Expert: Katie - 7/24/2006

Question
I've been answering questions as an expert in "Pests".  The recent ones are showing as
never viewed by the askers.  I've not seen anything like that before and wonder what the
problem might be causing that.  It would seem either they are being blocked away or I'm
wasting my time answering.


Answer
Hi, Dan.

The date in the Read/Rated column for each question listed on your Expert Home Page is updated when the questioner loads the page that displays your answer on our site.

There are 3 main reasons why this column will say "Not Read Yet":

1) You used one of the custom rejection messages provided on the "Answer Question" interface to respond to the question, instead of typing in an answer. For example: if you clicked "This is a Duplicate Question" option to remove the message from your queue, the system does not create a page for your answer and deletes the question from our database after a week.

2) The questioner did not received the email containing the link to their answer because ...

 a) they made a typo as as a result entered an invalid email address when they filled out the "Ask a Question" form.

 b) their email client or service blocked the alert message as SPAM.

 c) their mailbox is full and our message bounced back.

 d) they happen to be one of those rare, anachronistic people who do not check their email everyday or when they are on vacation. ;)

3) They may be having computer-related problems that prevent them from accessing the internet.

Hope this helps,
Katie
AllExperts.com