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You might have heard that we are restructuring the navigation of all sites in the network. As part of this change there will be 3 tabs which are currently named as:

  • New—it contains questions that are either new, recently active or (on Stack Overflow only, new and interesting)
  • Popular—this tab contains questions which are "hot", heavily voted or highly linked-to.
  • Need Answer—the purpose of this tab is to find questions to answer, it is the descendant of the "Unanswered" section, and it contains questions which are either very new, without answers, without any good answer or with a bounty pending.

As you might have noticed, the first two tabs follow a "______ Questions" pattern (e.g. "New Questions"), but the third doesn't.

What is a better word to use which is an adjective, specific to its contents (note: not all those questions are unanswered) and self-explanatory to new users?

Community
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Sklivvz
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  • Maybe eager, or is that just a description of SE staff in watching these hungry questions? Or maybe yearning? – bib Jun 02 '15 at 13:58
  • Unattempted/unattended- if no answers....... – Misti Jun 02 '15 at 14:01
  • Inconclusive would be sufficient for such situation. – FreeMind Jun 02 '15 at 19:27
  • Yeah I've always found the word usage of answer/accepted_answer on this site confusing. Especially because when you click the "unanswered" link, the info on the left clearly shows that many of those questions have answers--it's just that none have been accepted by the original poster. – spacetyper Jun 02 '15 at 21:20
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    The most accurate wording for questions that are currently in the Unanswered Questions queue would be "No Upvoted Answers." The vast majority of those questions do have answers following them, and (as someone who has submitted many of them) I can tell you that many of the answers are eminently upvotable. Many questions fall into that queue in the first place because few people find them interesting enough to answer; and when people do provide serviceable answers to such questions, the answers often go un-upvoted because the question itself seems so uninteresting. ... – Sven Yargs Jun 02 '15 at 23:08
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    ... So it's a mistake to suppose that most of the questions in the Unanswered Questions queue are good but ignored questions that languish there simply because no one has offered a satisfactory answer to them yet. There are exceptions of course—both in the sense of hidden gems that never received a suitable answer, and cruddy questions that should have been retired outright rather than consigned to the queue—but most, I think, are simply questions of little general interest that have received dispositive answers (often based on earlier dispositive comments) but No Upvoted Answers. – Sven Yargs Jun 02 '15 at 23:16
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    Uh... answerless? Really unanswered? Lonely? Forlorn? – Jason C Jun 03 '15 at 02:00
  • If you simply remove the word Questions, the headings as you stated them are fine. All the tabs will be about Questions—one cannot list answers without listing questions. Simplify, simplify. (And as a mobile user, I prefer smaller tabs to obviate scrolling.) – Brian Hitchcock Jun 03 '15 at 11:16
  • By the way, isn't this a topic for meta? Oh, I get it, you want folks who are typically questioners to answer this. But putting conditions on the answering may minimize the likelihood of that happening. – Brian Hitchcock Jun 03 '15 at 11:18
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    I actually like Jason C's 'lonely'. Lonely questions: maybe they just need some attention to flourish, maybe they are lonely because they are awful. Who knows. – Jason M Jun 03 '15 at 18:09
  • "Open", perhaps. – keshlam Jun 03 '15 at 22:14
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    Given that there is a badge called "Tumbleweed", I think Tumbleweed Questions is quite appropriate, though that might not be a colloquialism in all languages. – IchabodE Jun 04 '15 at 22:55
  • Maybe "neglected", "disregarded" or "lost" (but the last just sounds weird now...) – timuzhti Jun 06 '15 at 12:46

27 Answers27

77

How about unresolved?

unresolved (ˌʌnrɪˈzɒlvd)
adj

  1. (of a problem or dispute) not having been solved or concluded
user2428118
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Mynamite
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    Prefer this one to unanswered. To me unanswered mean there's no answer, when unresolved means there's maybe some answer, but not the one I'm looking for. – Jaro Jun 02 '15 at 13:44
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    Will this not apply to the new questions? – 4-K Jun 02 '15 at 16:21
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    @Mrstupid wouldn't a new question be unresolved by definition? – Zack T. Jun 02 '15 at 20:10
  • This suggestion might be a clearer one for those who already used to forum format (e.g. appending "[solved]" to the title). Generally, I prefer this one. – Andrew T. Jun 03 '15 at 01:47
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    Are all questions resolved once they are answered? Is unresolved a subset of unanswered (for the subtab)? – Jason C Jun 03 '15 at 01:56
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    This suggests that the category includes only those questions that have no accepted answer. I don't think it fits. – Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 03 '15 at 10:13
  • @AndrewT. "Unresolved" means that the user has not found a satisfactory answer. This does not mean that a question is "Not answered." It can have number of answers but not the right one. A new question will definitely be unresolved. This is not the right word I think. – 4-K Jun 03 '15 at 13:52
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    @Mrstupid An "accepted" answer means the user has found a satisfactory answer. A "positively scored" answer means the community has found a satisfactory answer. An "unanswered" or "unresolved" question is one that falls into neither category. The current "unanswered" report lists such questions ordered by descending score, and new questions are unlikely to show up for several pages because of their 0 score. – Damian Yerrick Jun 03 '15 at 21:42
  • @tepples That makes sense. – 4-K Jun 04 '15 at 13:45
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit: Do you mean "unresolved" cannot be applied to questions with an accepted answer and a pending bounty? Or that it might be confusing to some people? To me personally, it makes sense. If someone places a bounty on a question with an accepted answer, that means the person still finds their problem unresolved. Even if they actually mean to reward an existing answer, the system still imposes a restriction on them to wait one day before they can award the bounty, i.e. the question is intentionally made to look unresolved for a certain period of time. – Andriy M Jun 05 '15 at 08:08
  • Unresolved sounds more like an attribute of a case than a question. – Joe Corneli Jun 06 '15 at 23:32
35

Need answer ~ open.

I proffer-

  • New
  • Popular
  • Open - The adjective open describes something that's not closed or uncovered or unexplained. (vocabulary.com)

IMO- The Open tab will encompass all questions which are without answers/without any good answer.

Misti
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    Unfortunately, given closed has a very different meaning, I think this one would have unintended confusion. – Joe Jun 02 '15 at 14:37
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    I like this one, as in whether graphene is a viable option is an open* question. I disagree that it would be confused with other meanings like open community question* or not-closed question, as @Joe suggests. – user1717828 Jun 02 '15 at 15:36
  • @user1717828 I think if you had it in a sentence it's a perfectly reasonable word. However, I think as a single-word header to a tab, I think it would be too commonly seen as the opposite of closed. – Joe Jun 02 '15 at 16:09
  • Open was the first thing on my mind here as well. Just as is used in say a list of open problems or similar. As such I think it's perfectly reasonable to use it as a header. – Tarok Jun 02 '15 at 21:30
  • Open is best name for this tab. (Open Questions) – Jagz W Jun 03 '15 at 06:03
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    I like this. In fact, all questions in those list do share the property that are "open" in the SE sense. – Sklivvz Jun 03 '15 at 11:18
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    ALL the answerable questions are open, and questions are only closed when we want to prevent new answers from being added. Yes, the official terminology is now "on hold" instead of "closed" but that by-fiat linguistic change has not trickled down to the actual language people use on all the sites. They are still called "close" votes, for example. Thus offering an official definition of "open" questions (meaning no upvoted or accepted answers) that conflicts with the semi-official-and-well-entrenched definition of "open" questions (meaning not on-hold or deleted) is sure to be very confusing. – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 Jun 03 '15 at 13:23
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    @Mr.ShinyandNew安宇: Closed has always been the official terminology, on hold appears only in the explanation shown to visitors. The officially used verbs (for voting and flagging and review queues) are close and reopen. I think the existing definition of open is fully official, not just semi-official, and I agree it would be confusing to give the word another meaning. – Ben Voigt Jun 03 '15 at 14:50
16

I nominate ongoing

as in Ongoing Questions.

Argument

There are a few words that communicate that there are no answers or that the answers haven't satisfied the problem. I like open and unresolved, but here is an argument for ongoing.

Open seems to be controversial and for good reason: the comparison to closed questions may give the wrong impression. All questions should be considered open if they can still be answered, etc. But it's a short word and would be great in a menu.

Unresolved gives the right impression regarding the status of the question but is longer. However, it might suggest a lower quality of interaction on the site (see next paragraph).

Ongoing is short. Also, in contrast to unresolved, it makes me think of ongoing discussion. Unresolved makes me think of someone pasting a homework question and waiting for an answer.

Definitions for ongoing give a positive, current feeling and include

  1. currently happening
  2. continuing; still in progress
  3. continuing without termination or interruption
  4. continually moving forward; developing
  5. proceeding; in process

References

Joseph Hansen
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5

I would suggest need attention. Yes, it is not a single-word adjective but I have good reasons. (and it is better than need answer or unanswered.)

  • The current "unanswered" section contains questions which need attention more than answers actually. As you mentioned, there are answered questions in that section also. (Thus, calling the tab unanswered doesn't make sense. The questions are somewhat unpopular but it is not a good name to use.)

  • Attention brings more good stuff than just answers. Up-votes, helpful comments, bounties, (maybe) meta discussion and such. And yes, answers also. It is even one of the reasons to start a bounty.

    enter image description here

  • Unresolved seems good at first glance but it is subjective. Unresolved to who? To the OP? To the community? It is ambiguous also. In a perfect world, the question is resolved when an answer is accepted actually. But it seems like we are not only considering the questions that don't have an accepted answer. (Also, there are ask-and-runs here, people get answers and disappear without accepting any answer, or there are even people who indicate that it is the right answer in the comments but don't accept it.)

Note: I don't think there is a better alternative to need attention as a single-word adjective. You can come up with cumbersome hyphenated compounds like attention-lacking or some related adjectives like unattended or neglected, but they don't seem that appropriate and they might not be clear for everyone.

My other suggestion would be using other. It might be too general and it doesn't indicate much but it is a single-word adjective.

ermanen
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  • I like neglected. It's exactly what these questions are. Really, I think we're looking for a nice way of saying 'unpopular'. – dnagirl Jun 04 '15 at 19:23
  • They're not neglected unless they've been around for a while. New questions without answers will be in this list. – Barmar Jun 08 '15 at 19:39
4

What about just "Pending?" It seems a bit more positive than "Unanswered"

RDrake
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    Hi and welcome to ELU @rdrake , it seems a very good anser, it only lacks the definition from a reputable source to be perfect. – P. O. Jun 02 '15 at 13:44
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    Pending on this type of networking sites does tend to have a connotation of "awaiting editing/awaiting review". – skymningen Jun 02 '15 at 13:53
  • As you might have noticed, the first two tabs follow a "______ Questions" <- based on that pattern, you'd be suggesting "Pending Questions", which isn't really the meaning you're intending. – Doc Jun 02 '15 at 20:56
  • Pending an answer, perhaps, but that actually means something else. – Joe Corneli Jun 06 '15 at 23:19
4

I would go with unresolved, unsettled, or pending.

user70809
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3

How about “wallflowers,” for questions that are (like the people this informal term usually denotes) more or less unattended and overlooked, questions that, as it were, remain on the dark and lonely fringes of the EL&U dance on account of being (comparatively) unglamorous or (dare I say it) shy? All the lonely questions, where do they all belong?

  • evocative indeed - the string backing to Eleanor Rigby has been running thru my head all morning. – David Garner Jun 05 '15 at 11:30
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    at the risk of being admonished for drifting into chat, this morning I walked down Stanley Street in Liverpool... [Eleanor Rigby] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Rigby_(statue)) – David Garner Jun 06 '15 at 20:52
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    I don't come from Liverpool - born in Yorkshire - but I live 15 miles out of Liverpool and ring the bells of the parish church there twice a week, from where I often see Magical Mystery Tour buses loaded with fans. – David Garner Jun 07 '15 at 16:34
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    They aren't necessarily overlooked -- many are just new and haven't had a chance to get an answer (it would be like calling someone a wallflower when he's just arrived at the party, even though he's walking toward someone to ask them to dance). Also, this doesn't fit the adjective requirement. – Barmar Jun 08 '15 at 19:38
3

I like unresolved but propose a slight variant,

Unsolved

OK, so it's usually used of problems or mysteries rather than questions, but hopefully it plants the idea that these questions each need some bold investigator to sort them out.

Steve Jessop
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  • I like this better than "unresolved" which sounds like a psychoanalytic problem, whereas unsolved just sounds exciting, without any further bias. – Joe Corneli Jun 06 '15 at 23:02
2

Since the word needs to indicate that an answer hasn't been accepted yet, consider Unsatisfied. There might be many answers, and any number of them might correctly answer the question to any degree of completeness, but if the asker isn't satisfied with any of the answers then they won't have accepted any of them.

talrnu
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2

New, Popular, ...

As there is still work to be done, Unfinished fits the bill as well.

  1. not finished; incomplete or unaccomplished.
  2. lacking some special finish or surface treatment, as polish, paint, etc.
  3. (of cloth) not sheared following the looming process.
  4. (of worsted) given a slight nap.
Bookeater
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1

Just for the sake of completeness, I will throw idle into the mix.

Certainly better than many of the alternatives already presented here.

RegDwigнt
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    This implies that it's been ignored. This category will also encircle questions with an ongoing discussion in the comments, and votes already applied to the question. – Ky - Jun 03 '15 at 18:11
1

Undecided may be the "correct" answer.

adj 1: not brought to a conclusion; subject to further thought; "an open question"; "our position on this bill is still undecided"; "our lawsuit is still undetermined" (Wordnet 3.0)

The reference to "an open question" may speak in favor of that as an answer. However, as of the time of writing, the question remains undecided. Should this answer be accepted, the answer (moreso than the question) will have been decided.

???

Community
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Joe Corneli
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0

Since it's for questions that are "very new, without answers, without any good answer or with a bounty pending"...

I nominate

unconcluded

The logic being that accepting an answer or awarding a bounty brings the question to a conclusion. Note that an accept might 'resolve' a bounty question but not 'conclude' it.

Tushar Raj
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  • I don't think questions on SO are ever really "concluded" unless they are closed/locked. You can always post a new answer on a question, regardless of whether it already has an accepted answer or not. – Zack T. Jun 02 '15 at 20:14
  • @ZackT: Same goes for 'resolved'. The answer is meant to be terminalogical rather than purely semantical. – Tushar Raj Jun 02 '15 at 20:16
0

ACTIVE

The use of an adjective does not always lead to action: it does however qualify understanding.

The NEW tab denotes questions that have not yet attracted discussion, the POPULAR ones are under heavy discussion and the third could be called simply ACTIVE meaning activity is in progress.

ACTIVE is clearly different to POPULAR as implies that activity is required to promote it to POPULAR. UNRESOLVED has a problem for me simply as it is a negative and sounds conclusive. ACTIVE sounds like something I want to be involved with, therefore it seems better.

Nicholas Alexander
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    Active means something else for SE questions. – Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 03 '15 at 10:16
  • If that is where it says Active: today - does it not sort of mean the same - one is the question was last Active (today) - the other is that state of the question being Active? If two things are the same thing, they can have the same name, or if Active: today was Activity: today then it may reduce implied collision of meaning. – Nicholas Alexander Jun 04 '15 at 05:58
0

This is a difficult one, because that categorisation spans a variety of only-slightly-related options. There are ways you can phrase it that make sense in English, which have already been given ("unresolved", "open", "ongoing", "pending") but none of these accurately fit the SE model (and are, in fact, misleading in that context).

I think that "Unanswered Questions", while not being strictly accurate, is as expressive and close-to-the-mark as you're going to get here. I certainly never had a problem with the existing terminology. Plus, if it ain't broke...

Tushar Raj
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Lightness Races in Orbit
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  • There are tons of people being confused by "Unanswered", that's what prompted this change initially. – Sklivvz Jun 03 '15 at 10:18
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    @Sklivvz: Then perhaps it's not the terminology that's wrong but the feature? Failing that, the "Needs attention" suggestion is a good one. I'd caution against trying too hard to fit this into a single-word adjectival form. If nothing else, I suggest looking for an adjectival form of "needs attention" rather than looking for alternatives to "unanswered". Perhaps that will focus the answers a bit. :) – Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 03 '15 at 10:18
  • "Unanswered" is interpreted by our users to mean "without answer", but the tab contains "questions one should attempt to answer" – Sklivvz Jun 03 '15 at 10:26
  • @Sklivvz: Then I suggest looking for an adjectival form of "needs attention" rather than looking for alternatives to "unanswered". Perhaps that will focus the answers a bit. :) – Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 03 '15 at 10:30
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    @LightnessRacesinOrbit: I don't think there is a better alternative as a single-word adjective. You can come up with cumbersome hyphenated compounds like "attention-lacking" or some related adjectives like "neglected", but they don't seem appropriate. – ermanen Jun 03 '15 at 14:11
  • "neglected" isn't so bad. – hatchet - done with SOverflow Jun 03 '15 at 23:12
  • The problem with anything like "needs attention" or "neglected" seems to be that the category includes questions that have plenty of attention and chatter but no decent answers. – Steve Jessop Jun 04 '15 at 21:25
  • @SteveJessop: Needs better attention? ;p – Lightness Races in Orbit Jun 05 '15 at 08:32
  • Underoptimized. Although I guess it's not necessarily the question that's suboptimal, it's the response we're underwhelmed by. – Steve Jessop Jun 05 '15 at 09:51
0
  • tricky questions

For questions which stumped users the first time round.
The OD definition for tricky is: requiring care and skill because difficult or awkward.

  • solo questions

Solo as in ‘only questions with one or no answers.’

Mari-Lou A
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    Why would a new question be assumed to be tricky? – Barmar Jun 08 '15 at 19:40
  • @Barmar Not new questions but "unanswered" questions, questions that stumped users the first time round. Hence they have one or no answers. I thought, tricky, had a more positive spin... – Mari-Lou A Jun 08 '15 at 20:23
  • @Barmar New questions will not go in the unanswered questions slot. New — it contains questions that are either new, recently active or (on Stack Overflow only, new and interesting) – Mari-Lou A Jun 08 '15 at 20:25
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    The description of this slot says it contains questions which are either very new, without answers, without any good answer or with a bounty pending. – Barmar Jun 08 '15 at 21:25
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    As I understand it, there's overlap between New and Unanswered, they aren't mutually exclusive. – Barmar Jun 08 '15 at 21:26
  • So if a very new question receives two answers which are not upvoted (maybe for several hours) where does it go? It also seems a bit weird to have a question that might be dated 2011 in the new slot only because it has been bumped by an edit or by somebody's new answer i.e the previous "active" category. – Mari-Lou A Jun 08 '15 at 21:39
  • I think it goes in this "Unanswered" category, since it's "without any good answer". – Barmar Jun 08 '15 at 21:42
  • I'm not saying that there won't be tricky questions in this category, just that it's not only tricky questions, it's also very new questions. – Barmar Jun 08 '15 at 21:43
0

I would go with terms unmentioned ,unresponded from the following sources these mean not specified

this precisely means unanswered

sai suresh
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    Hi @sai suresh and welcome to ELU. I'm afraid 'unmentioned' just means that a topic has not been discussed or spoken about, so is not a suitable answer. Also, the 'unanswered' questions have sometimes been replied or 'responded' to, but not with a good enough answer to close the question. Re-read the question and some of the higher scoring replies, then I suggest you edit your answer or think about whether you want to remove it altogether, so it won't be down voted. Best wishes. – Julie Carter Jun 07 '15 at 16:43
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Debatable might be suitable.

The questions under this category still need answer[s]; open to [further] discussions; can be further argued on, etc.

Peter
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How about Shiny?

What you're trying to convey is that these questions should attract attention, but you don't want to make any claims about the quality or complexity of the questions. It is admittedly a rather informal word to use, but I think it fits the bill.

Consider a magpie. These birds are well-known for their attraction to shiny objects. The goal is to convey to people that this group of questions are flagged by the site as requiring more attention than others.

The questions themselves may be of no better value than other unanswered questions that are not in the category. They have only been designated as targets for more community attention.

Ian MacDonald
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FRESH :- For new and interesting Questions on Stack Overflow
SIZZLING :- For popular/"hot"/highly voted topics
CHALLENGE:- For unanswered questions

The tab names are

  1. Catchy
  2. All can follow the same pattern of "__Questions"
  3. Self explanatory
Andrew Leach
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jit thakore
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I would like to call them “Outstanding questions”, though people might think that means fantastic. Failing that, “Open questions” is idiomatic.

(at the moment, what to call them is an open question.)

EDIT TO ADD:
Ngrams support the assertion that “open” is idiomatic:

Mari-Lou A
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Vynce
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What about Mysterious, or Ghostly, or Supernatural?

Whatever term you use, people will only come to understand what is being referenced when they experience the content. You can try to come within a gnat's **** of definition, but you can encounter perceived shades of meaning that defeat your intent.

Community
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jimalton
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VIRGIN or GREEN.

To imply that the questions have not been attempted or fresh.

user2390439
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Because ELU is the English Language site, I vote1 we label those questions...

moot - subject to debate; arguable or unsettled

I realise it's not really suitable for all SO sites. But if anyone here doesn't know the word, they should probably be using English Language Learners. And if anyone perversely interprets it as meaning of no practical importance; irrelevant, we probably don't want them here anyway.

1 But I did upvote unresolved for site-wide use! :)

Community
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FumbleFingers
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    I disagree that anyone who doesn't know the exact definition of moot should be on ELL. I've only heard this word used along with the word "point," and many definitions could be derived from such a context. – Chase Sandmann Jun 02 '15 at 18:53
  • @Chase Sandmann: I think there are only two "standard" meanings to the term. It's just that they're effectively "opposites" in a lot of contexts - 1) requiring debate (because the issue hasn't been settled yet), and 2) *not requiring debate* (because it's no longer relevant). – FumbleFingers Jun 02 '15 at 20:16
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Unrequited

Unreciprocated

Inconclusive

Jimbob McSquiggins
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    Hi, and thanks for taking the time to post under this question. It's great that you want to help. However, this answer doesn't really seem to be a full answer. When answering it's best to write in full sentences and, in the case of [tag:single-word-requests], give a good explanation why the word you're suggesting is a good one. If necessary quote and reference a dictionary. – Matt E. Эллен Jun 05 '15 at 13:39
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What about "Irksome Questions"?

Oldbag
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"indecisive" might be sufficient for this

nikhil upreti
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    Hi, and thanks for taking the time to post under this question. It's great that you want to help. However, this answer doesn't really seem to be a full answer. When answering it's best, in the case of single-word-requests, to give a good explanation why the word you're suggesting is a good one. If necessary quote and reference a dictionary. – Matt E. Эллен Jun 03 '15 at 08:20
  • Indecisive cannot be applied to an inanimate object such as a question. It describes the (in)action of the individual considering the question. – Chenmunka Jun 03 '15 at 08:50
  • undecided could work, but indecisive not so much. – Joe Corneli Jun 06 '15 at 23:05