Question

feature request: a triage panel/option. There should be some way to see who needs the most help... i don't quite know how to phrase this, but if we think of triage after an accident- the "greater good for the greater number" so maybe quesitons that have a lot of upvotes would be ranked somehow, and people with higher rankings in a field would see questions in that field- basically chanelling expertise and related questions together based on the metadata about the person and question.

Answer 1

Interesting, we've had similar talks internally. I was a big supporter of the "Good Question" medal for this same idea. Although we haven't done much with Good Question medals, we track them and definitely plan to. Do you think that this would be a valid metric as some sort of "upvote?" The thought process behind Good Question was to reward askers for being involved or intellectually curious, which is similar, but not identical, to your request.

How do you think we would single these out? In a different 'filter' (along the Unanswered Questions' line) or maybe make them stand out a bit more in the feed (a different color or other form of distinction)?

Answer 2

I'm often frustrated by a simple thumbs up equivalent- which is what Good Question is. What if a question is lame? What if it's unclear? As a teacher i've been mulling over options for quiz questions - and in fact have seen what appear to be people here just cutting an pasting questions from textbooks/tests. Those truly are lame, since they are not really asking a question, they're asking for an answer to a test/quiz/assignment.

What might help with this is a star system- so instead of just an upvote, you rank it- i've always felt that in ranking however, you've got a couple different metrics- there's difficulty, relevance, and maybe even quality of the question itself. Of course then you risk complicating the interface, but perhaps there is a creative way of dealing with this for power users - i.e. if you hold down on the good question button for a second, it pops up more options.

To answer your question, I do think a number of good question upvotes DOES suggest that subsequent questions will also be good- and that certainly would be an indicator that the person deserves more attention than someone with no track record, or whose questions are usually junk. It's not unlike the difference between noobs who read (and follow) the FAQ, and those who just fire away. Who do you want to devote resources to?

As far as the question about singling out- i believe this is an issue everyone is dealing with - your FB wall, your google search, your similar videos on youtube- how are those that show up first (or at all) selected? I fall back on my own experiences- say i log in to this site a little bit a couple times a day (or just once a week) - sometimes there will be many unanswered questions, and other times few- depending very much on openstudy's popularity, participants, etc... - much of it unpredictable at the moment. But for the sake of argument let's assume you're wildly successful in attracting lots and lots of people who need help, but fewer who really can help (if you have lots of both, the issue may be irrelevant- since if everyone is helped, you won't need prioritization).

So I log in, and there are, say 50 questions unanswered. I have about half an hour, and want to help, but may only be able to hit 10 of them. Do I just see a list of 50 unanswered questions? I will naturally gravitate towards those who have pictures/icons, and higher numbers- not terribly fair, but hey, if you're in the club, you're in the club, and if you took the time to do your profile, i'm going to take you a bit more seriously. Same goes if you've helped others, and if your questions are good. I don't want to waste my time with questions posted in the wrong place, or open ended things like "I'm stuck- please help!" with no further information.

Ideally each person could weight these, but that's not a simple solution to implement, as you'd have to tie what i see directly to settings in my profile- but it would be cool. I'd have settings in my profile that say things like "always put those with filled out profiles at the top of the list" or rank open questions by higher (what are they called- group rankings? whatever these numbers represent).

Without such custom settings, one could simply add a feed filter that sorts by either numeric rank, seniority (how long they've been a member), completeness of profile, etc... this would be much easier to implement.

Finally, in the absence of that, i like your idea of colors, or even just a built-in ranking based on your own metrics.

warning: one risk is that by not prioritizing the first-timers you turn them off- i'm still torn as to whether i care about this. I want people to succeed, but i want them to care as much as I do- before I do.

ps- much of my thoughts here relate to my experience using couchsurfing.com- whether you allow a stranger into your house with your kids very much depends on personal references and the degree to which you can "know" them- I like that idea.