StackOverflow-like Q&A system that allows upvoting answe

[hexarobi]

TheSamba.com is hands down the best source for community knowledge about VWs on the net, but it can be very difficult to sift through the forums for specific information needed.

I've used sites on other topics ( StackOverflow.com, Reddit.com ) that allow users to post a question and then other users post answers, and/or upvote or downvote answers as helpful. Over time, it gets better and better as people use it to post more questions and give better answers or upvote the helpful ones.

There are several open-source implementations ( http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32638/which-cms...-like-site ) but the concept is simple enough that it could be written from scratch specifically for TheSamba.

I was thinking about something as simple as a phpBB plugin that lets posts be up/downvoted, but I think it would need to be a non-forum-like interface to make the differences clear to users.

I've seen the concept of a points system brought up before, this would tie nicely in with that as a reward for answering questions well.

[EverettB]

What you described would best fit in here if responses in a given thread could be voted upon and then the response sorted by # of votes (or upvotes, if it was an upvote / downvote system).

This wouldn't necessarily make it easier to find information though, perhaps only easier to find the best responses in a given thread.

There are some downfalls to voting, as you are probably aware. Off the top of my head, a couple things I have seen on Reddit:
- People who answer faster get more votes, often when better answers are given later.
- Abuse of members who are not liked aka "Downvoted to oblivion"

On StackOverflow I have not seen these issues as it is a more technical site.

For the Forums, the best method of searching the Forums, aside from reviewing the FAQs, is to to use the Google search in the upper-right.
I have rarely failed to find the answer to something using those 2 methods, assuming it exists.

Anyway, I can see the benefit of this sort of system and I have considered adding "voting" or "likes" to posts from time to time but wasn't sure it added anything. Perhaps with some sort of sorting it would be valuable.

Thank you for the post and the suggestion.

Other comments are welcome.
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