How do you feel when Moz marks one of your questions as "answered?"

[danatanseo]

Hi everyone,

This is not meant to be snarky at all, so I just want to preface my question with that.

So, since the new re-branded Moz rolled out last year, I'm sure many of you have noticed that if you ask a question and it is answered by a Moz associate, your question is marked as "answered."

I'm sorry, but I don't like this. Here's why,

I'm the one who asked the question. I should be the one who determines if the answer was adequate for me, or if it didn't sufficiently answer my question. This is particularly true when my question doesn't have to do with a customer service issue or a Moz tool question.

If I ask a question about SEO, Content, CRO, marketing or any other subject, I feel like it should be me and only me who determines whether or not I feel like my question is answered.

In addition to this, Moz is actually depriving themselves of useful UGC by shutting down questions in this way. How? Because when the rest of us who frequent the Q & A see a question that's already been marked as "answered" we tend not to open it, read it and respond, because we think that person has already gotten what they needed....when in fact, it could be that a Moz associate has jumped in and marked their question as answered when it really wasn't. Consequently, we all miss out.

I propose/move that Moz associates can only mark questions as "answered" when they pertain directly to Q & A about Moz tools, service and support. All other questions must be marked as "answered" only by the asker or closed as "answered" after they have been dormant for 6 months or more.

Can I get a second (motion) ?

[danatanseo]

I don't think you came across as defensive at all. I totally get the house-keeping issue. I know the "Bounty" section is something quasi-new...what about the possibility of just moving unanswered questions over there after they've gone unanswered for a set period of time, provided the person who posted responds to admin emails and indicates the question is still unanswered?

Perhaps another option would be for the original poster to reverse the "Answered" status?

I don't think Moz's intent at marking questions as "answered" was to effectively shut-down a topic, but, unfortunately, I do think that's what happens.

I agree with EGOL, I am not looking to see if someone marked my answer as a "good answer" or not, although I am always thankful if they do. What I do do is go back to questions I've answered to see if the person responded with another question or needs clarification on something and I try to help them if I can. Because I know sometimes people who are newer to Q & A often mark a question as "answered" when they read a response they "like" (but not be a complete answer), I'll often encourage them to continue to solicit answers from more people so they can get more input from the community.

It would be interesting to see data on how many threads complete stop getting new comments once they are marked as "answered." I bet it's more than 90%...which, from a UGC viewpoint, could mean Moz is losing out on content they would be getting by leaving more threads marked as "unanswered." Hmmm,

[danatanseo]

Amen! - Side note....I originally posted this discussion topic a week ago and it took me this long to come back and respond. I was really excited to see 13 new comments!

I totally agree with EGOL and Donna about the default view being changed to "Active." If this post hadn't been one of mine, I probably wouldn't have ever found it.

[danatanseo]

Excellent response! You know, I am here a lot...and I had no idea there was an "Active" view, so I am a perfect example of exactly what you described.

I really like your idea. It looks like Jenn has already picked up the ball and started running with it. That's very cool.

I agree with you EGOL that most often things get marked as "answered" when something is liked, but not necessarily answered. I have seen the thumbs down for answers that aren't necessarily what someone wanted to hear too, but less often lately.

I guess the whole reason I brought it up was because a few times I wanted more varieties of opinion on a question I had asked, but because it got marked as "answered" people stopped looking at it. Sounds like Moz might consider making some changes to the Q & A that could make it better. It's already really good, but I'm sure with some good feedback they can make it even better. Thanks again for chiming in!

[DonnaDuncan]

Agree.

[EGOL]

Here is a question?

Who sees if these Q&A questions are answered or not?  Does anybody see it?   Is anybody lookiin'?

I don't think that anybody is lookin'.

On a good day, in "Latest Question Format" a question will drop off the bottom of the page in a few hours.  On a bad day it might languish until tomorrow.  Then it drops off and nobody sees it.

Members are not going to mark a question as "answered" for a number of reasons.  Maybe they don't like the answers.  Maybe they just don't think of marking them "answered".  I might not mark my questions as answered.  I just don't think of it.

So, I would not spend one minute thinking....  "Hey, I answered that guy and he didn't mark it."     But, when I see five people give generous replies to a question and the poster never replies or even returns to cuss me.     Then I know that I wasted my time.

I've seen Ryan Kent type wonderful answers that must have taken him at least an hour and a half to compose and then the original poster didn't even return to argue.  I have seen that several times and thought... "Wow.. that person doesn't realize the valuable free gift that they got."

=========================================

I am still making pitches for "active" view as default.

I am asking Mozzers to open two browser windows, one with "latest" view and one with "active".  Which one looks like an impressive place, where you question will be considered and engaged?   "Active" markets Q&A a lot more strongly than "latest".

And, this thread we are posting in now.  Do you think that very many more people will join the discussion since it has dropped down... at the moment... to the middle of page two?   If Mozzers think that this thread might be useful would you not want fresh minds in it?  The deeper it drops the less likely that will happen - even if the few of us are talkin' here til Christmas.

I think that members would be like you and want to see more contributors, more action on their question.  And, if they reply it will go back to the top of the list and might pick up more participants.  Some people on other forums value that so much that they will risk wrath and bump the thread.  So, I think that it is a good bet that people who ask questions will participate more if their participation increases the visibility of the discussion that they have started.

[DonnaDuncan]

Dr. Pete, I don't think you sound defensive at all. It's good to share all perspectives. And EGOL, as usual, is very open with his thinking.

Clearly it's a balancing act and there is no miracle cure. I suggest that we could ask the original poster to indicate if they're satisfied with the answer(s) provided and state that the question will be marked closed when we hear back from them OR in X days, which ever comes first.

Of course there's many ways to skin a cat and you've probably considered that, or a similar suggestion and quite a few others. If nothing else, this discussion clearly demonstrates Moz TAGFEE in action!

[EGOL]

I read a few different SEO forums and see lots of people have a problem with their website then run around posting the same question in 20 different forums to see what advice they can get without payin'.  Then they never reply to any threads anywhere.

A few weeks later they are back at all 20 forums, this time registering under a Joe Schmoe, askin' same question.  Just query Google with a copy/paste of their question and you will see it posted everywhere.

I know quite a few SEO forum posters, sometimes including me, who often don't answer questions posted by noobs.  I'll gladly spend time answering a question for someone who replies even a couple times.  So, often when a noob asks a question, I ask for more details or poke at them, then if I get a reply I'll spend time to compose an answer.  Some answers can take 30 minutes or more to compose and I don't want to give that to a Joe Schmoe who ain't readin'.

Something that lots of other forums have that I think is handy is a link to see a member's recent questions and replies.  A quick look there can tell if this person is a mooch or if they participate in the threads that they start.  I am not doing that because I want to be stingy with my time, but 10 seconds to check saves me 30 minutes trying to help a phantom.

[Dr-Pete]

I think some of this is a legacy from Private Q&A days, when we tried to make sure that every question had a resolution, as opposed to being an open discussion. Even now, though, it's partly a "housekeeping" issue - if we see a question that's 80-90% resolved and mark it "answered", we have a better sense of where to prioritize our efforts and serve the questions that have no answers or bad answers.

Unfortunately, it's also complicated by 30-day trials and people who ask opportunistically and then disappear. We've always struggled with how to filter that kind of question while serving our long-term members better.

Even when doing it, there are times when I know that the original author may not feel the situation is fully resolved. So, it's a balancing act of empathy toward the author vs. empathy toward the pool of all authors. It's an imperfect solution and I think it's definitely something we have to revisit from time to time. I would only argue that leaving everything "open" has down-sides as well (as we've seen in the past).

Edit: Reading this back, it feels a bit defensive, and I don't mean it that way. Sorting out how to balance this all has been an ongoing discussion for us for years, and I think it's absolutely valuable when people tell us what they're feeling about the process out loud. I'm just not sure there's a simple answer.

[DonnaDuncan]

Yes Jennita, it does help. Thank you for the explanation.

[jennita]

Yep! I totally read it. I'd say this part "For us, we find that many people don't come back to mark something as answered, which is why we changed it around a bit. We use the "answered" bit, as a way to see how many questions get asked, replied to, AND "answered." answers that. We want to see how many questions were answered, and the original posters are notorious for NOT marking things as answered. Even after we started emailing them asking them to mark things as answered.

I'm not saying it's perfect, just giving you our thoughts on why we do it. Also, I don't believe anything happens automatically. But Associates and staff are asked to mark a question as answered if they feel they've answered a question. A lot of this comes from the old days of "private questions" where if we didn't mark a question as answered, we could literally spend hours and hours going back and forth with a member.

Hope this helps bring light to why we do things that way. As I mentioned above, we're totally open to changing, and I'm definitely not trying to say our way is best. Just giving insight as to WHY we do it.

Thanks!

[DonnaDuncan]

Hi Jennita.

This statement - "In our mind it simply means that the original poster got the answer they needed." - makes me wonder if you might have missed a key point Dana was trying to make, that being shouldn't the original poster be the one who decides if they "got the answer they needed" or not? Perhaps you got that totally and I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I think her point is an excellent one and that's why I'm circling back on it again... just to be sure.

[jennita]

Thanks for this response EGOL, between you and Dana, you've got us all talking. We want to make the right changes for the community, so I always appreciate when these conversations come up. We're going to keep your suggestions in mind as we start to delve into some changes to Q&A.

Also, thanks for all you do!

Jen

[jennita]

Hi Dana,

Thanks for bringing this up! It's an interesting topic for sure, and actually something we've discussed. For us, we find that many people don't come back to mark something as answered, which is why we changed it around a bit. We use the "answered" bit, as a way to see how many questions get asked, replied to, AND "answered."

I'm not sure I totally agree that by marking something as answered, means that it's shutting down the discussion. In our mind it simply means that the original poster got the answer they needed. It doesn't necessarily mean that the discussion has ended. But this does mean that if it's not clear, we should re-think it.

We'll definitely take this into consideration though in the coming months as we discuss changes/upgrades/etc. to Q&A. I love that people care enough to even bring this stuff up!! We may reach out to you if we come up with some changes/solutions, and get your thoughts. I also like the idea of proposing some ideas here in Q&A for changes to Q&A and see how people respond. This gets me very excited!

Thanks again for bringing this up, and getting this conversation started. I know we'll be talking about it soon because of it!

Jen

[EGOL]

**I  think your suggestion about making "active" the default view is a good one. **

Let's use this question as a case-in-point.  If Q&A is in "latest" view only a few people will participate.  But if it would be in "active" view then this question would remain visible, have a lot more participation and be more valuable.

If Q&A is changed to "active" view then the number of questions display per page should be 2X or 3X as many - because people will scan them looking for recurring topics.  Actually, increasing the number of questions displayed per page might increase participation in both "latest" and "active" views.

[DonnaDuncan]

You both (EGOL and DANA TAN) raise good points of consideration. I'm glad this topic came up b/c I have myself been frustrated when my question gets marked "answered" when I feel it has not. I like her proposal.

EGOL, I suspect your first two observations are accurate - that people "mark a question as "answered" when they get a response that they "like" instead of the response that they "need" and that "the best answer sometimes gets thumbed down because it requires work."  A suggestion would be that they simply get tagged "closed" with no judgment as to whether the answer was good or bad, answered the intent of the query or not. That might also help when people do a subsequent search for a topic and find conflicting answers. That's happened to me, and to EGOL's point (rules and best practices change over time), I understand why. But seeing the question marked as "answered" just adds to the confusion, especially if you're new.

I  think your suggestion about making "active" the default view is a good one.

I also want to say that I love it when Moz chimes in and marks an answer as a good one or endorses it. Really encourages participation and provides helpful information to all readers.

[EGOL]

I see your point.

I usually don't pay any attention to the "answered" label.......

I think that a lot of members mark a question as "answered" when they get a response that they "like" instead of the response that they "need".

I also think that the best answer sometimes gets thumbed down because it requires work. 

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Side comment:  I have been posting in SEO forums for about ten years and the threads where I have learned the most and enjoyed the most were huge discussions, often arguments, that raged on for a couple of days.

When a question is posted in the Moz Q&A format, if you don't see it before it drops off of the first page you probably are not going to see it.  In other formats, when a question gets a response it goes back to the top of the list, and that allows the most active (often the most interesting) threads to remain visible as long as people are engaging them.

Moz does offer an "Active" button at the top of the Q&A list... but by default people only see the "Latest" questions posted.  I am willing to bet that most people who look at Q&A don't know about  the "Active" view.

I believe that making "Active" the default view would dramatically kick up the activity and quality of Moz Q&A.

Making "latest" the default view gives fast "draw and shoot" answers to questions.  Is that the goal?

Making "active" the default view will put more pairs of eyes on the most engaged questions and that will change "draw and shoot" answers into "reviewed and debated".

Which would you rather have?

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Getting to your original question....   In SEO, I think that very few things are "answered" and a lot of "answers" will become wrong given time.  And, since we are often responding to questions without even seeing the site... or just taking the five minute look... there is an awful lot of things that could be missed.  So, I think that things that are "answered" could still benefit from "debate and refinement", and that is another argument for my suggestion of switching to "active" as default.

Philosophical:  I have spend most of every day for nearly the past ten years working on a single website.  I can't tell you how many times I have torn it apart because I had (or thought that I had) a better idea.   I don't have any "answers" about that site yet... because there is always a way to make it better... and lots of stuff changes over time.

Questions on Q&A are only "answered" until a smarter person or a person who knows one small detail, or has a simpler idea arrives.   So, I would not mark anything as "answered".