generally, imho, harder to answer. Therefore there should be some type of tangible reward such as rep or recognition, such as a statistic, for taking the time out to research and answer a generally more complicated message.

Okay, I *love* the Zero-Reply Drives. Mainly because I try to answer questions as broadly as possible, but partly because more often than not, the poster is a "one post wonder"...
They post once, and then you wonder if they've seen your reply.

Seriously though, glad to participate this time around!

I don't think so. Answering a zero-replay question doesn't say anything about the quality of the answer. But since questions which have no reply after some days are really difficult to answer, I think such a "automatic-reputation" would probably lead to a mass of non-helping answers to difficult questions.otherwise this is true. I've often researched on my own in order to find an answer to a question. It would be nice if anyone had an idea how to measure such effort. But we have the reputation-system which in my opinion meets the requirements in so far as if someone posts a very good answer there are other members besides only the OP who add to ones reputation.

Markus

this is a bad idea because then I would start posting non relevant stuff to earn the reputation. (just not to offend anyone here)
best way is to kinda you know assign heads for each distro, people who are active in here, who are veterans in a particular distro and have a wide knowledge on the working of that distro.
so every week they kinda receive the zero reply threads so that they know there are threads that require their expertise.
Thats just my 2 cents !

2 suggestions:

During the drive add a notice to the daily 0-reply subscription e-mail:

Subject: LinuxQuestions.org Zero Reply Threads
From: "LinuxQuestions.org Mailer" <forum@linuxquestions.org>

Permanently add a link to the 0-reply search to that e-mail as well.

Update: There's one hour left in the Zero Reply Drive!

232 Threads with 0 replies

--jeremy

The latest Zero Reply Drive has officially ended with 218 Threads with 0 replies (from the last month). Another great effort and a significant reduction in the number of Zero Reply threads. Thanks again for participating!

--jeremy

I like the way you put that, by the way, "I would" do $bad_thing!

Now, about ways to encourage prompt replies to zero-reply threads without encouraging flooding, just make the point(s) contingent on the thread starter marking the question as solved, et voila! (or at least, marking the first reply to the previously-zero-reply thread "helpful") In this case, the only motive this provides is to give real solutions, not to offer useless replies that would never be considered or marked helpful.