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#1 on my StackOverflow wishlist is a way to make collaboration easier on answers. I see many questions and answers where the top answer mostly works, yet burie
by jph 12y ago
#1 on my StackOverflow wishlist is a way to make collaboration easier on answers.
I see many questions and answers where the top answer mostly works, yet buried below there's a much better answer. I see this happening in areas where technology is in flux, such as languages with evolving syntax, or when toolchains are moving to new tools.
Collaboration can improve this by enabling subsequent people to add additional information. Some examples: "This older answer is for version 1, and this newer answer is for version 2", or "This older answer is specifically for bash, and this newer answer is specifically for zsh".
- Veedrac 12y agoWhat would you look for that's not dealt with by comments and edits?
- jph 12y agoFor example: * Wiki-style editing of some kind, along with collaboration tooling, and users can annotate particular pieces of information within an answer. * Ability to combine/collaborate on multiple answers, such as beginning with introductory information relevant to all the answers, then having some kind of sectioning for specific information for each version. Two small steps can help toward this: * Mark an answer as applicable to a specific version number, or range, or date, or implementation. * Enable the question author to accept an additional new answer that is more current, without subtracting points from the original answer.
- InclinedPlane 12y agoIt was supposed to be that way, but it hasn't worked out. Originally the idea was that there would be some wiki-like aspects to the site where collaboration could result in up to date and comprehensive answers to important or common questions. That hasn't worked out, instead the site has largely kept the same features it had in 2009.