Help program idea.

[Isaac]

Concept
A help box that sits in your tool bar, which can be used for asking or helping others. The same functions are offered on a website, for the same network. All users remain anonymous.

Asking for help:
On your computer there's a small program with a textbox for entering a question. In it you can ask anything you want. The problem is, if your question isn't detailed enough you risk your question not being matched up with someone who might know the answer.

Helping others:
Setting up.
If you happen to know a lot on a subject you can opt in to give help, even if you're asking for help on a different subject.

You can go into settings and add to the "phrases and tags to match me with:" box. A stricter section, called "only match me with questions that contain these words:" to specify a topic or field you'll be helping with. A button next to this box, called "match test", can be pressed to get an idea of how relevant your specifications are by simply returning a number of matches that have been asked in the past year. If zero are returned there is either no one asking about your field or your specifications are too strict. Negative signs around quoted text reject a specific string, like -"cats with blue hats".

Once you have a strong match with a large number of questions you can decide how many questions you want to get, by the day, week, month, or year. Default is, 1 question per day.

You also decide when to be notified. "Never" is an option. However, those that use this setting would be better off using the website version, where registration is required. "Instant" will notify you in your task bar instantly when a question matches you. "Time of day and/or date" gives you the ability to schedule when you want your questions to arrive. Questions shouldn't build up in someone's inventory since they should be answered as quickly as possible.

When you have a problem with a question.
When your question's are a bad match, you can check off bad match and box will pop up letting you add words to filter out the type of question you got. This text is placed in your "phrases and tags to match me with:" with a negative sign.

You can also hit the "I don't know","bad question", "spam", or "Ask for more info from asker". "I don't know" simply places the question back into circulation. "bad question" notifies the asker that their question needs to be formulated better. "Spam" tells the server that you think this person should be banned. Vote banning only takes a few votes, but a warning is sent to the asker. "Ask for more info from asker" lets you ask a question to the original asker. This can result in a chat-like session.

Descenters! First, what do you guys hate about this idea? What problems do you see with this? Why is this pointless?

Thanks!

[Sergeant Thorne]

I think the idea certainly has merit, Isaac. Personally I believe that you can't hope to make such a thing into a real success without a powerful engine driving it, rather than just a system of linking. It absolutely must be convenient to use (programmers generally have a difficult time with user-interface, in my limited experience, due to the fact that they are used to dealing with a problem from a very rigid, technical angle). People will use whatever will allow them to get the best answers the fastest, and people will also more readily consent to use your application to answer questions if it makes it very straightforward to do so.

One suggestion I might offer would be to specifically prompt for information commonly required for answers on certain subjects, allowing the asker to skip by/dismiss it at their discretion, but giving them the option, or maybe prompting/encouraging them to take the time to fill it out in the event their asking session is not going productively. Do this in steps so that you're not bombarding them with a huge form, but limit the number of steps and always give an indication of where the asker is at in the process. Also it would be a shame to waste good answers. Why not offer a short list (emphasis on short) of stored, possibly-related answers that have been highly rated, even as the asker is entering their question?

It's certainly not pointless, but there would be a lot involved in producing a high-quality application/system of this nature, and for that reason I believe it would be a project best tackled by a team rather than on your own.

[Isaac]

Thanks Sergeant Thorne,

Oh yes, I can't believe I didn't think of recycling old answers to similar questions. This would be useful not only for getting an answer, but testing to see if the question is written well enough to be worth putting into circulation.

You also suggest that the asker fill out a form, which could help the asker's success. I like this idea. Are you imagining a wizard style prompt? Any form like this I think this could be done by having the server look at all the helpers' (or askees') matching tags and building a "common topics" list, or something. If "Ubuntu" and/or "auto repair" is commonly written, in the community and under the asker's "phrases and tags to match me with:" box, then it should be info given to the asker. I guess it doesn't have to be wizard style.

If I were to try to make this, I would do as much as I could on my system, and get it working on Linux. I'd probably need help for making the application compatible on other platforms.

As for designing menus, I sketch that stuff out, even for the simplest stuff. Sketches are cheap!

[snoopy]

Also I'd consider the fact that at least some of this sort of thing is already covered by IRC channels. I know there's an active IRC channel onto which people can log to ask questions about their arch systems.

Along the lines of what Thorne is saying: I think that ultimately the program would be most useful if it featured the following:

1. A database of previous questions and answers.
2. A method of deciphering the question and presenting previous questions and answers that may relate.
3. A rating system that constantly refined the precision of the automatic responses given.
4. Possibly an interactive means for the deciphering process - have the program itself generate follow-up questions to narrow the field of known responses.
5. A philosophy that the interactive portion that requires user input should be used only as a means of increasing the size of the program's database, not as a primary source of answers.

Here's why: people don't want to be bothered with the same questions over and over again, and the people who would sign up to help would probably do so to be challenged. On the other side, people will tend to ask the same question over and over again, and people will want their answer as quickly and efficiently as possible. If you create a program that handles the common, easy questions and constantly learns in an attempt to handle more and more questions itself, those asking will get quicker answers, and those answering will get the interesting challenges without the mundane questions.

[Isaac]

Thanks Snoopy!
I guess whenever a question is answered all the data is used to help find other questions relevant to it. So if an answer has answered 150 similar questions, then all those questions are appended to data related to those questions. I might need to explain myself better... still drinking coffee.
I think a simple % of phrase matching could do this, but I could be wrong. I never made anything like this before.

[snoopy]

As much at I hate Window's help system.....

I'd probably emulate the way that each help topic has a "was this helpful: yes/no" which leads to more options if you click no.

That way at least you're likely to get negative feedback on answers that don't apply. I'd say the more advanced your algorithm to generate results, the more mileage people will get out of the system. Google's method of timing would probably apply, too. If the user clicks away from the result within a short amount of time, interpret as a "no", if they stay for an extended time, interpret as a "yes."

[sdfgeoff]

How about a rating system.

You install the program and set up the receiving options. You can then ask 3 questions (for "free"). These questions get a low priority, being sent to only 5 people.
Then, to ask more questions, and to enable a priority feature you have to get and use "points"
Points are obtained by answering other people.

By default a question goes to 5 people, and you will probably get a reply within a week.
For every "point" you spend on a question it will go to 2 other people, so if you spend 5 points (5 answered questions) then it will go to 15 people (5 + 2*5)
Those points are then removed from your balance, and cannot be used again.

That, unfortunately means that you would have to register, unless you can dump the information in the cookies or something.


From the users point of view (asking), this is what he see's
User types in question
Popup lists 5 or 6 already asked similar questions, with links to the answers.
If the user deems the question to not be in the list, then he clicks "submit" and it vanishes off into cyberspace.
(possible also a priority feature, if you have any points)

[Isaac]

sdfgeoff, That ranking system would be great. I think it should be optional, only for those that register an account.

snoopy, yeah, I agree.


Not sure when I'll have time to get on this.

I think I could develop the server side stuff pretty easily, since that's where the bulk of my experience is, at the moment. Then I could create a basic API, with a simple Linux desktop program to go with it.