[Sololearn] 'Best Answer' Phantom - Bug?

Question

I wonder if anyone has encountered this:

Quite frequently, virtually every day, I get a notification that one of my answers was marked 'best answer', but when I look in the thread, the mark isn't there.

Now obviously sometimes people may change their mind and redecide to give it to someone else or not at all.

However, this is happening a lot, sometimes several times a day, with so many different people, that I'm starting to wonder.

Usually, there's also no other answer marked best, it's just gone. Often, almost no time has passed either.

Answer 1

HonFu people just don't know how to use it, it also happens to me sometimes. They may be just thinking it's a like button, or something of this kind.

I even posted questions (I mean questions as replies, to try and understand the problem better), that were marked as best answer. This proves that some people just mark the latest answer as best, mostly because they don't know what it is used for.

However, most of my marked best answers are skill marked when I check, so I don't think there is a bug with the app (I'm on android).

EDIT #1:
It just happened to me, few minutes ago. It was marked as best, but ut doesn't appear to be marked. I asked the person who asked to confirm that my answer is still marked as best.

Answer 2

HonFu i won't answer so i won't risk getting my answer marked as best.

just kidding.
it happened to me, i think at the beginning of the last year. once it didn't appear to anyone's answer, and another time it appeared to someone else so i think that's when the person changed his mind and marked somebody else's. in rest the marker was visible on my answer or cases when my memory is blurry.
it does make me wonder that after a year this thing still happens, either as a bug or people behaviour

Answer 3

HonFu
What notification do you mean? Those when you use Sololearn or those when you're offline?

And have you checked whether the notification is still available in the app?

If I receive a notification on my smartphone, open the app and find no notification there, the mark as best answer has been withdrawn.

However, if you still have the notification even though your answer isn't marked as the best answer, it should be a bug. It may be related to connection problems.

Answer 4

Jayakrishna
Yes. Marked as best answer gives xp (5?) and each like gives xp (3?).
You will lose this xp when your answer is not marked as best anymore.

Answer 5

HonFu kinda off topic, but what irritates me the most is the slow servers. There have been many times where I didn't log in just because I literally had to wait more than 1 minute (literally) after every single click I make (1 min to see screen, 1 min to go to questions, one minute to see one single question, and so on)... and that of course is too much.

Also many other bugs, two of them:

1. Notifications arrive about a minute or two later
2. When I reply to a question, and quickly go back to questions, the app immediatly crashes, deleting my answer (happens many times)

But for this bug, I think it's just people misusing the mark as best feature, and that's it.

Answer 6

HonFu I'm positive that the problem is not on my side, because every single other app works fast on my phone.
The only app I have a connection problem with is this one. And as I said, there are many times a day when I don't answer question just because I cannot waste 10m just to see a question, surfing questions should be fast.

Anyway not what you asked for, I just got few my questions marked as best, most of them displayed correctly, so I think it might not me a bug. Or at least, maybe a bug just with your phone brand or version.

Answer 7

Bugs and behavior both are quite resilient in this place.

People haven't stopped yet to ask 'Python or Java?', still can't use the search function and still have to ask if the 'certificates have value or not?'.

In that light, it seems most likely that people just never knew what 'best answer' means and also will never learn. 😏

Answer 8

Mihai Apostol
from what i remember after an update i had a pop-up that mentioned to first use the search bar, but it only appeared once. having that each time can be annoying. also people tend to ask without using the search bar even if you tell them that. it would only worsten our experience with that tab.
not sure about mod's marking best answer at each thread. they are people, they can be subjective, i understand that they can have good intentions and higher morality than some users, in my opinion if the user that posts in q&a can't mark an answer as "best answer" then nobody else should. just my opinion.

edit: i think that taking off the best answer option wouldn't be a bad idea, as i take value from more than 1 answer to a question, i don't stop at reading what is marked as best, i can evaluate on my own what was good for me, and often times a change of ideas was beneficial for my growth, a conversation brought other questions to light

Answer 9

HonFu Many of here don't know what is the right mark there.. Some mark their own replies...
I got some of my ans are marked best answers, but 2,or 3..a few also changed ones later... I don't think there is bug with them...

Is their any marked best answer count?
I heard marked best will give 5xp.
Is the 5xp will be taken back..?

But if is unmarked or changed then notification also retrieved or deleted from your notifications.. If notification still exists and mark not appearing, then you may consider it as a bug....

Answer 10

Ah, so you guys suspect it's really just random use of the button...

Only my smartphone notifications are still there, but the in-app notifications are gone, just as the mark.

Okay, so probably no bug...

Answer 11

Though a little bit off-topic, in my opinion, having in mind what has been said, maybe it's better that the best answer mark to be awarded by the MOD's.
Also before posting in the Q&A, to have a pop-up asking/recommending to use the search bar for your question.
So for the most experienced here, how can we make these into a proposal to SL?

Answer 12

It's happened to me two or three times in a couple of years but never daily. There is also the reason that someone maybe playing a trick on you but that's unlikely as it will have to be a few people then as almost no one posts questions daily. Anyway it makes for a good conspiracy theory.

Answer 13

HonFu

Same with me.

I don't exactly how it works with the notifications. But I assume that they will be sent to our smartphone when we are offline. How should sololearn cancel notifications that have already been sent? I guess it is not possible. That's why we see all notifications.

While the in-app notifications just need to be deleted.

Answer 14

Yeah, I guess that must be how it works. My smartphone tells me tales from yore. 😂

Answer 15

Aymane Boukrouh [INACTIVE], connection issues started short after I came here, about 1.5 years ago, and were fierce for a while.

After an eternity it improved a whole lot according to what people said, although it's still not completely gone.

However, what you describe sounds, as if it's still really bad!

I wonder why that is?

Answer 16

Denise Roßberg
Ok. Thank you..
Even though these are all secondary, I expecting a badge must be awarded for best answers like a papular answer or illuminate badge...

Answer 17

I'm having the same problem too. I think this is just people who think it's a like button.

Answer 18

haha, yeah, about people not knowing how to use the mark, recently there was a question about how to improve a code, people gave suggestions and I happend to say that the given code looks pretty good as it is, and I got best answer for that :)

PS: I never asked a question on SL, so I also have no idea how you mark an answer as best :)