Changing the way threads with zero replies are distributed
 

In response to your request for feedback...

I am very happy to keep receiving the emails with lists of threads with zero replies. Having got so much help when I was a newbie, I regard it as a civic duty to help out. I also get a good feeling when I fix a problem!

However, the size of the site and diversity of problems are making it hard to find people I can help. My knowledge is fairly narrow: setting up and running a LAMP server, plus some Xorg stuff. Any time I see a thread in that area I reply. However, finding them is hard.

It would be better if we could tell you what we knew and you could direct suitable problems our way. Spreading the workload this way might also enable you to send out more than than the last 25 threads.

Tim.

Maybe there would be a way to sort the zero replies by user rank, i.e. Newbie questions, Member Questions, Guru Questions, etc?

You can use the search to find zero reply threads about any topic of your choosing.

--jeremy

pljvaldez- I don't like this idea at all... all questions at LQ should be treated equally.

TG

You make a good point. And now that I think about it, it's the same reason that was given once a long time ago when I suggested Zero reply threads be sorted a particular way.

I was just remembering when I was a Newbie here at LQ and finally started feeling like I could help some people out. It was nice to find some of the other Newbie type questions I had just solved for myself and help them out. I think it really helped me stick to Linux and the community because I felt empowered. My response above was trying to think of a way to do that for other people too.

But there's also something to be said for searching through the zero reply threads to find the ones you can help with. I've at times subscribed to zero reply threads that I couldn't help with just because I was curious what the answer would be...

In addition to "Zero Reply Threads", you can also subscribe any (sub-)forum that interests you or that you feel that you have special expertise in.

In fact, I found this thread because I am subscribed to "LQ Suggestions & Feedback".

Good point about newbies - sometimes you know too little to classify your problem.

I tried Jeremy's advanced search - that worked really well and I found and a couple of newbie Apache and Mysql problems right away.