“Resolved” – the topic author has no control – suggestions

3) Topic Author may contest the “resolved” setting, first with the Plugin Author, and lastly with some arbitrator/admin at WordPress.

Can they not do this already? If the author cannot set the state on their thread I think that’s a bug. It’s meant to be there. The author can then reply to the thread to ask the plugin author not to mark the thread resolved.

When a member starts a topic on a plugin forum.
The plugin author can set the topic as “resolved”.
The topic author has no say, and no control.

Emphasis added by me.

As you are aware the original poster can always mark their topic as resolved or not resolved.

It might be prudent to permit the topic author, to contest this setting,
or be consulted before the the topic is “resolved”.

Why? Some people (well, lots of them really) post a topic and get a solution and never reply. It is prudent to permit the plugin author to mark topic resolved for that reason.

Plugin and theme authors are like mini-moderators for their own support sub-forum on www.ads-software.com.

These are volunteer support forums and the “volunteer” part is important. There’s no such thing as contesting a topic here, users are not customers and that’s not the model here.

If an author replies or not then either case is fine. That includes if the author chooses to resolve a topic or not. You can contest it by un-resolving it and replying. If you feel so inclined you can also leave a review in that plugin or theme’s review section.

Support is part of the experience after all and that often does go into reviews.

Hi Andrew Nevins (@anevins),

Possibly it is a bug.
Where is the way to change the “Resolved” setting, (so I can check if it works)?

Intuitively, it might be expected that the “Resolved” green rectangle would be the place to go, but it doesn’t work, nad there is no obvious menu link.

Observed behaviour
Hovering over the “Resolved” green rectangle does not indicate a link.
Hovering over the “Resolved” green rectangle changes the cursor from an arrow to “insertion” (as in text edit) mode.

Hi Jan Dembowski (@jdembowski),
Thank you for your reply.
Re

As you are aware the original poster can always mark their topic as resolved or not resolved.

Your first premise, though flattering by assuming possession of awareness is inaccurate. This is because as has been explained, there is no such function presenting itself for this user to actually be aware of. What this user is aware of experiencing, is that lack of it.
So for the purposes of diagnosing the problem, Andrew Nevins
proposition of it being a bug sounds reasonably practical and probable.

Apart from whether it is a bug or not,
from a user friendly experience, there is no additional hint, prompt, notice to even suggest that such functions are available. Having any of these would improve the useability.

You have made additional comments, which are addressed below;

a)

Why? Some people (well, lots of them really) post a topic and get a solution and never reply. It is prudent to permit the plugin author to mark topic resolved for that reason.

In answer to you question “Why”.
This is quite correct. It is not clear why you have raised this, as nothing in what I have said, or intended, was to prevent the plugin author from acting this way.
So just to clarify, in order to avoid future confusion.
The suggestion made (whether or not presently available, or functional, or bug free), is that “the thread/topic author can have some input into the decision process.”

b)

Plugin and theme authors are like mini-moderators for their own support sub-forum on www.ads-software.com.

Thank you for confirming this.
This is exactly why the following suggestion was made;

3) Topic Author may contest the “resolved” setting, first with the Plugin Author, and lastly with some arbitrator/admin at WordPress.

The reason being is that it is respectful of the plugin author, and establishes sensible channels of addressing an issue and redress.

c1)

These are volunteer support forums and the “volunteer” part is important. There’s no such thing as contesting a topic here, users are not customers and that’s not the model here.

Quite correct also.
There are many many volunteers, and that includes the users of the plugins that contribute to these forums, and come up with ideas for improvements, and help test and debug. It’s all part of the huge community. (and some might observe how this is incrementally influencing the world).

c2) You have made two particular statements ;

There’s no such thing as contesting a topic here.

As you are aware the original poster can always mark their topic as resolved or not resolved.

You can contest it by un-resolving it and replying.

Is there some difference between “the original poster” be able to “mark their topis as … not resolved”, and “contesting a topic”?
If there is a difference, then would it not be sensible to have a process of sorting out the differences?
Please can you clarify what you understand the situation “to be” and what you intend the situation “to be in future”.

d1)

If an author replies or not then either case is fine. That includes if the author chooses to resolve a topic or not. You can contest it by un-resolving it and replying. If you feel so inclined you can also leave a review in that plugin or theme’s review section.

This again is quite correct.
The plugin author, and the topic/thread author are both under no obligation to reply.
But just to be clear, there has been no suggestion made that either of them “should” reply.
But since you mention it, several people might consider it rude, for a plugin author to mark an issue as resolved, without even making a simple comment. But that is not a point I am intending to raise, as just about everybody is willing to engage in dialogue, and it goes without saying.

d2) Thank you for suggesting the option of “leaving a review”, which is an option that most user are made well aware of.
One of the reasons why the options that have been suggested above were made was that a review is much more permanent, even though it may have been relevant at an earlier point in time.
The above suggestions were made so the plugin author has more opportunity to respond to issues that any user considers important, even though the plugin author may have initially under estimated the importance (sometimes based on false assumptions). With this flexibility in communication, there is much less chance of issues “going amiss” or un-noticed.
The aim is to avoid a more permanent negative portrayal of a plugin by recourse to “leaving a (negative) review”.
And of course, there may be other avenues for improving dialogue, feedback, suggestions, complaints, user surveys, participation, etc, but these may only come with time, and further discussion as to the possibilities.

In summation
Thank you for your elucidation.

As of yet, I still am not experiencing a way to mark this topic as “Un-Resolved”, so it remains entirely in the hands of the support crew (this is not a plugin suggestion), to mark this topic as un-resolved, because I can not, and you have been informed that I can not.

Nobody has yet explained where the option(s) are actually accessible for the topic author to un-resolve the topic. It might be expectable that it be in menu on the right hand side of the topic display, and/or next to the submit button, and/or able to be activated by the green “resolved” rectangle, or other (multiple) methods. So far there has been no illumination.

Thank you

Hi Jan Dembowski (@jdembowski),
I make a correction of an error ;

“two particular statements” should have been “three particular statements”

Thank you

Still not experiencing any “resolve” or “un-resolve” functionality.
Can not easily find any help, either on the same topic page, or anywhere on forum site, and shouldn’t need to go off site to find out how to get this done.

Maybe my system is lacking compatibility.
But that should not effect the ability to at least read some help text.

The “submit” button still works well (thank goodness).

Hi Andrew Nevins (@anevins),

With respect to your comment,
Could you please “unresolve” this topic?

This may be a bug.
What ever the situation is, it is (a lack of) something that is being “experienced”.

a concept;
The systems’ problems have no appreciation of the knowledge and expertise of the people that create them; they are just software and hardware, they are incapable of respect.
They are not capable of “disobedience”, but they are capable of being out of “control”. This is because they strictly follow instructions, but sometimes the instructions are not definitive, and not all circumstances have been anticipated beforehand.

As a user of such systems, I have good regard for those that create them.
Never the less, the systems are still to be experienced.

I look forward to your assistance.
Thank you

May I also repeat;

Nobody has yet explained where the option(s) are actually accessible for the topic author to un-resolve the topic. It might be expectable that it be in menu on the right hand side of the topic display, and/or next to the submit button, and/or able to be activated by the green “resolved” rectangle, or other (multiple) methods. So far there has been no illumination.

Thank you

Just a thought;
If the ability to resolve/unresolve, is contained in a function or module or some sort of component, then perhaps its display is dependent on permissions based on the login, and authorship/control.
So perhaps the topic author is not being given the correct permission to have this feature displayed to them.
It could just be a matter of flicking the settings switch for that module/component.
Just a guess though – probably wrong.

I can ping a forum developer to have a look at this because you should be able to resolve threads you’ve created – and unresolve them.

Hi Andrew Nevins (@anevins),

Thank you for your prompt help, in attempting to obtain functionality.

Please also note that I am reporting the lack of “help” information about “resolve”, anywhere.
(It also looks like there is no directly relevant help system for the “support” section submenu, anyway. e.g. clicking on “Documentation” goes to general WordPress help, rather than documentation for the support forum area – re “about”/”how to” type topics directly related to support).

So if there are any links to some information about how I should (as indicated) be able to resolve, or unresolve a topic, would be very useful for me to read.

But those links would also be useful to put on the pages where editing takes place so topic authors are made aware of what they are able to do, and how to do it.

Thank you
I hope to get these matters resolved soon.
And with your help I think that will be possible.

So if there are any links to some information about how I should (as indicated) be able to resolve, or unresolve a topic, would be very useful for me to read.

On the right hand side of this page, or of any other topic you create, there’s a line that reads “Status:” and a dropdown next to it with “Not resolved”, “Resolved”, or “Not a support question”. Next to that is a button labeled “Update”.

You change the dropdown, you click the update button. This functionality is visible to topic authors, moderators, and plugin/theme authors when in their own forum.

I’m not sure how we could make that dropdown any more obvious of visible since it’s the main place on the page where “Resolved” is displayed or not. The update button is very clear as is the dropdown.

Hi Samuel Wood (Otto) (@otto42),

In summary

Thank you very much for your assistance, and please accept my apologies for not avoiding the inconvenience that I have caused.

In Depth

Thank you so much for your reply.
This is a crucial message, for the following reasons;

1) you have “help”ed with “how to” “use” this “function”.
No one has yet told me where I can find (this sort of) help, for the topic of “resolving”, and I still haven’t managed to find it yet.
but you have told me now, so I know.
You have told me the location, layout of the appearance, and the method of use.

Location;

On the right hand side of this page, or of any other topic you create, there’s a line that reads “Status:”

Layout of the appearance;

there’s a line that reads “Status:” and a dropdown next to it with “Not resolved”, “Resolved”, or “Not a support question”. Next to that is a button labeled “Update”.

Method of Use;

You change the dropdown, you click the update button. This functionality is visible to topic authors, moderators, and plugin/theme authors when in their own forum.

These instructions are very clear, easy to understand, and easy to follow.
I have yet to test it.

2) I am not sure how long it has been there. And it may have been there all the time, as I recall making decisions as I scanned the page for possible locations.
You also make the statement;

I’m not sure how we could make that dropdown any more obvious of visible since it’s the main place on the page where “Resolved” is displayed or not. The update button is very clear as is the dropdown.

At this point, I’ll make a few comments about thinking;
a) Now that I see it, it conjures a sense of low intelligence in the author of this topic (me).
b) As a PC and Internet user, I am conditioned to follow “visual cues”, to be able to “intuitively” “find” my way around “Graphical” “User Interfaces”.
So as far as thinking, I have failed the complete process of finding and carrying out this function. But I also think there are some comments to be made regarding;
i) intuitiveness
ii) find
iii) graphical
iv) User Interface
c) I like your statement above, and I do appreciate it.
i) Firstly, it is preceded by “help” (this could literally be copied and pasted into a popup box, or help file).
ii) Secondly it begins with

“I’m not sure how we could”

.
I learn a lesson from that myself, the lesson being that “just because I can’t see a way, doesn’t mean it can’t be done”.
iii) Then, like me, there is the situation as experienced by the person (in your case a very great many – possibly unlike myself)

“make that dropdown any more obvious or visible since it’s the main place on the page where “Resolved” is displayed or not. The update button is very clear as is the dropdown”

iv) there is implied exploration in your statement, even though you are describing what appears to be a limited situation.
So
I do thank you, because now I am able to use this function.

Now to match up our thinking and words, with some explanation;
Please note the implications of “intuitive”,”find”,”graphical”, and “user interface”.

I expected to (find) some continuity in the function and design, of the page (for plugins, ideas, and forums).
The only place I had previously come across the ability to set “resolve”, was at the bottom of the page in some topic, below or above where it had a check box for “Notify me … email”, that was a check box with a label something like “Mark as resolved”.
At that location, there was no indication of how to remove a “resolve”.
Being “a” location where “resolve” could be set, meant that this was “a” or “the” location where it “is” set.
A test of other “clear” “obvious” locations, such as the distinctly coloured (Green) tick “icon” tab, showed no related functionality.

So I looked for help, and found none.
Not something that even alluded to the topic. Just none at all.
Maybe I should have looked more in depth, but maybe I should need to have to go to such an effort.

So I went back to the page to look for a cue for something I may have missed.
All the stuff on the right hand side can be seen – It is not like I couldn’t see that.
Here’s the intuitive approach I took;
i) scan vertically down the items
ii) oh, they have icons, and icons mean visual cues, which indicate relevance to their topics. the items are separated by dim grey lines so maybe they are independent topics.
iii) following down, the first five, although not labelled or boxed as such, appear to be some performance parameters for the topic posting.
For each of these, they used icons which are not in this users lexicon of icons for anywhere else, so had no immediate implication. So the text to the right of each was read.
So the dim grey separators are just spacers rather than topic separators.
iv) oh the version of WP of the topic author (at the time of posting [now is 4.8.1]). This was an icon and a number – no text needed. This implied “the end of topic performance parameters, because now the parameters have more to do with the “system” that was used by the author.
So maybe the ones following are to do with the system.
So maybe the dim grey lines are topic separators.
v) icon = paperclip. gotcha! paper clip = attachment. No I don’t have any attachments I need to add. Oh, in case this is a performance parameter of the posting, it’s not showing that I or any other have submitted any attachments to this posting.
vi) Next one is “+”, another icon. In my lexicon = another, or expand. In this it jumped me back down to the “business end” of the page.
Oh, I guess that’s what the paper clip does; it allows me add an attachment by sending me to the bottom of the page to do it, or sends me somewhere less to do it. Yeah, obvious enough, sort of, I guess.
vii) The next (last) two had an email icon and love heart. I neither wanted to send an email, or register a “like” on some social media or this forum.

That was the first pass.

More search for help.

Second look over the page.
Right hand side, attempting to “read” more carefully.
steps (i) to (iii) as before.
iv) WP version. Oh, so now we are looking at the system of the topic author.
v) “Status”. very formal word. This seems to follow on with information about my system. I don’t know how they took those measurements. But anyway, they are reporting the “Status” (of? – my system). Maybe when I tell them my WP version, they somehow assess the status of my system to make sure it meets some criteria to help diagnose the problem. Maybe I shouldn’t concern myself with this. Jump to end of line where the “important looking” box is, and it says “update”. Oh so maybe I can update my system from here, I don’t know how they can do that, but that’s amazing – they are clever. But I don’t need to worry about that because I can update it using the standard methods.
At this point, I don not remember reading “Resolved” which may have been a “textual” cue. But the information surrounding it, seemed to be about my system, which was way off the topic I was looking for.
vii) The next two were obvious by the text, which is more accurate than the icon, but didn’t relate to what I was looking for, just the same.

So that is the user experience of the flow of thinking, as guided by the layout and functions.

Now working with;

“make that dropdown any more obvious or visible since it’s the main place on the page where “Resolved” is displayed or not. The update button is very clear as is the dropdown”

1) re “make that dropdown any more obvious or visible”
The drop down, “is” clearly a “drop down”.
But its function is not so “obvious”.
The word “Status” has no contextual meaning as to “what” it is the status of. And it placement in relation to other information, lead this user to believe it was related to the status of his wordpress installation (at the time he raised the topic) because of preceding items and surrounding text.
May I also note that in dealing with “Resolved” and “Not Resolved” settings, it was not apparent that these were to be regarded as “Status”. They appeared to be a measure of a parameter called “Resolution”.

2) re “since it’s the main place on the page where “Resolved” is displayed or not.”
This may be what “is considered” to be “the” place where “Resolved” is displayed, by the developers, and users in the know.
However, the visual cues say “big green iconed label” that says “Resolved” (note capital “R””.
This is a Big visual cue.
The word “resolved” (note small “r”), in standard font on “white” background, apearing to be some optional setting for the wordpress installation, does not compare in importance.
re “the place” – as previous posts on this topic by me have stated, the “places where things could be (based on where other things are) is not where this function is found.
In particular, it is not found at the bottom of the page, where the ability to set a “Resolve” is located with a check box, nor is near or embedded in the green “Resolved” icon at the top of the page.
Added to that, the fact that clicking on the “+ Reply to Topic” link, sends you to the bottom of the page, adds to the intuitive conclusion that the bottom of the page is the business end of the latest events and procedures of the page (and its not there).
Associated visual cues based on colour, for obviousness’s sake;
The submit button is in peacock blue (standard colour for the site, but different to black), and it performs its function.
The submit button is an important function of the making an adjustment to the topic.
The only coloured item that is totally a different colour is the “Green” coloured “resolved” label. This is a main item of importance, and it would be expected to have relevant functionality. It has two rounded edges so this may be taken to imply that it has “button” functions, or other function, such as possibly “toggle” or “drop down”. But it did not.

So it is not at the bottom “business end”, and it is not at the top where the brightly coloured highly relevant word is.

Now I would agree with anybody who says I am not too clever (to put it lightly).
But if anyone considers themself to be clever, may I suggest the following;

1) (General Approach Concept) Provide functionality at the location of high visual cueing, or provide high visual cueing at the point of functionality.
Avoid separating the two, both by graphical style and physical location.
2) Very near the word “Status”, have some information or visual cue about “what” the status pertains to. e.g. “Topic Status”, or more obviously “Topic Resolution Status”.
3) Location of “Status” report.
As a topic parameter, place it up amongst the other topic parameters so that is more obvious what it is related to.
Possibly, visually place a box around it.
4) Avoid confusion, and improve the implied topic flow of the right hand side by placing the WP version either at the bottom (or top) of the list.
5) Visually cue the contents of the drop down box by using the same colour as that same topic is indicated in the Green coloured label.
As a note, a different colour might be used for other statuses. But probably a good idea to avoid “red” as that would imply “stopped”, so other “happy” colours would do.

That is a group of suggestions relating to the clear and visible location of the business end of the page.

Some suggestions for other non-business locations on the page, that are highly implicated by visual cues;
1) Have a resolve drop down menu or button at the bottom of the page.
or
2) Have a check box for mark this topic as unresolved.
3) Have a resolve drop down menu or button functionality associated with the green “Resolved” label.
or
4) Moved the green “Resolved” label to the location of the topic parameters on the right hand side, and visually associate it with the method of adjustment that is there. And place it in very close physical proximity. Possibly box it together.

Further Comments
1) There are three locations that have some association with “Resolve”, and all locations are suitable, but the functionality needs to be unified.
2) There is still “No help” information, about the page, on the page.
nor about the topic, near the topic.
3) The methods of resolution for any disagreement on resolution that have been suggested, still are worth considering. Otherwise people can just keep flicking the switch one way or the other.
4) which leads to another suggestion until such time as a resolution procedure is begun to be prototyped; the “resolution” could be independently set for the “Topic Author’s Resolution”, and “Plugin developer’s Resolution”, and possibly if wanted – each “Replier’s Resolution”.
That way, everybody can say how they feel (just like social media likes), and nobody is made to look like they are over-ruling other peoples assessments.
and so …
5) The normal sense of “resolution” is that of a “mutual agreement on a solution”.
This necessarily means the measure of satisfaction of at least two people.
Therefore, the reporting of this requires at least two pieces of data, one from each.
Not one piece of data that shows the data of the last person to adjust it.
So along with the two or more data entry functions as in (4), there can be an additional one that reports the nett sense of “Resolved”.
This way we can see at a glance which topics are properly resolved or not, and where the lack of resolution is.

So I hope that this shows the steps involved in this exploration of the user experience of this page.If some of the suggested adjustments (or similar) are made, then it would be interesting to see if there are more instances of the same setting being adjusted more than once, or how many times they are adjusted.
This would be another measure of the level of interaction in the forums, and interaction is important for the development to advance.

In summary

Thank you very much for your assistance, and please accept my apologies for not avoiding the inconvenience that I have caused.

Thank you.

The “Update” button could be called “set”,”confirm”,”ok”,”enter”.
This reduces the ambiguity, and uses terms that are more commonly used in similar situations.

Thanks

The Bottom of the page has the checkbox marked something like “this is not a support question”.
The “Status” box, displays “not a support question”, after the above checkbox has been set.

Two matters;
1) The “Status box” is “one” reporter of “two” (independent) parameter settings.
This is very seldom a good idea to do.
2) So after a resolve, or unresolved, how is it ever evident again on the topic page, that the topic was either a support question or not. The database may keep record of the information. But the ability to show it is prevented, as soon as the second parameter gets set.

Solution
There is abundant space on the right hand side.
So report the question/not a question separately to the resolved/unresolved settings.

Additional Advantage
The above conflict also precludes the display of obvious initial situation of any first posting is “Unresolved”, until any such time as somebody does something about it.

This is also another example of how two regions of the page are used to handle the same matters, but do not use very good visual cues to imply the association between them.
So the sense that the “business end” is at the top right hand side “only”, is not universally accurate.
Both may be used, as other locations could be too, but there needs to be a clear association. Its like putting the same widget or form of widget in more than one location on a page – the user should be able to see that they have seen this information (or a link to it) elsewhere on the page, and that this instance of it is just a reminder, or yet another convenient place to make adjustments.

There is also the possible cause for confusion, in that if a user fills in the form, then reviews their topic after the topic has been submitted (something I do immediately afterwards), then they may see “Status” associated with “this is not a support question”, in which case they will think “Oh that’s not going to change, so I never need to look at that again”.

====================================================
To make an parallel example (funny and not funny).
(But included here for a humorous interlude – only if you want to read it)
Imagine a car, that the dashboard (display of parameters), uses exactly the same location to display the “warning that the safety belt has not been fastened”, and the “speedometer”.
The driver who is not familiar with the car, gets in the car, the safety belt warning goes off as soon as the door opens (as a reminder that the safety belt will need to be fastened before use). The driver gets in, looks over the dashboard, because they are a responsible driver and even before they contemplate starting the motor, they want to know where the speedometer is. They don’t see the speedometer.
Thinking Process;
“Where is it?” “Can’t see it!” “Maybe this car has automatic speed limiting, so we don’t need it?” “maybe it will ‘tell’ me the speed seeing as it has audio”
Clips in the belt, and all the noise stops (as it does in other cars).
Not a single noise, or visual flash alerts the driver that the safety belt warning flashing parameter, has changed to a silent unobtrusive speed parameter.
If the driver sets off on the trip,
This may have consequences!

Funny example.
Maybe.
Thinking –
“Software in Cars”
“Engine management software”
“Driverless Cars”
“lots of them.”

Relating to the two parameters that share the “Status” box;
The “mixing the use” of these two parameters appears to have happened with “Views” at the bottom of the right hand side, which has the options

”
Non-support topics
Resolved topics
Unresolved topics
All topics
“

But does not have
“Support Topics” (i.e. ‘Are’ Support Questions)

So that part of the list could then be;
”
Support topic
Non-support topics
Resolved topics
Unresolved topics
All topics
”

Though helpful as links, this make searching for combinations of “different ‘types’ of topics” in “different ‘statuses’ “.
This would be helpful, not just for users, but developers and documentation expert helpers would be able to look for un-resolved topics of the type they are interested in.
These combinations would be made possible either by check boxes (which would give more possible combinations) or a two pairs of radio buttons, or some other way.