In the "My Answers" section of MATLAB Answers, how is the list sorted? Most recent update of any kind (answer or comment) closest to top? Or some other way?
MATLAB: Order of the answers in the “My Answers”
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The accepted answer is always listed first.
After that, answers are sorted by the number of votes, then by when the answer was created (oldest-to-newest).
This can cause "jumping" when an older answer is voted up to have the same number of votes as a younger answer. For example:
Answer 2 is listed above answer 1 because it has more votes.
+--------+-------+---------+ | Answer | Votes | Created | +--------+-------+---------+ | 2 | 2 | 00:01 | +--------+-------+---------+ | 1 | 1 | 00:00 | +--------+-------+---------+Answer 1 receives a vote, and appears to jump over answer 2 because, even though they now have the same vote count, answer 1 is older.
+--------+-------+---------+ | Answer | Votes | Created | +--------+-------+---------+ | 1 | 2 | 00:00 | +--------+-------+---------+ | 2 | 2 | 00:01 | +--------+-------+---------+Wow! I've opened Answers since the layout update the first time now. And saying "I don't like it" does not match my impression. I'm startled by the large number of boxes and the big distance between the question and the answer fields. It is impossible now to answer even a one-liner question without scrolling, when three small comments to the question fill the screen vertically already (as in this thread currently). I admit that I have asked personally to add more impressive suggestions to formulate good questions and good answers. But e.g. this section:
Answer this question This place is reserved for an answer to the question. * To clarify the question, edit it. * To thank answerers, add your vote to helpful answers and accept the best one. * To ask for clarification, submit a comment to the question or answer.occupies too much vertical space in addition. In opposite to this there are big fat unused empty areas on the left and right of this window. I've bought a new computer already to reduce the keyboard latency, but I will not install a 2nd monitor on top of the other one to be able to see all I need without scrolling.
In opposite to the header above the field for answering, the page for creating a question contains too few explanations. Beginners in this forum have to puzzle, what meaningful "Tags" are and what thea are useful for at all. The same for "Products". A link to "how to ask a good question" would reduce the noise in the forum substantially here. But after the question has been submitted, I see the tip:
You are more likely to receive responses to well-written questions and commentsNote: The most noise in this forum is found in the questions of beginners, while the answers are to 99% lean and clean. Therefore we need more help on the page to create questions and less help when creating answers to reduce the waste of space.
[EDITED after reading http://blogs.mathworks.com/community/2012/06/27/new-features-in-matlab-answers/] You see more tips about good questions, when you ask the first time. In the page for asking a new question these tips do not bother, so I'd suggest to keep them there longer or forever.
These are hard drawbacks in the usability of this forum. Mostly the need to scroll while answering reduces my motivation to answer frequently. I seems like the designers lost the idea of the goal of a forum: Let volunteers answer questions as easy as possible. In opposite to this, "insert white space to let it look fancy" has only secondary importance.
The button for code formatting still contains "{}" without any relation to Matlab. The braces would be fine for C-code... The tooltip is funny tautology also: Hold the mouce over the "{} Code" field to see "Code" inside a box. I suggest "Format marked section as code".
I do love the "Disabl" button. It's power saves so much time and eases my mind. Thanks! I hope Walter's time is not wasted by waiting anymore. And I think that the typo is charming.
I will have to dig in the documentation to find out, what the Flag, Close and Link buttons will do - perhaps they are features for editors only? I know, that I always suggest to read the documentation. But I admit, that I appreciate intuitive GUIs also.
Changing the order in the list of Answers back to chronologically (as it was in spring 2011) is a bad idea: It needs ages to find my last 10 answers.
Does it solve any problems, that the subjects require at least 4 words now? I had not problems with "fscanf warning message", "fsovle error 241", "RGB or HSV" or "Legend Problem", while "SYNTAX MATLAB" and "Cell" has been meaningless. But "I HAVE MATLAB SYNTAX PROBLEM" won't be better.
Summary: I'm frightend. A certain number of the bunch of very good suggestions of the wish-list has been implemented after 15 months, but some further changes in the layout reduce the usability again. A very slow step partially in the wrong direction. With this speed of improvements, it will take years until Matlab Answers has the level of usability I know from other internet forums.
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