Ubuntu Message boards rating for “Usefulness”

Problem: Ubuntu troubleshooting is scattered about useless message boards

Solution: Rate messages for useful information

Ubuntu, the popular Linux distribution, discusses problems in message boards. Someone poses a problem and various people pose possible solutions. The total volume means that great posts detailing the actual way to set environment variables or handle XYZ Mark 32.42 video cards are lost. Users spend way too much time digging through chaff.

One simple solution is to rate the value of posts, ala Slashdot and others. As a user is browsing through the discussion forum, she can tag an answer as especially clear and well written. Alternately, she could tag a message as a question or otherwise content free. Later users might set a minimum threshold to search for well written explanations.