LG Connect Forum Policy for Open Posts

[EjazShah]

Hi Everyone,

This post is especially for Google Moderators @TraciC, @LuisRG, @BellaWi, @GusMoreira, @HelloJess, @YanniY

As of today, thousands of posts have been submitted on connect by Google team and our fellow Local Guides. The quantity of posts are increasing as the community is growing day by day. I really appreciate how Google and Connect Moderators team along with many helping hands (Local Guides) try their best to respond to questions, welcome new members and provides solutions. However, there are many posts that are still open without a solution provided or even responded by an experts.

My question in this post is, what is Google policy for open posts (especially where there is valid question, complaint or request) how long such post can stay open, or how long it takes (Maximum) for Google Team to take action on such posts to close them by providing proper answer / solution.

At last, i must say thank you @JeslynL for your swift responses and endless support which has kept many of LGs to continue reporting spammers.

[ErmesT]

Of course the community is growing up @EjazShah, so now we have two more Connect moderators, @IlankovanT, and @KarenVChin, and active member like you can always tag a moderator if you think there is something that needs a quick attention.

Also in this week we have a lot of new members, excited by the new point system, I hope they will give consistency to their contributions.

[Csaba]

Hi @EjazShah, 

Many posts do not really have a single, full, valid answer / solution therefoer cannot be marked as solved. Moderators (both Google and Connect Mods) have the ability to mark an answer as a solution but we use these powers sparingly for the above reasons. 

Theoretically an open post remains open forever. We have the option to close a thread (with or without a solution) or even unmark a solution as such but this is even less frequent than closing a thread. Closing threads mainly happen in the announcement sections where Google Moderators close the topic after a while. 

Now in an ideal situation, every arising questions and issues should have answers and solutions but of course, it is not always the situation. There are two few mods to cover every area (and let's be honest, we are just as regular LG's as anyone else here and will not know the answer to every question) so other, active members also need to contribute (and fortunately they do). Some other times even Google Moderators (or engineers) may not know the exact answer to a problem (like bugs in the system) while other times they may not be allowed to fully disclose information (like how many LG's are there in the world for instance).

[EjazShah]

Dear @ErmesT & @Csaba, thank you for your usual swift responses. Hopefully addition of two more Connect Moderators will help Google Team to manage the forum in more organized manner.

First of all I do agree with your remarks at some points however, my mainly asked question if there is a policy or SLA for Google Community Managers to manage such posts do exist is still there. 

Secondly, how does an LG will feel if his / her post that contains a "Valid" question, feedback, complaint or feature request wasn't even responded by them? Here we are talking about valid requests that at least can be answered if not provided with solutions. 

I believe all LGs know it very well that despite all efforts and forum permissions, Connect Moderators and other LGs cannot always provide answer / solutions on behalf of Google Team.

[Csaba]

I do not know the backend of the forum software we are using here but I know I do lack one very important feature: sorting topics with no answers at all. In the Google Product Forums this is possible and one can quickly wade through such posts and answers if possible. 

Here the sheer volume of new posts a day simply prevent going through every unread post. I often move topics to other forums where they are irrelevant in a given section (or would be more relevant in the other) and this may help reducing the number of posts waiting for answers (example: a new post saying "Hi" and a selfie added has nothing to do in the "How do I..." section). 

But then we also have our daily lives, daily jobs and that may prevent constant online presence.

[EjazShah]

100% agree bro @Csaba

[JeslynL]

Hi @EjazShah, I think @Csaba has put it perfectly. 

Not all posts require an accepted solution; many threads are fun and open-ended discussions and everyone is welcome to comment on them. I believe many users rely on threads with an accepted solution to look for quick answers, so we want to ensure that there is indeed a need for an answer before accepting any as a solution.

Connect is a global community forum and there are just SO many discussions going on almost every minute. It is indeed difficult for moderators to keep up with every thread but we do look out for inquiries and those that need troubleshooting. Everyone are free to tag any moderators (Connect Moderators, Google Moderators) in their posts if they want any of us to look into any issues.

We have seen and want to encourage community members to keep helping each other out and sharing their experiences and knowledge. In fact, the Google Moderators (or at least I do) learn new things from community members everyday!

[MdMonirujjamanMoon]

Thanks are lot everyone for informing us so many things

[EjazShah]

@JeslynL, got your point.

[khammami]

Hi @Csaba

Here few tricks shared by Traci in another board:

Latest Posts shows you the most recent posts

Unanswered Posts shows you posts without any replies or answers (great for providing solutions)