What is the connection between an answer and its poster, none?

Question

For quite a while I have been asking myself what it is that makes us want to produce answers. Good answers. Sometimes answers that take a considerable amount of time to research, walk around with, come to a concept for. Subsequently we spend hours on working things out, testing, retrying, finetuning. A process that will possibly take hours or even days in complicated situations. You feel responsible for what you produced. You edit what you did if necessary.

Is anyone asking us to do that? No. WE choose to do that. Should we get eternal honor and thanks for doing it? No. What we post on the site is part of the site.

That doesn't mean you don't feel attached to what you produced however. imagine the following situation:

Someone produced an answer as described above, posted it. After a few days of silence, suddenly a second answer pops up, posted by OP. An answer, fully based on the first answer. The concept, the procedures, all of it. A few additions were done. Some are questionable, others concern stuff that wasn't in the question in the first place. That was what happened here.

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To show both sides of the coin: my response wasn't "the most balanced", so to speak. I mentioned him that my answer was an answer to the question he asked, and that his additions were mostly about additional stuff, not mentioned in the question. I also mentioned that some of the procedures he used in his version of the answer weren't advisable, for reasons I explained to him. Furthermore, I suggested that accepting my answer would be a decent action, since his answer was fully based on it.

Long story short: he posted a question on meta:

Answerer pushes me to accept then self-deletes

...after which I got pissed, deleted my answer. The full discussion is to be found here

In my defense, I was extremely tired and had a few bad days behind me. For the record, Re-reading the story, I can perfectly understand his point of view, and don't have an issue with Raphael whatsoever, but:

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Back to the subject of the question

In the discussion that followed it was suggested "that it was perfectly all right if OP posted his version of the answer and accepted it" (see the link above).

Really?

For me it will never be true on something you created, spend time and thoughts on, just a few hours or days ago. An answer you are kind of proud of that you made work. An answer you feel connected to.

That was what made you produce it in the first place.

Answer 1

For me, the important thing is getting the original issue resolved, improving the quality and efficacy of the site. While I understand the pain and frustration of laboring over an answer which the OP fails to accept, I applaud the effort it takes to take what's available and create a better answer. I don't hesitate to flag theft when I see it, but when attribution is given (as it appears it was in this case) and if the answer contains improvements, I believe that to be in the spirit of the site (and the stack exchange network as a whole). I'm fully cognizant of the fact that the work I do here doesn't actually belong to me (although I do try to keep my more popular answers up to date) It seems to me that in this case the idea was to try to provide the best answer possible while exposing unsolved issues in the answer provided. I see both sides of this coin and when faced with similar issues I ask myself "Does this benefit the site?" and try to respond accordingly. I'm only here because I'm truly eager to help and enjoy the mental gymnastics required. All the rest is details. While appreciation is nice to receive, it's not why I'm here. I think of the badges I've received, the one I was most proud of was Unsung Hero.

I suggest we all take a deep breath and move on. I have no doubt that we've all been both irritated by and pleased by the actions of another member at one point or another (myself included) but a wise man once said true genius is the ability to filter out that which doesn't matter so one can focus on what truly does. Sorry I can't find the source so it probably doesn't matter.

Answer 2

Since you insist on bringing this out in public, I am afraid I have to give the rest of the picture. When the OP decided to post their own answer (which, by the way, they never accepted), you responded as follows:

1. You deleted your answer!

2. You posted this comment:

   He @Raphael, I really loved you question. Unfortunately, the way you handle it turns it into a bad one, and your profile didn't ly. Don't expect any more answers from me. Deleted my answer.

3. And this one when the OP comes to meta to ask for guidance:

   You expect me to help you further while you post this on meta?

After complaining that the OP asked on meta, you come here and do the same thing! You claim that:

his post was a personal attack, mine isn't for sure. I don't read his name multiple times in my post

Although the (now deleted) post of the OP was in no way an attack on you and only mentioned you to point out that your answer was helpful:

On this question of mine, I received a very helpful answer by Jacob Vlijm which I highly appreciate.

And to add insult to injury, your meta question makes no mention of your deleting your answer or refusing to help the OP because they posted another answer.

So, now that both sides of the story are out, I will repeat what I said in chat: posting a modified version of an existing answer with attribution, that improves the existing one or expands it to cover aspects of the OP's problem that weren't explicitly mentioned in the question is absolutely fine, yes. It gives an improved or expanded or just different approach and that is a good thing. Your answer might help one future visitor, theirs might help another.

Had the OP modified your script and not taken the time to share their changes, that would indeed have been a shame. Instead, they took the time to share their work with us and all they got in return was spite. I hope that's not the way we greet users who come here and ask the questions we all enjoy answering.

Answer 3

As per chat

People, Policy, Process, Product.
People come first, Product comes last.

I know the StackExchange personnel think it's all about "the site" (the product), but it's not: it's about the people.
If Raphael agrees he should accept Jacob's answer...

@JacobVlijm If Raphael accepts your answer, edit yours and link to Raphael's in yours specifying theparameters in which his answer is the better one.

Then we'll have 2 answers, both can be upvoted and everyone will know afterwards that yours was first, and it'll also be better for the site itself.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯