Maximum time to keep a question open Thread poster: Tobias Ernst
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Tobias Ernst 
Germany
Local time: 02:52
Member (2004)
English to German
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I would like to propose to provide a means for the asker to delay automatic grading because I have recently had problems with my own questions being automatically closed too early.
I don't know how other translators feel about this, buy I usually read my text /before/ starting to translate it and do much of the terminology research beforehand. So I post many of my KudoZ questions in the first few days after the project has started. I translate a lot of patents that have quite relaxe... See more I would like to propose to provide a means for the asker to delay automatic grading because I have recently had problems with my own questions being automatically closed too early.
I don't know how other translators feel about this, buy I usually read my text /before/ starting to translate it and do much of the terminology research beforehand. So I post many of my KudoZ questions in the first few days after the project has started. I translate a lot of patents that have quite relaxed timelines, so it could well be a couple of weeks before I actually send the job off to the client - and there are instances where I would like my questions to stay open over that extended period. This is because I usually resort to KudoZ in /difficult/ areas where even experts sometimes have differing opinions. In those cases, it can take some time to find out the truth.
I just returned to KudoZ today to make a final decision on how to translate a specific term where two proposals made. The first proposed translation had two agrees, the second proposed translation had one disagree - from the answerer who made the first proposal. Both answerers were equally highly qualified, so none of the answers was obviously wrong. In that case I really would have liked the question to stay open longer to get an independent assessment of the second answer.
Quantity (number of agreements) is not always a measure - one "disagree" from a subject specialist counts much more than five agrees from ordinary translators. And such specialists who usually do not visit KudoZ every other day and do not answer questions in a lot of fileds, but rather come quite irregularly (e.g. once a month) and then only answer the not so many questions in their one very specific field, hence they will see even older questions on the first page.
I also frequently come to KudoZ and find that questions in my speciality have already been automatically closed where I feel I could still have made a valuable contribution - so that at least later visitors who find this question via Google get the right answer. But it is hard to convince myself to browse closed questions if I don't even have a chance to get KudoZ points for doing so!
Therefore, automatic grading based on solely numerical considerations should be a last-resort measure, because, as I said before, the automatic grading system cannot take into account the qualification of the individual answerers.
I therefore propose to either raise the time until automatic closing to at least one month (i.e. 4 notifications within four weeks rather than two), or alternatively, one could add a means for the asker to prolong the interval. I.e., in the notification mail that reminds the asker to close the question, or on the kudoz question's page, there could be a clickable link that can be used by the author to express the wish to have the question stay open for another week. ▲ Collapse
| | | | ivo abdman
Indonesia
Local time: 07:52
English to Indonesian
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| No Problemo its Still Acceptable | Jan 30, 2008 |
It's encourage you to be responsible for your question judgement, trained you to become quicker thinking, isn't it
| | | | | Sounds reasonable | Jan 30, 2008 |
I'd add that it might be a good idea to make the extension an optional feature available to registered users only, as most non-registered users who haven't closed a question within two weeks are probably never going to come back and close it anyway.
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Tobias Ernst wrote:
one could add a means for the asker to prolong the interval. I.e., in the notification mail that reminds the asker to close the question, or on the kudoz question's page, there could be a clickable link that can be used by the author to express the wish to have the question stay open for another week.
Marie-Hélène Hayles wrote:
I'd add that it might be a good idea to make the extension an optional feature available to registered users only.
Totally agree, I sometimes translate books, i.e. send my translations weeks after I started them and asked my Kudoz. Usually when the question is automatically closed I add a note to tell what I have chosen, especially if I did not choose the rewarded answer.
[Edited at 2008-01-30 08:27]
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Ebru Kopf
Türkiye
Local time: 03:52
English to Turkish
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| open since August 03,07 | Jan 30, 2008 |
Well, in my pairs there is a question that is still open. 'coz of this sample case I still could not understand how long it is necessary to keep the question open or when the automatic grading comes. But as you have suggested 1 month is normally good enough.
[Edited at 2008-01-30 12:05]
| | | | | I agree with Marie Hélène | Jan 30, 2008 |
I think the delaying feature, if implemented, should be limited to registered members.
If it is any comfort to you, it is still possible to add comments and new answers after a question has been closed, but this does not alter the fact that the robot may have given four points by default to the answerer with most agrees.
Finally, it may be possible for an asker to contact a Moderator, who can re-open the question and un-grade it, so the asker can re-allocate the points,... See more I think the delaying feature, if implemented, should be limited to registered members.
If it is any comfort to you, it is still possible to add comments and new answers after a question has been closed, but this does not alter the fact that the robot may have given four points by default to the answerer with most agrees.
Finally, it may be possible for an asker to contact a Moderator, who can re-open the question and un-grade it, so the asker can re-allocate the points, but only if the answerer who received them agrees and will give them up.
Most askers would rather not spend time taking points away from an answerer who has tried to help after all, so this is not a popular option! But it can be used when an obvious mistake has been made. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Questions are only closed automatically when there is at least one answer with two net "agrees" | Jan 30, 2008 |
Ebru Kopf wrote:
Well, I don't think you should worry about it since in my pairs there is a question that is still open and you can check the link / question under:
'coz of this "sample case" I still could not understand how long it is necessary to keep the question open or when the automatic grading comes. But as you have suggested 1 month is normally good enough.
The question you refer to will remain open until it is closed by the answerer or one of the answers gets two net agrees (= agrees minus disagrees), at which point it will be closed by the Kudoz robot. (Although this is unlikely to happen after all this time, I imagine.)
Tobias is referring to cases where questions are closed automatically after two weeks by the robot because one of the answers has attracted the required number of "agrees".
[edited as requested by Enrique]
[Edited at 2008-01-30 11:24]
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