Besides relying on the answer's score, is there a way I can move a public answer up or down in the display order?
Environment:
Answers, Display Position
Oracle B2C Service, All versions
Resolution:
When editing an answer, the Display Position menu allows you to easily change the display position of your public answers. By default, the Display Position field is included on the Details tab. The settings and descriptions for the Display Position feature are listed below.
When placing an answer in the list, both the Score and the Computed Score values are affected. When fixing an answer, only the Computed Score is affected.
To better determine how the score and computed score are affected, you can create a report or view that lists your answers and includes output columns for the score and computed score values from the answers table. Then, after editing an answer and changing the display position, run the report to see the effect on the score and computed score values for that answer.
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Historical Usefulness - This uses the score to adjust the ranking of the answers. This is the default display position. |
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Place at Top - This places the answer at the top of the answer list (one time only) by setting the score to be a value equal to the highest score for any answer in the database. The placed answer then reverts to Historical Usefulness, and if the answer is reopened the Display Position field will be set to Historical Usefulness. The answer may drop to a lower position if end-users view other answers so that their score increases to exceed the answer that was placed at the top of the list. |
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Place at Middle - This places the answer at a level that is 50% of the highest score (one time only) for any answer in the database. The answer then reverts to Historical Usefulness. The answer will rise or fall in the list based on the score as it is affected by end-user viewing activity. |
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Place at Bottom - This places the answer at the bottom of the Answer list (one time only) by setting the score and computed score to 0. The answer then reverts to Historical Usefulness. The answer may rise in the list of answers as the score increases based on end-user activity. |
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Fix at Top - This permanently fixes the answer at the top of the Answer list. With this option, the computed score of the answer is affected instead of the score. |
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Fix at Middle - This permanently fixes the answer at a level that is 50% of the maximum score. When fixing an answer in a position, the computed score is affected, not the score. |
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Fix at Bottom - This permanently fixes the answer at the bottom of the Answer list. When fixing an Answer in a position, the computed score is affected, not the score. |
Additional Considerations
Fixing Multiple Answers in a Position: If you fix multiple answers in a position, by default, those answers will be listed by answer ID in ascending order. If you would like to fix multiple answers in a position, consider adding an additional sorting value so that you can control the sort order of multiple answers that are saved with the Fix at Top option. For more information on configuring the sort order for the answers published to your end-user pages, refer to Answer ID 2379: Optimal Sort Order for Published Answers.
Multiple Interfaces: If you have multiple interfaces on your site, the scores for answers are not tracked for individual interfaces. That is, when you place or fix an answer's display position, the score or computed score is affected based on all public answers in the database, not just the answers published to a specific interface.
As a result, you may place an answer at the top of an interface, and its score may be set to be considerably larger than expected if another interface has an answer with a very high score.
For example, if the highest score for an answer in interface A is 1000 and the highest score for an answer in interface B is 20,000, if you use the Place at Top option, the score of the answer will be 20,000 -- even if you are publishing the answer to interface A.
Text Search Results: When fixing an answer in a certain position, this does not affect the results ordering when a text search is performed. When a text search is performed, the answers are listed based on the matched weights that are calculated for each answer as to how well the answer matches the search string.
As a result, if you fix an answer at the top of the list of answers, when a search is performed, that answer will NOT necessarily be at the top of the search results. If other answers have a higher matched weight, the answer that is fixed at top will not be at the top of the list when the text search is performed.
If you want an answer to be listed first in a set of search results regardless of the matched weight, consider setting that answer up as a Search Priority Word. For more information on configuring this, refer to Answer ID 2492: Configuring Search Priority Words and Recommended Documents.
For additional information, refer to the 'Adding an Answer' section in the Online Help User Guide documentation. To access Oracle B2C Service manuals and documentation online, refer to the Documentation for Oracle B2C Service Products.
