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Somewhat off-topic, but this is a great example of a problem with StackOverflow/StackExchange that a lot of folks pointed out in a thread yesterday [0]: the acc
by jake-low 7y ago
Somewhat off-topic, but this is a great example of a problem with StackOverflow/StackExchange that a lot of folks pointed out in a thread yesterday [0]: the accepted answer is terrible but is shown at the top, and a much better answer (with clear community consensus, given the vote counts) is below it. Why not show the best answer first?
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20859332 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20859332
- compiler-guy 7y agoOne possible reason is that, for technical questions at least, only the original poster can tell if a particular answer solved their problem. The user can ask, "How do I do X?" and the the community may settle on, "don't do X", or, "Why would anyone ever want to do X?", but those don't answer the question. Maybe the user has a good reason, maybe not, but they aren't the answer. Like all ranking systems, each method has its own advantages and disadvantages.
- jimhefferon 7y agoBut surely the mods can change this?
- compiler-guy 7y agoI'm not entirely sure what you are referring to by "this". If you mean the mods could change the ranking system, of course they can. But that would just trade one set of problems for another. If you mean that they could change the "wrong" answers to more correct ones, then yes, they could. But that kind of defeats the purpose of community voting. And it is much more work for them. How would they decide that one answer is better than another? If their own knowledge, then that is going to feel very arbitrary in many cases.
- jimhefferon 7y agoI've had responses on SE modified, sometimes significantly.