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I came across this question yesterday.

There is two different answer to this question, one has been accepted. Let's call accepted answer answer 1 and the other answer 2.

Recently answer 1 has been edited to include the content of the answer 2.

I don't know what to think about this. On one side I think it is unfair for answer 2 creator because it won't get the upvote he deserve anymore.

But on the other side, as question answer 1 is accepted answer, answer 2's solution (which is better in my opinion) is going to have to better visibility.

I got a bit lost in my explanation, I hope I have been clear enough...

What is the general consensus about hijacking top answer for visibility ?
Is that encouraged ?

3
  • 10
    So from what I see it was edited by another user and that's not exactly OK. If done by the answerer him/herself would probably be OK, as long as it's not a full blown plagiarism of the second answer. Many times answerers revise their own answers to include alternative solutions or updated information
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Commented Sep 17, 2015 at 15:09
  • This happens in real-life conversations and it's a bit annoying: someone who wishes to be seen as smarter will just parrot the latest/best answer that the crowd seems to like. The nature of these forum-based systems allows people to silently edit their answers in order to be seen as smarter. First response is best... because this allows them later to edit it to the latest wisdom.
    – Michael Blankenship
    Commented Sep 22, 2015 at 21:11
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    I think I'd probably just put "See Answer 2 for alternative" or something to that.
    – 93196.93
    Commented Sep 23, 2015 at 16:08

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Upvote number 2, also I have edited out the attempt to merge the answers, as this does a disservice to the person who originally answered with answer 2 and gives votes to a mostly old answer that just happens to have the check mark - if answer one dosnt work anymore downvote it, or edit only to fix that method. If you have a new method use a new answer.

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tomodachi, who posted answer 1, had edited answer 2, so it is clear tomodachi was aware of the other answer. And since they didn't include that part in their answer: reject as "clearly conflicts with author's intent".

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