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Accepted solutions continue to rise
AnnaBrown
Community Manager

Even though it’s been a few months since we’ve published SAS Support Communities metrics (found on the top of the homepage of Community Matters), the community management team continues to make headway to improve one measure in particular: percentage of accepted solutions. How, you might ask? It’s simple, really.

Accepted solutions_Nov. 2016.png

You’ve all seen them – highly-visited and asked topics that have a ton of replies but no accepted solutions. So we picked the top 100 of such topics and have accepted a solution for 76 or so. But that’s not all. We made sure the one shining answer was as complete as possible. In some cases this meant that other replies within the thread needed to be worked on to reach the “best” answer. In other scenarios, extra resources and helpful notes were added. Here’s an example: How to calculate difference in days between two dates.

Why spend energy on accepting solutions? Because it helps you find answers more quickly. Solved topics carry more weight in Google land. When you ask Google a question, a solved community topic is more likely to show first or second versus an unsolved topic.

So accepting solutions is important.

Encouraging fellow community members to accept solutions is important.

Solving the problems is important! And not just solving with one or two-word answers. Take care to offer complete answers so that you not only have a better shot at helping the user who asked the question in the first place, but also the hundreds, thousands of users who have the same question and find a thorough solution … under your name.

Before responding ask yourself, will this answer have a lasting effect? Does it give ample context and complete (within reason) direction? If the answers are yes, then wow, have you helped out the community. And boy do we thank you for it.

Other points to note in the latest metrics involve “participation” and “reply rate.” Participation represents the percentage of signed-in users versus anonymous users. Our membership is growing, but so is our number of anonymous visitors (thank you Google). So the fact that it’s trending down isn’t a bad thing, but it tells us that we have an opportunity to bring back repeat visitors for deeper participation.

Reply rate is off the charts, literally! How can that be? If a topic added during one month doesn’t receive a reply until the next calendar month, then that reply is “deferred” to the month where it happened. That’s how we can exceed a 100% reply rate in a month.

Do you have any observations from the latest data?

11 Comments
Klauth
Fluorite | Level 6

Hello, 

 

I was trying to find a link to the page where I can share my SAS macro, which I believe is fascinating. However, I couldn't find it. Someone put a link to the Journal of Statistical Software. 

 

Could anyone please help direct me? 

 

Thanks. 

 

Bo Klauth

art297
Opal | Level 21

@Klauth: Here is one place: https://communities.sas.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/tkb?draftState=any&publishRangeTime=0&q=tabachn...

 

I've posted a couple of macros there (see, e.g., https://communities.sas.com/t5/SAS-Communities-Library/How-to-untranspose-a-wide-file/ta-p/425467 )

 

You can also use Github, or a combination of both.

 

Art, CEO, AnalystFinder.com

 

ShelleySessoms
Community Manager

@Klauth,

 

Creating a library article is what you're likely referring to. This privilege is earned by folks who participate regularly on the communities. So I encourage you to keep posting, replying to questions, and sharing your macro in a discussion on the Base programming or Statistical Procedures boards. You'll get feedback, and be well on your way to increased participation and the ability to write articles.

 

Thanks for using the communities.


Best,

Shelley

Klauth
Fluorite | Level 6

Thank you @ShelleySessoms and @art297 for directions. I'll do that. 

tomrvincent
Rhodochrosite | Level 12

Maybe the metrics *used* to be there...they aren't anymore.  Any way to see results since 2016?

AnnaBrown
Community Manager

Indeed, @tomrvincent, the metrics used to be on the Community Matters page. We'll pull some current numbers and share soon. Thanks for re-energizing this topic!

AnnaBrown
Community Manager

@tomrvincent, ask and you shall receive. Check out some community metrics since Jan. 2016 in this post: Solution views continue to increase.

tomrvincent
Rhodochrosite | Level 12

I'd say it's more accurate like this: Ask and you shall be disappointed. 🙂

ChrisHemedinger
Community Manager

@tomrvincent We track a ton of metrics on our communities.  We try to focus on those that indicate community health and the success of our community users/visitors.  Are there particular metrics that you'd like to see?

tomrvincent
Rhodochrosite | Level 12

@ChrisHemedingerHere are some I think would be interesting (maybe by deciles):

 

1. What's the activity of members (posts per month or per year or total)? Do some never post? Some post once and never again? Some post annually?

2. How has the number of new members changed over the years?

3. Is a count of members per country possible?  Maybe top 10 countries represented? Rarest 10?

4. Does the # of members and/or # of posts track with the number of active SAS licenses?

5. What is the activity per board?  What are the top 10 boards? Rarest 10? Are some increasing while others are decreasing over time? Do some get quicker answers while others languish?

I realize that some boards are newer than others...maybe something that shows the relative activity vs. number of SAS licenses.

 

The 'accepted solutions' graph is interesting, but it doesn't show what the number of questions posed has been over that time. 

If 100 questions had been posed in one period and 25 had gotten accepted solutions but another period had 25 questions with 20 solutions, that would be a higher percentage but a lower activity.  Maybe a combo line-bar chart would be illuminating.

ChrisHemedinger
Community Manager

Good suggestions @tomrvincent.  We'll work on that.  Here's a taste as of today.  Visitors from over 200 countries visit the site, but here are the Top 20 for the past 6 months.

 

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