Prevent Original Poster to Mark their own post as Answer

[Reza_Ameri]

There are several forums which they have this behavior and in such a case the forum moderator will mark as answer. One possibility would be adding a link so user could mark own answer as propose answer to notify the moderator and if that is a valid answer, then mark it as answer.

[Sergei Baklan]

To avoid misunderstanding, I'm not against this suggestion, neutral to it. Just couple of comments

1) As with everything in our life there are exception. OP asks the question, there is discussion, finally OP gives good enough answer. Received by himself or on another forum. We may only thank for sharing, nothing wrong if he set Best answer on such own post.

2) In general I'm not sure ranks are important. I know whom I may trust and in which area without ranks, never check them. But I'm here all the time. Perhaps for strangers rank means something, who knows.

[Reza_Ameri]

Thank you for the contribution on discussion.

Last time, I was asking a question myself and there was a discussion and then I find the answer myself and replied it and it actually solved my issue. I have been waiting for the moderator to mark it and there was no action so I marked my own reply as answer because that was the answer. Then some people in the forum complaint why I mark my own reply as answer. I am wondering if my posted has been marked as answer by moderator it was more valuable.

If you look into the metrics in this community, Best response is one of them and when I see there is someone with several best response the user consider as trustworthy.

In forums like Microsoft Answers and Microsoft Q&A, you couldn't mark your own post as answer. I know many users in this forum are ethical and good contributors but in public forums we always have evil users too and being prepare is always a good idea.

[Sergei Baklan]

"If you look into the metrics in this community,..."  - that will be interesting to look, where to find such metrics?

[Reza_Ameri]

@Sergei Baklan , thank you for your question , for example if I look into your profile , I see the following:

In your case, I understand you are professional and active in this forum (number of Best responses) , however in case someone wan to increase this number, they just post question and response to it and mark their own response as answer to increase number of Best responses .

[A1]

I don't think you should judge in this way!

Is the manager professional me because he has only 43 (solutions) as you see my computer

there are not even colors of rings - I do not want to judge anyone in this way.

I will add that only I supported your idea, but I wonder ...  Now I have withdrawn my support.

[Reza_Ameri]

@A1 , it was just one example, in your example this user is the Community Manager and they are other people who might have less best response in the forum but be professional and the task for Community Manager is to manage the community and not response all technical questions.

However, this could be abuse, for example consider a bad actor where keep asking questions and replying to his or her own question and mark them as answer to receive more marked as answer to gain trust. We also face issue of incorrect answer mark as best answer. 

For example, I was helping a user while ago and asking the user to run some comment and user ignore it and just post a message saying I reinstall the Windows and it worked and mark it as the answer. However, in reality the best answer is the one which solve the issue in easier way rather than reinstall Windows which is final solution when nothing works. Then when other users visit the post, they won't attempt to fix the problem or run commands and just reinstall Windows and consider like commands could solve issues in 15 minutes and reinstall Windows and all application might takes hours. However, because the user mark his or her own post as answer it is misleading.

[A1]

I understand, but for so many years at MTC it was possible, so I think it can be left behind!

But the example you gave is also unfortunate Because MVP Members are automatically professionals and I am against such a comparison - that's why I withdrew my support.

another example manager who has only 7 (solutions) so it is not a confirmation of technical knowledge.

[Reza_Ameri]

I believe it also back to the culture of the forum, for example if you consider Stack Overflow , you could find professionals there and actually some developers land on their dreams job due to their Stack Overflow profile. I believe this forum has potential to become like that but it would need some planning and strategy and part of it would be ability to manage response and make sure only authenticate reply mark as answer.

[A1]

@Reza_Ameri

 "I believe it also back to the culture of the forum " ->  Please have explained it!

Does this mean that there is no culture in MTC Forum now, and your idea will fix it?

[Reza_Ameri]

No, let me clarify what I mean with example. 

This is a professional and valuable forum (I am referring to the MTC) and several people find answers to their questions and we had healthy discussion here. However, let me do a comparison, if there is active user in this forum and sharing several valuable inputs and you just share their profile to another IT Professional let say to introduce them as an expert or to hire for a job, it doesn't count much. I am saying even though this forum is professional , however it doesn't get sufficient credit from the IT Community. What I am referring with the community is like Stack Overflow where developers posting questions and answering questions and your profile in there consider you as a professional and you could use it for example in your CV and demonstrate your expertise. 

MTC is not in that level yet but has potential to reach to a level which active users in the MTC get credit as community expert. Let you share example in the Microsoft Career. I have seen people who get called for interview in Microsoft just because of their profile in the Stack Overflow as a senior developer. It is evidence they are professional but I never heard anyone get call for an interview for Microsoft IT positions due to their contributions in the MTC forum. It means we don't have a connection or credit in the real world of IT yet. This idea won't make that happen. This required advance planning and strategy but it is a bit of help to make sure only real answers will mark as answer and giving better credit to users. 

I am not saying people who are active in this forum are not professional but I am referring to how the IT companies will consider us. For example in case you are a Developer, then Stack Overflow is building your future but we don't see this in this forum yet.

[A1]

Thank you for the explanation - The MTC Forum is made up of people and not everyone is doing perfectly.

Currently, I believe that it is not possible to apply the criterion - professional confirmation

qualification based on activity in the MTC.

Analysis of each thread and the marked (solution) is not feasible!

Everyone can see who marked (the best answer), so it is honesty and technical knowledge that decides only this MTC Member (it is his reputation that confirms it) -> Microsoft does not recommend this Forum as 

Technical Support , so the responses of users are only an individual opinion and only this is how it is evaluated.

[Reza_Ameri]

I believe this idea will improve the quality of answers, I have observed number of response mark as answer which are not the best solution or even misleading. Like I said this is only one idea to make sure no one mark their own reply as answer to increase number.

This is not a support forum but this is still a professional environment and even it is by community there is a level of expertise here. 

[A1]

 If you see this behavior, the best way to remove inappropriate answers is (report inappropriate content to the Moderator) -> It's worth doing!

" I have observed number of response mark as answer which are not the best solution or even misleading. Like I said"

[Reza_Ameri]

True but they might be correct but misleading and not real inappropriate. 

Are you sure the moderator will unmark them?

[A1]

" Are you sure the moderator will unmark them?"

If the report is justified, the Moderator will certainly do it on the basis of the report, I when I report something 95% is accepted.

[Darian Glover]

1. I am professionally annoyed by the number of unanswered questions I encounter when trying to find an answer to a problem I have encountered.
2. Since I have already looked for an answer, often my questions go unanswered because no one else participating within the forum knows the answer.
3. I don't give up easily, so I will continue to find an answer.
4. Per 1, if I eventually find an answer to my own question I try to post an update.

[A1]

   @Darian Glover             "Per 1, if I eventually find an answer to my own question I try to post an update."

Yes I agree, that's why I do not support this idea because there will be even more ->

unanswered questions!

Thank you

[Reza_Ameri]

@Darian Glover , for Developer and IT Professional related questions , you may ask them on All Questions - Microsoft Q&A. This forum actively answer questions and monitor by experts and Microsoft.

I personally try to engage in discussions and answer questions in this forum (if I can) but agreed there is a need to improve participation and engagement in this forum.

[Allen]

Thank you for the robust exchange of views on this idea.

The reason why the original poster can mark any other answer as 'the best solution' is because, generally speaking, if they asked the question they are the best person to identify which answer provided a solution. 

Your right it could be abused, although we do not see much evidence that it has or is being abused by anyone in the 6 years the Microsoft Tech Community has been running. I also spoke with other companies who use the same platform we do and again there was only 2 instances of abuse, which were dealt with when they were reported to the admin team.

Thats how it should work here, if you think someone is delibrately manipulating any stats on the Microsoft Tech Community then please do report it, you can email us or you can send a PM to any of the admin team. 

[Reza_Ameri]

Thank you @Allen for the clarification and since there aren't much abuse issue, I agreed.

This was a case in MSDN and TechNet and also Microsoft Answers forum and in such forum, they prevent users from marking their own answers. So, I thought to raise the issue.