Response deleted and reward points

[Former Member]

hello All

Wishing you a happy new year 2014

I have become active in SCN after a long time and have started responding to people's queries in the Basis and DBA areas mainly.  However couple of my posts were rejected by the moderators for just being links . I understand that this is due to the new Rules of Engagement in the SCN .

Couple of queries though :

a) If someone is asking a question , and I search in SAP Marketplace for the error and I get the exact solution ,

is it not okay to post the link to the SAP Note . I think I dont need to copy paste something from the note itself into my answers, but feel that if I can guide the person to that note , it will help him .  Please let me know if that is wrong approach.

b)  I have noticed recently that in one of the posts where the person asking the question rewarded me points , and after that post was moderated , the points too went away.. today morning , i suddenly found my points being reduced.  Not that I am crazy over getting points , but its something I think everyone feels good  about after spending some time to answers to others' problems.

I hope that I have been able to express my queries .

Please help to clear the doubt in my mind

Thanks

Rishi

[matt · Accepted solution]

I rejected your post and removed the points.

I reject posts that are just links. As I have explained many time, there are three reasons for this:

1. If the responder could find the link by posting, then so could the original poster.

2. Some people have a habit of just typing the query into a search engine, and linking the first reply.

3. Often a link will link to a post with more links - but none that lead to an answer.

Without following the link, I've no way of knowing whether the link is relevant. I'm not prepared to spend the time checking. My experience is that most of the time, a post containing just a link adds no value.

If a link is part of a more substantive answer (rather than simply being the answer), then I'll leave it alone.

As a matter of course, if I reject a post, I remove any points that have been assigned. If the thread is a FAQ or very basic question, then I reject the whole thread and all points are lost anyway. If the thread is marginal, then I may change it from a question to a discussion - this will also remove all assigned points.

Locking a thread and asking the OP to search before posting doesn't work, in my experience. There's no incentive to search, because there's always someone who'll try to be "helpful".

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi All

Thanks to all the experts and moderators for your inputs in this thread ..

I was able to satisfy myself with the explanations provided...  and will try to improve myself in making responses to queries in posts.

Hopefully will not have any further posts from mine rejected or reported for abuse

Thanks again and wishing u all a happy new year 2014

Rishi

[Reagan]

Instead of deleting the replies from other SCN users the best approach would be to lock the discussion (by a moderator) with a reply asking the original poster to search before asking.

I have seen doing that.

Regards

RB

[JL23]

Reagan Benjamin,

I did this too in the past, and the positive thing is that others can see it too that the rules get enforced. However, in the meantime I have 364 such locked discussions, which still appear when we search the forum. So it is not really helping anybody if the searcher finds discussions where he can read that he shall search.

Because of that I changed my approach and click abuse and then reject the content. This is some steps more, but more healthy for the forum.

[anshu_lilhori]

Please don't make the person crippled by doing the search on their behalf.Let the person do this on his/her own and you should guide and encourage them to do the same.

I feel searching for the solution based on the error is not rocket science if i can do it then anyone else can do it as well.

Moreover if you answer just with a simple link or multiple links without the support of text then that will not be acceptable and in near future if you stumble on same issue and you take the help from the thread which has links then you might end up in link farm which is really frustrating at times.

So make sure to follow these guidelines while answering and also try to report abuse if you find such cases and this way we can keep the forum clean in longer run.

Regards,

AL

[RamanKorrapati]

Hi,

a. Yes, posting simple link, is not good idea. actually owner need to search with error on google. as like us he may get the useful information. along with link if you add  more useful information. that will be accepted.

http://scn.sap.com/community/support/blog/2013/11/08/posting-links-and-the-jungle-you-end-up-in

http://scn.sap.com/thread/3448266

b. as my guess the thread which was you answered and rewarded will be basic stuff. that's why moderator may took action on it.

As per the ROE only moderators will take action on it.

Thanks

[Former Member]

Hi

Thanks for the reply .. For the 1st point above ,

suppose the user is facing a problem which has a ready made SAP Note solution , what should be the best action.

I hope you will agree with me that searching errors or notes in marketplace is a tricky thing and needs much experience to come down to the right note which is applicable. 

I am not in support of posting links which has links to other posts and the person asking the question is not getting any help ...

Hope you understand my query

Thanks

[JL23]

wouldn't it be better for this user who is not able o find those notes, that you explain him your approach, how you search to find this note himself? this could help him for his lifetime.

Just giving him links, will only make you  to  his searching slave.

Of course it is possible to put an answer with a link to an OSS note, but any link should have some context.

....and it should not be an answer to a basic of frequently asked question.