The Answers section

[AdminGirl]

While the Answers section of the forum obviously has its purpose, I generally find it to be inching towards redundant for two main reasons.

People inevitably have discussions and responses bouncing back and forth from others, which make the answers confusing to follow when they start getting voted up or down. Say in this fictional example, you'll see an answer near the top and it may read something like "What Resident1 said is a good idea. You can do that and also this...", and naturally you'd want to back track to find Resident1's response. But once there are votes, the order of everyone's posts are mixed up and no longer chronological, making it hard to follow the flow of the conversation.

This could be improved if the answers that are voted up are duplicated to be visible at the top, and then a separate section containing all the posts made chronologically. Or not even mess with the order. If people really want to find the best voted answers, they can see the number at the side. It's not hard to scroll.

Another con to the Answers section is the overlap with other sections. For instance, there's an Avatar subforum in Answers, and there's also Avatar subforum in People. The difference between the two is obvious, but it can make things confusing - like where do I post this? Does it fit more in Answers or in People, especially if a question would generate a discussion, which most of the times they do. 

There are quite a number of times when I've seen people posting duplicate questions in both, just because they weren't sure.

When do you really decide to post in the Answers section instead of elsewhere?

[Rowan Amore]

There is a sort by date button on the right.  I usually hit that to see the order of answers.

[Alwin Alcott]

4 hours ago, AdminGirl said:

When do you really decide to post in the Answers section instead of elsewhere?

a few years ago the sections changed a bit .. what is now "Answers" was"Questions and Answers"  the old QA was somehow stricter in structure, and for my idea a stricter moderation.  And if i'm not wrong, there was only the possibility to answer, not reply to eachoter, so also less possible to start discussions.
The update made the difference between the forum and Answer section a bit less clear. And however many of the regualar "QA" helpers tried to keep it a bit in hand, it not always worked to keep the two sections apart.
One of the things most still try to avoid is mention brands and stores in the Answer section, and also product issues never really belonged there. It was a no no to promote/suggest brands/stores.

[AdminGirl]

2 hours ago, RowanMinx said:

There is a sort by date button on the right.  I usually hit that to see the order of answers.

Oh thanks, did not know that, although I use my phone for forums mostly so the layout's a bit limited.