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Thread poster: Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 12:31
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
May 7, 2020

Hello

At this time, on the forums, the thread starter can edit his first post for up to 24 hours in order to clarify his question etc. or to provide a summary of the answers, or to provide a link to the final answer, but after 24 hours the first post can no longer be edited to add such useful information.

I suggest that a new field is added to the forums called a "summary", which is displayed either above or below the first post, which is always editable (even years aft
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Hello

At this time, on the forums, the thread starter can edit his first post for up to 24 hours in order to clarify his question etc. or to provide a summary of the answers, or to provide a link to the final answer, but after 24 hours the first post can no longer be edited to add such useful information.

I suggest that a new field is added to the forums called a "summary", which is displayed either above or below the first post, which is always editable (even years after the first post was posted). The original poster should be able to edit this field.

Preferably, moderators should also be able to edit the summary. And preferably, there should also be a new class of global moderators called summarizers, who can add or edit summaries anywhere but who do not have other moderator privileges.

Not all threads require summaries, and if a thread starter wrote his own summary, it generally shouldn't be necessary (or good manners) for a summarizer to dramatically alter it.

Your thoughts?

I can also think of other ways to allow summarizing. For example, there could be a feature whereby anyone (or paid members, or moderators, or the thread starter, or users with "summarize" privileges) can write a reply and tick a box called "summary", which will cause the post to go to moderation first, and when approved, will appear directly below the first post. But then how do you deal with threads that evolve after the summary was posted -- do you make the summary post always-editable, or do you make it so that any time a new summary is approved, it replaces the old one?

Also, it would be nice if there could be an option in the search function to search summaries only.


[Edited at 2020-05-07 07:22 GMT]
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Walter Landesman
Walter Landesman  Identity Verified
Uruguay
Local time: 08:31
English to Spanish
+ ...
How can it be useful? May 7, 2020

I am sorry, Samuel. I fail to see the need for this or how it can be useful.

 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 12:31
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Walter May 7, 2020

Walter Landesman wrote:
I am sorry, Samuel. I fail to see the need for this or how it can be useful.


Well, the status quo is that anyone visiting a thread has no idea where to find the answer to the original question, and is forced to either read all posts (including posts that may not relate to the original question) or skim-read them and hope that they see the answer. As you know, forum users tend to respond not only to the original post but also to other people's posts, and their responses are not always relevant to the original poster's original question. The ability to add a summary to a thread will help save future visitors time when visiting old questions.

Actually, the thing that prompted this suggestion was when I posted an update to a thread that was 6 months old, where I was no longer able to edit my first post in that thread to update the summary that was written in it. This means that near the top of the first page is a summary of the thread, but the summary only applies to information that was added within the first 24 hours of posting the summary, and not to information that was posted by me and other people after that time.

And if you add the URLs of individual posts to the summary, people can jump to relevant posts directly (e.g. when a member wrote a long but very useful reply on the subject).


 
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei
Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei  Identity Verified
Ghana
Local time: 11:31
Japanese to English
Hmm, it's an interesting idea May 8, 2020

It would save a lot of time for those threads with dozens of pages and no end in sight. But would the original posters really return and post summaries like you think they would? What's their incentive to do so?

 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 12:31
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
@Kuochoe May 8, 2020

Kuochoe Nikoi-Kotei wrote:
But would the original posters really return and post summaries like you think they would? What's their incentive to do so?


Some might not want to, no. But I believe regular users of the forums may be willing to do so, depending on the thread. And that is also why I believe some people should be given summarizer privileges so that they can write summaries of threads that they believe need summaries. Note, I speculate that fewer than 20% of threads would quality for or be suited for summaries.


 


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