Expert: Katie - 3/5/2009

Question
Hello Katie,

I know the team here is busy, but I decided I would suggest this because I think it could be useful as a stopgap measure until other ways to communicate with other experts are available. I've just said some things here so my reasoning behind this idea is clear. It relates partially to one of your recent questions as well.

As you have figured from the heading, I was wondering whether we could eventually be able to collaborate with other experts. The follow-up system isn't read a whole lot by everyone here and isn't as visible in the published answers. Because it isn't as visible, when there are flaws readers can be misinformed unless we edit, which seems to screw up with where it appears on search engines from what I've read. There are some questions, (thankfully not in my experience so far) where all the experts in the category  cannot fully answer the question, but the experts each have the pieces to answer it.

Sometimes, it requires a judgement that an individual expert may feel uncertain about, but not enough that they can’t answer. I would hate for some questioners to interpret the response they receive as being the only possible truth. Questioners can't relay the full details of the circumstances and even then we don’t have the personal knowledge even when we have relevant knowledge or experience. I know we have the statement saying that we aren't giving professional advice, but there are people who would take the advice of the experts here without question.

I've read all of the previous posts, (out of curiosity as some of the questions here were interesting) and as far as I've seen it hasn't been. I apologise if it has been addressed before.

So, I'm asking whether it is logistically possible to say, modify the question pool so that experts can leave a question open for the assessment/information of other experts or something along those lines. The original expert who was asked the question could send the question when it’s been answered.

I think this wouldn't take too much in terms of programming, (at least not as much as some of the other features I've heard about) and from the questions about experts wanting to refer questions to other experts or experts wanting to help out other experts who seem to be a little uncertain, I think this could be a useful function, if only as a stopgap measure.

I hope I haven't wasted too much time if this suggestion doesn't have enough merit and thank you for reading.

Answer
Hi James,

Thank you so much for you suggestion. We have discussed it here and find out that is is not a easy one, since our current data structure doesn't support that change. But your suggestion will definitely be considered when we implement our tools for expert communication.