Close Your Question Reminders

[Nick_Taylor]

How many days after a question in SureTrack hasn't had any activity should we remind users to close the question?

I want to make sure it's not too soon so it seems annoying, but not too long that they forget what happened with the vehicle.

Thanks.

[Crusty]

Sometimes the vehicle is scheduled for next week for further attention so it needs to stay open for a few days.

A "reminder" on the third day just to post something, and after that another "reminder" on the sixth day, then an "administrative" close out with a "prompt" to either re-open the thread or start a new thread on the ninth day.

That takes the thread into a second week of "no activity" tagged to the original poster.
All they have to do is post SOMETHING regarding the status of the vehicle.

They may be running the vehicle through a few days of acid testing to make sure it's fixed.

Anyone else have any ideas-??
There are too many left open and hanging Nick.
Good subject to talk about.

[Nick_Taylor]

Ultimately what I'd like to do is give users the option to close questions without a fix. This would be for those vehicles that are coming back at a later date or that they just didn't fix. Then maybe we could have the system automatically change them to that status after a certain number of days.

They would still remain in the users "My Questions" bucket so they could revive them if needed.

Even incomplete questions are still useful if someone else has he same problem and there are good answers in there.

Needless to say, it's a lot of work to get it right and I'm sure there are different number of days for different kinds of shops and users.

[Crusty]

OK, so we have "open" questions right now and then "Fixes"....
How about a third category...."Unresolved Problems" where the original post could be catalogued to without a resolution, yet it could still be "closed" and not a "current" active question where the people are responding, both the original poster and the members lending a hand-??

Some people just won't go back and officially close a question or thread.....whether they fixed it or not, we don't know because they just don't post any kind of response. All they're concerned with is fixing the vehicle and then grabbing the keys for the next vehicle.

Perhaps there could be a limit to the number of "open" threads a person has. ....
Sorry, unable to create new question. You have three unresolved question threads open at present. Please close one of your previous question threads with either a "fix" or an "unresolved" status.

[Nick_Taylor]

We do have it on our list to limit the number of open questions a user can have. Another tricky thing to figure out the right limit.

It would be at least helpful to remind users that they have open questions in a more obvious way.

[Crusty]

We do have it on our list to limit the number of open questions a user can have. Another tricky thing to figure out the right limit.

It would be at least helpful to remind users that they have open questions in a more obvious way.

Automatic reminder in emails and on the site after 3 days.

[Witsend]

I don't remember if it was Jesus or if it was Moses who disappeared into the desert for something like 40 days and forty nights before He returned to answer anymore questions. And that was considered a Pretty Fast back then.

[Bob's Garage]

Closing questions

OK, so we have "open" questions right now and then "Fixes"....
How about a third category...."Unresolved Problems" where the original post could be catalogued to without a resolution, yet it could still be "closed" and not a "current" active question where the people are responding, both the original poster and the members lending a hand-??

Some people just won't go back and officially close a question or thread.....whether they fixed it or not, we don't know because they just don't post any kind of response. All they're concerned with is fixing the vehicle and then grabbing the keys for the next vehicle.

Perhaps there could be a limit to the number of "open" threads a person has. ....
Sorry, unable to create new question. You have three unresolved question threads open at present. Please close one of your previous question threads with either a "fix" or an "unresolved" status.

I have 3 questions open. One because, I "closed" it and came back to find it still open, another because I was sure I closed it a while back, but I think it was during the Ask-A-Tech days, and it fell to the way side.

The third most recent one is still open because it never got a single reply:

http://www.askatech.com/AskATechLive/Dashboard/Dashboard.aspx?solutionId=18546328&bucketType=Questions&changeSelection=true&idfromSource=18546328&sourceName=EbiWiki

I guess because it is a Mercedes and a difficult CAN BUS issue?
So, I guess I will not get a an answer and since the car isn't fixed, close it?
That is the dilemma. We pushed the car outside till we get a handle on the problem, customer doesn't have the funding to go further.

I have a Tech Help request open on iATN on the same car/problem with 12 replies. Some good ones too. I am requesting more test time from customer.

I hope SureTrack gets better, because the really tough cars are the ones I post on, not the ones that have repair info available to the masses. If you a Windstar with a P0171, how many replies will you get?

At any rate, I'll go back and "clean house" and re-close those open posts.

Thanks, Bob

[Nick_Taylor]

Bob,

We're trying to figure out why the questions aren't closing properly. They do seem to resolve themselves after a few days and since they're showing up on the Latest Fixes list, the system is trying to do it. It should just do it immediately after you finish the process.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Crusty]

I have 3 questions open. One because, I "closed" it and came back to find it still open, another because I was sure I closed it a while back, but I think it was during the Ask-A-Tech days, and it fell to the way side.

The third most recent one is still open because it never got a single reply:

http://www.askatech.com/AskATechLive/Dashboard/Dashboard.aspx?solutionId=18546328&bucketType=Questions&changeSelection=true&idfromSource=18546328&sourceName=EbiWiki

I guess because it is a Mercedes and a difficult CAN BUS issue?
So, I guess I will not get a an answer and since the car isn't fixed, close it?
That is the dilemma. We pushed the car outside till we get a handle on the problem, customer doesn't have the funding to go further.

I have a Tech Help request open on iATN on the same car/problem with 12 replies. Some good ones too. I am requesting more test time from customer.

I hope SureTrack gets better, because the really tough cars are the ones I post on, not the ones that have repair info available to the masses. If you a Windstar with a P0171, how many replies will you get?

At any rate, I'll go back and "clean house" and re-close those open posts.

Thanks, Bob

OK, so now you have at least one reply-!!!

When I tried to attach a picture from my cell phone today to your specific Mercedes post, all my cell phone would do is show every single jpg on the phone with just numeric indications of the file so it was impossible to select the picture I wanted to include.
On a normal computer I have the ability to view of the file to make sure it is the file desired, but that wasn't the case on the cell phone.
Maybe Nick could look into that (yes I know I'm derailing the thread here but it is directly related to your post in Suretrack).

[Nick_Taylor]

OK, so now you have at least one reply-!!!

When I tried to attach a picture from my cell phone today to your specific Mercedes post, all my cell phone would do is show every single jpg on the phone with just numeric indications of the file so it was impossible to select the picture I wanted to include.
On a normal computer I have the ability to view of the file to make sure it is the file desired, but that wasn't the case on the cell phone.
Maybe Nick could look into that (yes I know I'm derailing the thread here but it is directly related to your post in Suretrack).

What kind of phone are you using? I use Android and I don't even see the attachment function. It does keep saying I need to install a flash player. I'll have to give that a try and see what happens.

[Crusty]

What kind of phone are you using? I use Android and I don't even see the attachment function. It does keep saying I need to install a flash player. I'll have to give that a try and see what happens.

Hi Nick
Samsung S3 (yup, an older model but a proven RELIABLE piece od kit as the Brits would say)
The attachment function is in the same place on the page as a normal computer....just to the right of the reply box (where the font is STILL MINISCULE as I have complained about many, many times in the past....so I don't bitch about it anymore because it falls on DEAF EARS-!!....but THAT'S another problem....)

[Crusty]

I have 3 questions open. One because, I "closed" it and came back to find it still open, another because I was sure I closed it a while back, but I think it was during the Ask-A-Tech days, and it fell to the way side.

The third most recent one is still open because it never got a single reply:

http://www.askatech.com/AskATechLive/Dashboard/Dashboard.aspx?solutionId=18546328&bucketType=Questions&changeSelection=true&idfromSource=18546328&sourceName=EbiWiki

I guess because it is a Mercedes and a difficult CAN BUS issue?
So, I guess I will not get a an answer and since the car isn't fixed, close it?
That is the dilemma. We pushed the car outside till we get a handle on the problem, customer doesn't have the funding to go further.

I have a Tech Help request open on iATN on the same car/problem with 12 replies. Some good ones too. I am requesting more test time from customer.

I hope SureTrack gets better, because the really tough cars are the ones I post on, not the ones that have repair info available to the masses. If you a Windstar with a P0171, how many replies will you get?

At any rate, I'll go back and "clean house" and re-close those open posts.

Thanks, Bob

I agree with you Bob.
I hope Sure Track gets better but that will probably take time

Here on THESE forums there are 14,000 members
IATN has been around for....about 19 years-?? and has 80,000 members
I just took a quick look and I didn't see any stats for Sure Track numbers-??
(Nick, any stats-??)

Yes, you'll see more response on a Ford with a P0171 than a European CAN problem, but that probably also goes for IATN too.

You're absolutely right.....the difficult head scratchers are the ones we need the most feedback on. MOST of the questions on Sure Track are pretty basic and dependant upon someone doing THEIR OWN research, which brings back to mind the discussion a few months ago about "who has access".
Same thing on IATN, and I'm sure lots of other forums too. Basic problems that usually are solvable with proper knowledge (call it "training" if you must) and research and testing. That is usually dependant upon the availability of technical information, specifications and procedures, along with RELIABLE and ACCURATE equipment.

[Nick_Taylor]

Hi Nick
Samsung S3 (yup, an older model but a proven RELIABLE piece od kit as the Brits would say)
The attachment function is in the same place on the page as a normal computer....just to the right of the reply box (where the font is STILL MINISCULE as I have complained about many, many times in the past....so I don't bitch about it anymore because it falls on DEAF EARS-!!....but THAT'S another problem....)

I tried it on an old Android tablet I have using the firefox browser and I could see the button but it didn't do anything. I tried two different browsers on my phone which is pretty new.

As for the text size on a phone. Not much I can do there as the site wasn't designed for Mobile Use. You can always Pinch and Zoom to get it larger. Had to do that on my phone just to log in.

[Nick_Taylor]

I agree with you Bob.
I hope Sure Track gets better but that will probably take time

Here on THESE forums there are 14,000 members
IATN has been around for....about 19 years-?? and has 80,000 members
I just took a quick look and I didn't see any stats for Sure Track numbers-??
(Nick, any stats-??)

Yes, you'll see more response on a Ford with a P0171 than a European CAN problem, but that probably also goes for IATN too.

You're absolutely right.....the difficult head scratchers are the ones we need the most feedback on. MOST of the questions on Sure Track are pretty basic and dependant upon someone doing THEIR OWN research, which brings back to mind the discussion a few months ago about "who has access".
Same thing on IATN, and I'm sure lots of other forums too. Basic problems that usually are solvable with proper knowledge (call it "training" if you must) and research and testing. That is usually dependant upon the availability of technical information, specifications and procedures, along with RELIABLE and ACCURATE equipment.

It's hard to quote number of users on any forum. I know that iATN says they have 80,000 active users but what does that mean? Just like there are 14,000 users here, are they all posting on a regular basis? No. SureTrack has over 32,000 registered users but I couldn't say how many of those are active on a regular basis. It is growing every day.

I also know that you experienced members get frustrated with the new people and a lot of the simplistic problems they ask about or how they ask their questions. Keep in mind that many of these people have never used a forum before. And I don't know if it's lack of experience or training that causes them to ask for the silver bullet without doing any of their own testing.

All we can do is to keep trying to help those we can.