Do new Mozzers realise it takes effort to respond to their questions?

[loopyal]

I see a lot of people asking questions and getting some pretty good responses, but the people who are responding, often do not get a thumbs up for their answer.

If you are new and you are reading this, then you maybe do not understand that a thumbs up actually helps the person who gave their time to answer your question.

There are several ways it helps, including giving feedback that the answer or the attempt to answer was actually useful, that you learned something or you appreciate the time it took to check your questions and give you feedback that you don't get in other forums, where you might be ignored for weeks or months.

This is a collaborative forum and we are all here to learn something and to pass some of our knowledge to others who need it.

Not every answer we give needs a thumbs up, but if you got something out of the answer, then, surely it is worth a second of your time to say "Thanks, that helped me" or "Yes, I agree with this"

[DavidKonigsberg]

i gave you a thumbs up for your post -:)

[jeffreytrull1]

Agreed. It would be nice to get a thumbs up or marked as a "Good answer" when someone is actually helped.

Perhaps SEOmoz could do a little more to prod people towards using these features, as I'm sure most new Mozzers either just forget or aren't aware of how or when to use them.

[Keszi]

SEOmoz staff is usually asking if people leaved their questions unmarked if a specific answer was helpful or not.

[Keszi]

I would underline something related to your question: I take myself as an example. - just so it is clear for everyone

I had talks with other mozzers who told me they appreciate that I am investing time in answering questions here in Q/A. That felt like... GOOD! That was the best feedback ever for me! (and if you read this through - "You know Who" - Thank you! ) - I am not pointing out with a finger, that is not the point. The Feedback is!

Ok, now back to Alan's question: Why it is important to put thumbs up/thumbs down, mark it as a good question or not: with every question I read and I try to answer here on SEOmoz Q/A I am learning something new (if a client comes and asks the same question I would need to answer it in more detail, so I am testing, preparing and constantly learning in here) - every one of us is a man, we can make mistakes, but we learn from these mistakes only if we get the feedback. So please-please-please don't hesitate to give us a feedback, we learn from that (even if it is a negative one).

@Alan: I am glad you brought it up. I was thinking on writing something similar too.

Cheers,

Istvan

[jennita]

This is a great thread Alan! And not just for new Mozzers, but for everyone really. As you said this is a collaborative forum so please mark questions as answered, thumb up good answers and mark as "good answer" if it helped you!

The SEOmoz staff can't be everywhere and we count on the community to help each other out. We really appreciate all the contributions and I absolutely love hearing stories about people getting jobs through Q&A or gaining significant help, etc. Let's keep that stuff going!

Thanks again for bringing this up Alan, it's great to have the reminder. And Thanks to everyone for being so helpful!

[Dr-Pete]

Thanks for the reminder! To be honest, I'm not sure we expected the kind of volume that Public Q&A would have after the re-launch. I know the Associates have been working to do a better job of endorsing good answers and generally participating. As you said, though, it's a community effort, and we can't do it without you guys (and gals).

[Mcarle]

If your super new then you might not exactly know what is good advice or not.

It takes a while to learn how seo works & what is good vs bad advice, it also takes a while to learn how the dynamics of a community forum based site work.

I'm trying my best to read as much as I can to see how the thumbs work on this site compared to others before I go & thumb up some bad advice or manage to be tagged for spamming or some other issue I will learn about next week.

But yes, we all do appreciate the good advice given.

[loopyal]

Welcome to SEO - not always as interesting as photography.

Yes, I agree you can't always tell.

Quite often, the posts are not advice on how to fix your problem. Quite often, the posts are more like asking you questions, trying to qualify the question you are asking, or a poster may take the time to tell you what their experience was, with something they believe is similar to the question you are posing.

If a response makes you think about your question, so you can go back and update it, so following readers can more easily understand your question, then that poster helped you, by giving up their time, so you could improve.

As humans (I think most SEOMoz contributors are) we often see interactions that we don't contribute to, but we can quite often learn something from the posts - and that can be worth a click. Or, we may agree with what someone else posts, and rather than writing an entry that says, Yes, I agree with EGOL (he writes as lot of responses) you can simply give his post a click.

I've never been one for touchy feely stuff, but I know that feedback is important to all of us.  ( I just got a new Personal Development writer in my newspaper, and he is making me rethink a lot of things. )

[blacey]

I'm a new Mozzer and I always thumbs up other people's responses if I learnt something new thanks to their response. I think its good etiquette more than anything, I also think its nice to thumbs up if you agree with a response.

I may be wrong but I'm in full agreement that it takes time to reply to questions on the site, but its worth it knowing your helping others

One thing I've noticed is that some people reply after me in Q+A, rewording what I've said and adding their view, but instead of me getting the thumbs up / good answer ... they get it. Personally I think the person who answered first should get the thumbs up, or am I wrong in thinking that?

[loopyal]

Thank you Ben.

Sometimes, life is tough! It could be that not all responses are read, so your post might not have been seen. It could also be that another post is easier to read, or the way it was written strikes a chord with the reader, more than other responses.

We are all learning to communicate here, and this forum is a great learning tool, because you can see how some people really connect with you, in their writing, while others struggle to connect.

As my parents used to tell me, practice makes perfect.

[blacey]

Yeah good points to consider. You win some, you lose some I guess. Least I can sleep easy knowing I'm contributing to the SEOMoz community as best I can

[MassivePrime]

Very valid point Alan thanks for the heads up however I feel that the thumbs up system is most useful as an indicator to others who are probably faced with the same question as to which answer is the most appropriate.

I don't consider myself to be an advanced SEO so when I read the responses to certain questions I am not always able to determine which answer is the best one, that's when I look at the number of thumbs up each response has received as it is usually a good indicator.

Having said that I do believe that anyone who puts effort into leaving a useful response should be rewarded, nothing makes me happier  then when I am called out and thanked personally

[loopyal]

Thank you.

It seems to go in phases, sometimes.

A few days, both before and after I wrote that note, I had spent more than an hour researching and writing responses, trying to give good information. Although there seemed to be many page views of people reading, not a single thumbs-up (or even a thumbs down, not even from the person who asked the initial question.)

That is what makes it hard to run a forum. I always try to give a thumbs up to an answer someone gives, if either they gave a good answer, or they have obviously put in a lot of effort to research and address the question - and especially when I gained an insight into something that I didn't know before, or if they gave information about their site or their stats that showed me something useful.

It is the participation and small things that keep us all going. I haven't been around much this week, because I have a ton of deadlines. Thanks for contributing.

[jjgonza]

Thanks for the lesson on proper moz etiquette. I am new to this forum and it is by far superior mainly due to its contributors. I am amazed at all the talent on this site willing to help each other.

This Thumbs up is for you.

Thanks

[EGOL]

Interesting thread.  Thanks for starting it.

The people who I am puzzled with are the ones who have a big problem on their site and they ask how to fix it.  The answer to this type of question usually involves a lot of difficult work (like replacing their copied content with something unique and genuine - or the guy who thinks he should be at #1 in competitive SERPs with 200 junk links).   When they see your answer they respond harshly because you didn't provide an "easy" solution. 

[blacey]

Whilst I've not personally received that kind of response I can see that issue cropping up on occasion. Easy / Quick gains are short lived and aren't sustainable, SEO is hard work and its not made any easier by Google's algorithm updates but there isn't much we can do about that.

As a community its nice to share ideas and help others and at times I feel that some people on SEO Moz are slow to give credit to good answers when its due, but there's not much you can do about that really.

[Matt-Williamson]

I have also noticed when answering questions myself and also when viewing unanswered questions that people regularly have their questions answered on here, but don't give credit to the people that are answering them. Are all mozzers aware that after so many automatic thumbs up from Q&A they no longer count, so answering a question and getting no recognition from the poster leaves the exercise almost pointless.

I think that it is a case of lack of knowledge and forgetfulness, as I have regularly seen verbal acknowledgement of an answer but no thumbs up given.

Is there no way round this? I know how busy the SEOMOZ staff are but to keep this community improving I think that this should be addressed as it is disheartening and I can imagine that some have already been put of from answering questions! Maybe look at appointing some specific Q&A moderators and not just associates?