How to mark a solution

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#1

I’ve encountered many threads I don’t know how to mark a solution. Let me explain: For ex. we have a thread discussion between A and B.

1-A: how do I this and that
2-B: oh so you do this (writes part of solution)
3-A: it did not work
4-B: oh sorry I forgot this piece of code (completes the 2nd post)

If I was A, I don’t know which solution to mark, because if I mark post #2 as solution, future readers will get the incomplete picture bc User B forgot to add the second part of post #2 (post #4) if i mark post #4 as a solution then post #4’s context (post #2) will also be missing. So which post should I mark as the solution in this case?

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#2

This is mostly a mistake from the helper’s end, you should try to communicate in the minimal amount of replies, editing your previous posts if the edit isn’t a big change is a good habit. But you shouldn’t really worry about this. I doubt someone will actually get confused by that, scrolling up should get the job done. I’d say mark the first one, because technically it’s the starting point of the solution.

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#3

I’d think that marking A as the solution is your better bet. You can solve the issue of incomplete content by DMming them to edit their post.

Plus, please do not just say “it doesn’t work” or something along those lines right away. Try to solve it first and if not, message them. I said message because I don’t think you should clutter up your topic by going back and forth of “it’s not working” and “oh I forgot this [here]”. It will make the solution stand out more and complete.

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#4

I made up the two characters in the demo for the sake of example, in real threads, I will be more detailed and communitive towards other users.

#5

Honestly in my opinion, mark the solution which helped the most unless its additional information.

It really is which one actually got you there in the end. This thread for example, mark the solution you most agree with and what managed to deal with your problem the most. As @starmaq stated you shouldn’t have to compensate for the helper using multiple posts in order to handle your solution - the best solutions are usually bulky and extensive to cover all instances.

If someone is confused by the post you marked as solution, they will probably scroll up and down to check what has been said in order to fully understand how to fix the issue on their end.

To be quite honest, a lot of programming issues are rarely revisited unless its a generic issue that many people have.

From your topics as key examples:

One someone is unlikely to revisit as its case specific:

One someone is likely to revisit as its frequently asked:

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