Answering questions correctly is the most important task in a forum. If a forum has a high rate of suggested answers, it encourages people to ask. If answers are being marked as verified answers, then it encourages people to answer questions for the satisfaction, and to accumulate verified answers for the Problem Solver badges, and to compete for the Microsoft Community Contributor badges.

When someone replies to a forum question, they may mark the reply as a suggested answer. If the suggested answer solves the problem, the original poster or other users may promote that reply to a verified answer. Both of these steps are important to the success of the Microsoft Dynamics Community forums. Please use the following guidelines when marking suggested answers and verifying answers.

Suggesting answers

When you are responding to a forum post, you may check the "Make reply a suggested answer" checkbox. Keep the following points in mind as you consider marking your response as a suggested answer:

1. Do not mark all your responses as suggested answers. Only mark responses with a potential resolution.
2. Do not copy/paste another members solution as your own (e.g., another forum response or a blog article). Instead, link to that content, allowing both you and that contents author to receive credit for the answer.
3. When linking to files on product sites exclusive to customers, be aware that the original poster may not be on an active Microsoft Dynamics support service plan, and thus may not have access to the file.
4. At the end of your response, consider asking the original poster to promote your response as a verified answer if it does solve their question. It is common for the original poster to be unaware of this capability. Example text to use could be something like: “If this helped you, I would appreciate it if you would mark this as a Verified Answer, which may in turn help others as well.”

Verifying answers

When someone responds to your forum question with a suggested answer, you will see a box below their response "does this answer your question?".  The page will refresh, and the response will now be marked as a verified answer and will appear in the column labeled answers. Verified answers are valued assets of the community.

Suggested Answers

When responding to a question, the responder can mark the response as a suggested answer. More than one response can be marked as a suggested answer. Forum questions with a suggested answer are noted with a round icon with a question mark in it:

How to Suggest an Answer

If you are responding to the forum post in the quick response text area, perform the following steps to suggest an answer:

1. Click Reply
2. Check the "Make reply a suggested answer" checkbox:
   
   
3. Type your answer into the text area.
4. Click the "Post" button.

If you are responding to the forum post with the rich text editor, perform the following steps to suggest an answer:

1. Type your answer into the rich text editor.
2. Check the "Make reply a suggested answer" checkbox:
   
3. Click the "Post" button.

Verified Answers

After a response is marked as a suggested answer, the original poster (who asked the question), employees, moderators, or administrators may update the response to be a verified answer. Forum questions with a verified answer are noted with an icon of a green box with a check mark in it.

It is common for the original poster to not come back to the forums and mark a response as a verified answer, but it is important that threads have the correct answer(s) marked. Therefore, marking the correct answer(s) is often left to a moderator. This section gives guidance on marking the correct answer. Keep the following points in mind as you consider marking answers:

1. Respond with a suggested answer first. Give the original poster a chance to select the right answer.
2. After proposing a suggested answer, wait 7 days. This gives the original poster more than enough time to return. More often than not, the original poster will not mark the suggested answer as a verified answer and will not reply again. After waiting the week, then mark the suggested answer as a verified answer. Many original posters have gotten angry when moderators mark suggested answers as verified answers without waiting a few days (waiting 7 days sets a clear message that you are patient). One exception (to responding with a suggested answer first) is if the thread hasn’t been responded to for over 6 months (you’re cleaning up a forum). But even then, it’s better to respond with a suggested answer first if you’re uncertain about an answer.
3. Use caution when marking a 3rd-Party solution or link as the verified answer. We do not want to point people to an untested tool that could damage someone’s system, but certainly a reference to a known Microsoft Dynamics partner site for a solution.
4. Ask the original poster to mark the verified answers (if it makes sense). If the original poster returns and says thank you, but does not mark the answer, then first reply with a polite request for them to mark the answer. Most of the time original posters donot know about the marking verified answers feature. If they donot respond after 7 days, ask another moderator to verify the answer. If they do respond and acknowledge the answer is valid but fail to verify it, you may verify it yourself.
5. Moderators cannot mark their own responses as verified answers. Contact another moderator when you need them to mark your verified answers. Then just do your best to respect each other’s’ opinions when they conflict.
6. Have other moderators verify historical posts. When reviewing your previous forum posts >6 months old, send a request to another moderator to review and mark them as verified answers if appropriate.
7. If you work day-to-day with another moderator, do not have them mark your responses as verified answers. This will help prevent it from appearing that you are teaming up.
8. Try to mark the answers of others in the community. For example, if someone else partially answered a question, and you want to add to it, then mark both responses as suggested answers, not just your own. And when it comes time to marking verified answers, make sure you mark the other person’s answer as well (not just your own). You should be willing to unmark your answer when appropriate. It’s a team effort.
9. You should unmark verified answers VERY rarely (and communicate first). Obviously unmark answers if you accidentally marked them as answers but didn’t mean to (try not to do that). If you unmark a verified answer that was marked by the original poster, then you’re being disrespectful to them. They are the client in this scenario. You’re trying to help them, not fight them. So instead, you can propose additional suggested answers, mark additional verified answers, or explain in a reply why you think another post is an additional verified answer. Another scenario where you might want to unmark a verified answer is if another moderator marked something as an answer but was wrong (the reply is incorrect and doesn’t help in any way or the original poster came back later and said that it wasn’t an answer). If the moderator has a reason for proposing/marking a verified answer, you need to discuss that reason before unmarking verified answers.

How to Verify an Answer

Perform the following steps to verify an answer:

1. Locate the response already marked as a suggested answer.
2. In the "Does this answer your question?" area at the bottom of the response, click the "Yes" button.
   
3. The page will refresh, and the response will now be marked as answered and displayed in the answered column on the forum question.