Why does "Not a problem" translate to "Unsolvable"?

I marked a problem "Not a Problem" and it now has a notice on the user's original post that it is "Unsolvable" - that's not what I meant!

Can wording somewhere be changed to reflect that "not a problem" means the problem is not a problem, and perhaps add another designation - "Unsolvable" or "Not Possible, sorry!"?

Thanks.

P.S. http://getsatisfaction.com/pbwiki/top...

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Lane Becker, Official Rep, replied on May 08, 2008 21:52

Um, whoops! We'll get that fixed. You've gotta admit, though, it's kind of funny. :)

"The company doesn't think this is possible." Or how about "The company doesn't consider this a problem." I'm leaning towards the latter, but maybe that's wrong, too...?

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We tried that latter one, too. That was the best one we had, I think. – Eric Suesz (Official Rep)
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Casey Greene replied on May 08, 2008 22:03

Oh, no, it's funny :)

I think having both of those things, as separate categories will be helpful. After all, sometimes Gmail users ask Gmail to do their laundry, and it would be nice to let them know if doing their laundry is a) not a problem, just pick your preferred detergent, or b) not going to happen, check Craigslist for a cheap washer and dryer.

Reminds me of this blog post of yours :)

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Eric Suesz, Official Rep, replied on May 08, 2008 22:04

We worked that one over quite a bit trying to come up with the right word, and I think that we may not have come up with the right word -- yet.

Sometimes, the person who reported the problem doesn't have enough information to know that the problem they think they have isn't the actual problem -- or isn't one that the company they are asking can solve. For example, say an Internet Explorer user reported a problem to Microsoft that a few images on a Web site have disappeared. Well, it may be that the problem is that the Web developer for that particular Web site moved some images out of a folder, which explains why the images are missing. It's not IE, and Microsoft probably can't help solve that problem, sadly. Unsolvable. Or, maybe "it's not our problem" -- although I don't now about that language. (!)

Another use case might be that a user of Internet Explorer reports that they can't delete individual cookies (not actually sure if that is true, I use Safari). Let's say Microsoft thinks that's a feature, not a bug. They mark it as "not a problem". That's not really true, either. Microsoft just doesn't want to recognize it as a problem.

I came up with a few more use cases, but I don't think we have this to where it needs to be. You're right it is not quite there.

And then, to add more confusion, if a user -- just as in your example -- starts a problem that is really a question and not a "problem"....

Maybe part of the answer is to make the "not a problem" language for the employee setting status more clear. Also, we should make it easy to change a mis-classified problem into a question.

Great observation, Casey!

I’m sure this is solvable

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At least changeable - if I go to edit my reply, I can't change that drop-down box. I can post a new reply to update the problem, but I would feel weird not writing anything new to go with it :) – Casey Greene
i think casey's right -- it's overloaded right now, because "we don't consider this a problem" and "we can't do anything about this right now" are actually two entirely different concepts. need to expand the options, methinks. – Lane Becker (Official Rep)