Letting users find the answers

Question

I was just sent an email that was stating that I was asking for points by suggesting that someone that I had helped out to mark the question as answered.
I am not looking for points to boost up my level.
I am here to find answers for issues that I have as well as help others to get answers that they are looking for. If someone comes to the board to get help with something, they will most likely enter their problem in the search box and see if anyone else has had the same issue. When I do that, I look for the questions that were marked as answered in the hope that the way to fix my problem will be found in that post.
Is there some way to recommend to all users that once their question has been answered or once they have gotten some good suggestions that they mark the post that gave them the information? There are a lot of people that don't know how to do that or don't even know it is an option. By marking the helpful answered posts, users can find the answers to their questions without wading through 20-30 posts that don't have an answer in them.
I am just not sure how else to improve the search for answers without asking or suggesting to a user that once they have gotten an answer for their problem that they mark the post that gave it to them.

Answer 1

Hi,
I know of at least one occasion when a Host marked a post in a thread of mine as the Correct Answer.
As I knew I had not marked the thread in any way I asked what was going on.
A Host admitted that there was  facility to mark a Post as the "Correct Answer".
This was during the test period of the new /current Forum Software.
I also don't know if points are awarded.
They did not say when it would be used.
I can imagine some occasions when it might be used:-
1) Very long threads that does have the correct info in there.
2) Short but archived threads that also have the "Correct Answer".
Although the "Report Abuse" (Very silly, uninformative title) area could be used I doubt that the Hosts would follow up on this if it were used.
Asking the Hosts to post the Instructions to mark posts and have points awarded as a  consequence is also likely to be viewed and Trolling for points.
The more it gets asked about and the more people post on it the more people will read one of the threads and a consensus on the use of Points will eventually emerge.
This is of course a long game in the scheme of things.
You either need to understand and move on or have a plan about where and when you keep the message going.
9:42 PM      Thursday; June 16, 2011
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