help etiquette for helpers: flagging to request more help from others

[dromano]

I hate to leave someone who has asked a question hanging, but I'm not sure what would be the best course of action if I can no longer continue to help. This is not an issue when there are several helpers aware of a question, but in some cases it seems that others may have refrained from replying to a topic, possibly so as not to step on other helpers' toes, so to speak.

Is there some way, aside from @-mentioning specific folks (which might be unwelcome?), to flag a topic as "I've done what I could -- could anyone else help?"?

[andresrcs]

I think you can simply say it, with something like
"Hopefully someone else would be able to help you" and if someone else is willing to help they will weigh in.
Also related to this, are the cases when the user constantly posts poorly constructed questions besides been asked to elaborate and provide a reprex, so we simply ignore their posts until they catch up with the good practice, otherwise we would be encouraging a bad behavior.

@dromano

which might be unwelcome?

Yes, this is definitely against the forum policies, see

FAQ: Should I @name mention other users in my post?

What is @name mentioning? @name mentioning is when you type someone's username with an @ preceding it. Doing this sends a notification to the user. Depending on their settings, it may also send them an email message. For example, with @JacqueHousteauGram in my text, Jacque here will be dynamically notified in community (and via email if he's configured for it). Please don't use this feature excessively In general, it is considered bad form to @name mention someone not otherwise engaged in the conversation. Why should I limit how much I @name mention others? It can be annoying Active people who were being frequently mentioned in topics were first to request that this practice be minimized…

[technocrat]

I agree this is a bit of a gap in the platform. I don't like to leave questions hanging, either, and when I run into a dead end, I look for another forum to direct the user to post, such as a github issue, for something that really does seem broken, or to stackoverflow for something that needs broader exposure for an advanced topic.

[nirgrahamuk]

I generally have preferred a conversational approach. I.e. writing a post that says I'm at the limit of what I can / will do and maybe adding a comment that I would be interested to see someone find a solution (if I am genuinely interested)
But you have got me thinking whether a Tag such as challenging might work, e.g. email a mod and ask them to consider adding a challenging tag. Then perhaps those of us in the know can be in the habit of searching challenging tabs and be more active to closing them ? This idea is probably flawed but it's too early in the morning for me to realise why

[technocrat]

I had a similar notion for interesting questions, but challenging comes up more often and feeds the village instead of ourselves. It can be discouraging to those seeking help to have their questions locked before resolution. Even if the result turns out to be it's a mystery.