Marking your question as Answered

Question

Hi All,

I want to make a pitch to have folks mark their questions as Answered once you've received an Answer that solves your problem. Everyone who posts a question has the ability to mark that question as Answered by clicking the Answered button for the Post that best answers the question.

There are a couple good reasons to do this:

• Our search engine weights Answered questions more highly. By marking Answers you increase the chances that others searching this forum will find the answer directly rather than re-posting the question.
• You give credit to the hard working folks who answer your questions. This is peer to peer support, so recognition is our only reward. (Check out the Top Answerers in 30 Days chart at the bottom of the thread list to see who is currently answering questions.)
• You help me track the health of this forum. I get mail every day telling me how many unanswered questions are in this forum and I work to keep those numbers at a certain level. By marking Answers, I get a more accurate understanding.

I apreciate everyone's participation in the SQL Express Forum whether you're asking questions, answering question or just reading along. Marking Answers is one way we can all work together to make the forum a little better.

Regards,

Mike Wachal
SQL Express team

Answer 1

Hello, Mike,
   I am new at posting to MSDN forums.  I received numerous very helpful responses, and have marked most of them as helpful - which to me means that I am "on the way" to solving my current problems, no longer "stuck".  But as a new user of Expression, I won't really know until my application gets launched which should be marked as "the" answer.   A)  Should I mark as "The Answer" some answer now?  If I mark one, will that block me from marking some of the others as "The Answer"?

   I would definitely say that this thread would be worth reading for some struggling new user like myself.  So committing to "The Answer" would be good for the search engine?  And how would I pick just one?  That would not be accurate...

   I realize your note is dataed 10/2006!

E Babb

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E Babb

Answer 2

Hello, Mike

In addition to E Babb's question, I'd like to ask if the responder is supposed to propose his own post as the answer or if we should wait for another responder to propose the post as answer (I realize that only the thread starter can mark as answer, but my question is about proposing as answer).

Razvan

Answer 3

Hello,

It is logical that the original poster may not mark his/her own post as "the good answer" .
Anyway , the original poster cannot get any point with his own posts ( and with the "good answer" ).
But a moderator may always mark any post as the "good answer" , when he thinks that it is the case.

Have a nice day

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Please remember to click 'Mark as Answer' on the post that helped you. Unmark if it provides no help