Answers to be displayed in chronological order or by score, based on user preference

[sandriu]

[CatalinFrancu]

The current sort order is by score (highest first), then by age (newest first). There may be some middleground here -- a very recent score of 10 might be more relevant than a very old score 11. But we don't have enough data to worry about it, I think!

[sandriu]

So this is not a bug, it's a feature. I will convert this ticket into a research one, to test with users if the current order is intuitive or not.

[sandriu]

As of now, in production we have very few statements with multiple answers and no clear verdict - statements like these are the basis for deciding which order of display is better (the reverse chronological one or the descending score one) . So having more real data would be helpful to decide what to do.

Moreover, the problem might not have a unique solution: some people might prefer the chronological order, others might prefer the descending score order (the current one, if there are voted answers). In any case, a moderator should read ALL answers submitted to a statement before assigning a verdict to that statement, which means the displaying order might become a preference for each moderator. There's room for customisation here in the interface, if we take into account the no. 7 heuristic from Nielsen Norman Group ('Flexibility and Efficiency of Use').

[sandriu]

Funny thing how one issue kind of solved another one - I just found a nice UI example on how to let the users sort the answers on their own, by oldest / newest / top rated:

To discuss about adding this type of sorting control with @CatalinFrancu .

[sandriu]

There is no right answer here ('chronological order versus score'), every user is different. So order of answers should be a personalised feature.