Kleinma?

[dbasnett]

hey matt - what is up with the moderators on MSDN marking their post as the answer?

[mendhak]

That's funny... where did you see it?

[mendhak]

That's something I'm sort of against on MSDN Forums... it's a very Expert-Exchange type scenario where you get 'forced' answers, and everything is about the 'accepted solution' rather than being about a discussion. Then again, I hate everything about Experts Exchange, from their URL to the page design to the monstrous amounts of ads and promotional material on their pages.

[timeshifter]

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/Sho...92856&SiteID=1

[dclamp]

wow. 3 idiots had to move it 3 times?

[dbasnett]

here is a shock, Microsoft cooking the books; "In the forums you post to, you probably see the actions of a group of Chinese techs. They were hired back in December 2006 by DevDiv, specifically to get the answer rate up. Back then, the MSDN forums got very popular and there weren't enough moderators to keep up with the massive volume of posts. The answer rate was an easy statistic used by the administrators and it looked like the forums were doing poorly. The group's mission was to post to neglected threads and getting them marked answered. They typically did (and do) so by posting something plausible and marking their post as the answer. They have moderator status, to allow them to mark answers, and identify themselves as MSFT employees but don't do typical moderator duty and only work in forums sponsered by DevDiv.

There was a fair amount of ruckus over this back then, it took them a while to work out an answering strategy that didn't get other contributors to threads upset. It worked out, I haven't seen a complaint in a while. However, there have been a lot of new faces in that group recently, most of the veterans have moved on. I've worked with the group's supervisors in the past to smooth things out."

[dbasnett]

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/For...3-6f58952ffb6c

[SurfDemon]

Then again, I hate everything about Experts Exchange, from their URL to the page design to the monstrous amounts of ads and promotional material on their pages.

But surely you must like the fact that you can deliberatly mispronounce their name as Expert-Sexchange? That always makes me giggle... but then again, I'm very immature.

[Arrow_Raider]

[In regard to Experts Exchange]
They are deceptive too. If you scroll to the mid part of the page, it will say the answers are only visible to paying members. But then if you scroll further down the page, the answers are all visible there. I don't understand how the site has gained so much popularity when it displays so many signs of being a scam.

[mendhak]

Easy - search engine deception. They return different things based on User Agent and IP address than what's actually visible in the browser. They cheat and get away with it

[Arrow_Raider]

I think people are more willing to use something that requires them to pay money than something that is free.