Commenters should not be able to mark their own answers correct

[Alphabet Publishing]

It's very annoying to find posters posting replies and then automatically marking their reply the correct one. This is particularly silly because once a comment is marked "correct", the thread is labeled SOLVED. Even if the OP still has the problem. This creates an incentive for Adobe Employees to mark problems solved giving the impression that there are fewer outstanding issues AND for  experts to rack up their percent of problems SOLVED. 

So any one can post anything and then say they solved the problem, which will then bring people in using that solution. This can lead to:

1. People trying to fix problems with solutions that don't work.
2. That in turn leads to more posts on the same problem as people are going to start a new post without the alleged solution
3. Some people may be helped by the proposed solution. However this will lead to the thread being overwhelmed by responses about that solution. Unfortunately, this means the original poster's problem will be buried!

Ideally, only the original poster should be able to mark that a solution solved the problem!

[Peru Bob]

As far as I am aware, only the OP and moderators may mark replies as correct.

If you spot a reply that is not correct, please click "report" and report it, or PM a moderator.

Most Community Experts are moderators.

[kglad]

what thread is an example of a problem?

[Per Berntsen]

For the record, all Community Experts can do this.

I am not a moderator, but I can mark (and unmark) replies as correct answer.

Adobe employees also have these rights.

[Alphabet Publishing]

I have to admit that I assumed it was the poster who marked his own reply correct. He says that he doesn't know who did it.

[Alphabet Publishing]

So a Community Expert can give a solution and then immediately say it is correct, even before confirming with the OP?

[kglad]

yes, but i've never seen that.  adobe employees do that frequently, but not experts.

[Alphabet Publishing]

Why does it matter? I unclicked the correct answer button immediately because it wasn't the correct answer. So there's no record of that answer being marked correct.

Doesn't it seem like good policy that the only person who can say who solved the problem is the person with the problem?

[Alphabet Publishing]

How do you know who marked the answer correct? It doesn't seem hard to just make it so no one can mark their own comment correct.

[kglad]

i know of no way to determine who marked a response correct.  however, i believe adobe employees can determine that.

[kglad]

and the problem with restricting correct answers to op's is that many op's never return or reply once their problem is solved.

but again, do you have a link to a thread that you think has an inappropriate response marked correct?

[Alphabet Publishing]

Maybe because the problem was never solved. I rarely get a correct solution because I only go to forums when I'm desperate and tried the obvious solutions and the forum experts put out the usual solutions that don't solve the problem. I cannot tell you how many times I've gone onto a forum and seen a problem marked "SOLVED" and then a string of replies saying that solution didn't work.

If you don't know WHO marked the solution correct, then you can't say you've never seen Adobe Experts do it! So please stop contradicting me with false information!

And again, I can't link to the latest example because I already marked as incorrect the solution that was marked correct. So if I link to it, you will say "I don't see that solution as marked correct"

[kglad]

ok.

[JUST Water]

100% agree that this is a problem. Why can't Adobe simply display a "marked as correct answer by" field for all users to see? Like you, I don't post to Adobe Community unless desperate. And I've seen a lot of inaccurate "answers" on this forum.

[Nancy OShea]

These forums have worked the same way for decades, going all the back to newsgroups.

The OP can choose the best answer. Otherwise, a moderator or expert can select the best answer for the benefit of future users with similar questions who land on the topic later. A "correct answer" may not always align with what the OP hoped for. But sometimes it's the closest answer there is that time. Other uses can LIKE a reply if it's helpful to them.

No system is perfect. Neither are there perfect questions nor perfect solutions. But the system we have works well most of the time.

[Alphabet Publishing]

By what standards do you measure that? I'd love to have your objective measure of success.

 I rarely get useful answers here. Usually the so-called correct answer is a generic obvious thing that the OP then comments didn't solve their problem and loads of people keep commenting it didn't fix their problem. Sometimes the "experts" will insist that their solution must work. 

honestly all forums are dumpster fires because there's some kind of incentive system for these "experts" to answer every question regardless of whether they have a solution or not. But their solutions are usually straight out of the help files. I don't go to forums to solve simple problems. I go because someone is really screwed up. And the experts are always baffled.  I know that you won't provide actual helpful customer service, even though the price goes up and customers would kill for good personal customer service. I don't know why companies don't provide that though Affinity does a much better job and I try to use it as much as earthly possible in part for that very reason but what you really need to do is encourage people who have had the problem to speak up, not the people who essentially act like customer service but do it for free!

 That would help customers, not your bottom line. 

[kglad]

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[Nancy OShea]

You make assumptions that everyone here works for Adobe. We don't. 

Unless you see an Adobe Staff badge beside the name, you're not speaking to an employee. The majority of respondents in these user-to-user forums are unpaid volunteers and long-time product users like me. 😁  

If you don't like the answers you receive here, I am not offended if you ignore me and move on. 

Good luck.