Tuesday Tip - Writing Effective Suggested Answers in the Community
Bret Fraser
Community Manager
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Welcome to the Tuesday tips series! Today's tip will focus on a key community skill - writing effective suggested answers in the forums. ✍️
Whether you're an expert posting an answer, or the original author responding to requests for more detail, there are tools and best practices for maximizing successful community conversations.
Suggesting answers to forum questions
When responding to a question, you may check the box 'Make reply a suggested answer' to indicate to others it contains a possible answer. This helps the original poster see a potential answer has been provided, and lets other members know, too. More than one reply to a thread can be marked as a suggested answer.
Perform the following steps to suggest an answer:
- Write your reply with your answer.
- Check the box 'Make reply a suggested answer'
- Click the Post button.
Keep the following in mind as you consider marking your response as a suggested answer:
- Do not mark all your responses as suggested answers. Only mark responses with a potential resolution.
- If you use resources like reference articles or AI tools to provide a solution, ensure the solution is relevant and accurate. Your reputation in the Community will be negatively impacted if you propose solutions that have not been vetted and do not work.
- Be transparent about the resources you use. Cite your sources. Provide links to the content where available. Never copy another member's solution as your own, either on the Community or from some other source. You can receive credit for directing other members to the answer, and the original author will receive credit as well.
- When linking to pages/files on product sites exclusive to customers, be aware that the original poster may not be on an active support service plan may not have access to that content.
- At the end of your response, consider asking the original poster to mark that your reply answers their question. It is common for the original poster to be unaware of this capability. For example: "If this helped you, please check the box 'Does this answer your question'? This can help others with the same issue find this answer, too." You can define these quick responses as one or more templates.
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