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This happens to me from time to time...

I write an answer including different solutions and post it as a single answer, then after some minutes someone comes and posts a new answer, almost an exact copy of one of my solutions with a minor variation, or even no addition at all, which doesn't add anything helpful to my answer, and at best might be considered a useful comment.

When this happens I think, whatever... someone will ask them "what is the different between your answer and the one was posted 5 minutes ago?". But that doesn't happen; instead their answer gets a lot more attention and because of the answers having the same time/date of posting after the first few minutes, people might even think that mine is the copy.

So I'm thinking about posting my solutions at the same time as separate answers, which is okay I guess: Two answers on one question by the same user.

What do you suggest doing in situations like this?

Note: I believe in posting an improved answer with more details and description than others, as I did here - note that I made 14 revisions.

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  • 3
    At the end, I just say let it go... we are here to learn more and help each others, but sometimes this kind of things doesn't make me feel good.
    – Ravexina Mod
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 23:15
  • 2
    I haven't looked at this case, but it's more a question of "Who posted first" - if you posted first and it's almost verbatim a copy of your data, their answer can be deleted. That said, if you both just came up with the same solution but explanations and details are different (though the same solution applies) then it 'depends' on a few other factors. (It's not uncommon for two users to have the same solution and differing explanations)
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Aug 6, 2017 at 16:53
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    Should almost identical answers be deleted?
    – Zanna Mod
    Commented Aug 7, 2017 at 8:12
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    "I'm thinking about posting my solutions at the same time as separate answers" IMHO this is a good idea regardless of the problem outlined in your question.
    – Andrea Lazzarotto
    Commented Aug 8, 2017 at 20:07
  • It only matters if you're upset about your reputation (and you think you're losing out on reputation you deserve going to someone else). Do you care about your reputation? Why is it so important to you? I remember, when first getting an account, worrying briefly about the effect of losing reputation when downvoting people's questions/answers...for about 3 seconds. Who cares?
    – user12753
    Commented Aug 18, 2017 at 12:16
  • @DrEval It's not all about reputation, it's about when someone steals your answer/efforts and gets credit for it ;)
    – Ravexina Mod
    Commented Aug 18, 2017 at 12:31
  • @Ravexina They're not stealing it. Everything posted on the Stack Exchange sites is subject to a fairly lax open source licence, and you're giving anyone who wants to the right to use it. If one feels the terms of this licence aren't being upheld then by all means consider legal action. Personally I'd let it go.
    – user12753
    Commented Aug 18, 2017 at 12:43
  • @DrEval "To use it", Not to post it on the same question as their own answer. They could quote it, improve it, make another answer upon it, but posting the same thing is not cool...
    – Ravexina Mod
    Commented Aug 18, 2017 at 12:58
  • @Ravexina Whether it's cool or not is one thing, but what to do about it, when it's explicitly permitted by the license, is another. It's like people complaining about sniping (putting in a larger last minute bid)on eBay. It doesn't make any difference what people think of it; it's allowed (eBay could mitigate against if if they wished but they don't, presumably because it would be a bad UI experience for normal people who understand how the site works) so that's the end of it.
    – user12753
    Commented Aug 18, 2017 at 13:07

1 Answer 1

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I would say that if the second answer applies to a different use case (IE having different caveats than the first answer) then Two answers on one question by the same user is the applicable answer.

However, If it's a clear case of duplication then Should almost identical answers be deleted? should apply. I've personally lost count of the number Of times I've asked "What does this add to the previously posted answer." during review.

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