Should accepted answers appear first, just above the highest scored answer? Or should answers appear only in order of score?

Question

On Stack Overflow (SO), new answers get thousands of views by active voting members long after the question is posted. This means new answers can get hundreds or thousands (yes, thousands) of votes long after a question is first asked. Because SO involves information technology, many accepted answers quickly become out-of-date. New answers are posted and widely voted upon and often overtake the original out-of-date accepted answer by hundreds or thousands of votes. The old accepted answers for these questions become a pain in the neck.

Stack Overflow therefore decided to pin answers strictly in terms of votes, without the accepted answer appearing just above the highest voted one, as it does at the moment on all other sites. SE then decided that this popular SO change was going to be automatically rolled out to all sites, unless they requested otherwise.

However, members on many other sites have strongly objected pointing out that most sites do not work in the same way as Stack Overflow. The main reason is that on Stack Overflow new answers continue to get get hundreds of votes years after the original question was asked. On other sites, only very early answers are highly upvoted. After a few days, the number of actively voting users who see a new answer is miniscule. One of the only ways to promote new, better answers is by the Original Poster accepting them so that they will be seen by other visitors to the site. In addition, on most sites, accepted answers do not rapidly become 'wrong' because of advances in information technology. Many people find the 'accepted answer' useful and interesting. They think that other sites have the opposite problem to Stack Overflow.

Now, SE is not going to roll this feature out to any site unless they actively ask them to.

The company has offered us the choice to change our current behaviour to the Stack Overflow mode if we decide it is beneficial for our community. @MariLouA asked me to post a question here.

I'm using this post as a poll with two answers: one to keep the current 'accepted answer' feature and one to have it changed. Please:

1. upvote the answer representing your choice (downvotes will not count)
2. edit additional reasons to choose one or the other option

Comments on the answers can be used to improve the reasons mentioned in them (in line with their normal intended usage).

Answer 1

The accepted answer should appear on top (this is the status quo).

Possible reasons for this:

We have the opposite problem to Stack Overflow. Answers on SO often get thousands of views and votes by active voting members long after a question is posted. New posts can therefore easily overtake an early accepted answer. Here, however, the number of views by active voting members bombs after about 48 hours. The only way of promoting a later, superior, more helpful answer and making it easily visible to readers is through the 'accepted answer' mechanism.

We are on the verge of having many of the best answer posts on ELL suddenly consigned to obscurity under a pile of mediocre early answers, reducing the value of this site to readers.

An accepted answer says that it was the most helpful to the author of the question regardless of the number of votes it may have accrued. It tells the community that to all intents and purposes the problem has been solved.

Despite the differences in scores, the author of the accepted answer may have understood the OP's dilemma better than a higher scored answer. And sometimes the OP may change their mind and accept a better, more nuanced answer that was posted days, weeks or even years later. If I am the author of the question I would like to thank the user by accepting their answer and seeing it pinned at the top of the page. This shows my gratitude and it has the given advantage of being read first, and it will lead to more upvotes if it is seen at the top of the page rather than lost in a sea of answers.

The top answer is not necessarily the "best". HNQ visitors are not always the most objective or knowledgeable in the field of language. Native speakers have an instinct that is matchless to any artificial intelligence software or language learner but that doesn't mean they are able to explain or understand why one answer is superior to another.

Another reason for pinning the accepted answer at the top is that it keeps the two most significant answers at the top, namely, the accepted answer and the most popular of the other answers. And it does so without additional programming, compared to sorting by votes and then pinning the accepted answer below the top-voted answer (if they are different answers).

Lastly, our active voter base might be skewed towards native or near-native speakers, and Stack Exchange veterans, and vote more often for comprehensive answers. Question authors might be more likely to go for simpler answers, which might also be more useful for the majority of the visitors (anonymous learners of English who arrive here via search engines).

Answer 2

Answers should appear only in order of score (this is the new behavior on Stack Overflow).

Possible reasons for this:

• The community as a whole may often be better suited to determine what the best answer to a question is than the majority of question authors.

• Particular to ELL: A learner may not be able to tell if an answer is correct. On StackOverflow, a questioner can take an answer and attempt to use it on their system. If it works, they can accept the answer. This isn't generally possible on ELL

Answer 3

No matter which way we do it, there will be potential problems and pitfalls.

When a mediocre answer gets hastily accepted, and better answers come along later on, it's nice to see that mediocre answer get pushed downward.

However, when a well-thought-out answer comes late but is ultimately accepted, it will be sad if that answer sits at the bottom because the question is now in the rear-view mirror for most of the people who voted on it, so the newly-accepted answer has trouble amassing many more upvotes, even though it might be deserving of getting them.

In the end, sometimes the new system, if it gets rolled out on ELL, will be an improvement, but sometimes it will be inferior to the old way of doing things. C'est la vie.

Answer 4

There are several advantages and disadvantages to pinning the accepted answer at the top and until recently I was undecided.

Contrary to many users who fervently sustain that an incorrect or low scoring answer should never be shown at the top, I think the current system works admirably well on ELL for two reasons.

1. Users who read an accepted answer that is inaccurate or misleading will downvote it. Once an incorrect answer has been accepted, the number of downvotes increases exponentially as soon as a correct answer (regardless of its length) is posted. This voting pattern makes it clear to visitors and users alike which answer is considered best by the community.

2. An accepted answer says that it was the most helpful to the author of the question regardless of the number of votes it accrued. It tells the community that to all intents and purposes the problem has been solved. In 2015 Taryn (Staff ♦ Mod) explained why their suggestions for unpinning the accepted answer were overruled

…because the pinning of accepted answers is part of what makes our sites different from others - it's the indication that an answer worked for the OP - we don't want to lose the signal for those answers or hide them way down on a list of a ton of answers.

• Despite the differences in scores, one author may have understood the OP's dilemma better than a higher scored answer. And sometimes a better, more nuanced answer can be posted days, weeks or even years later but earn very few upvotes. If I am that OP I would want to thank the user by accepting their answer and seeing it pinned at the top of the page. This shows my gratitude and it has the given advantage of being read first, and if it remains useful it will often lead to more upvotes.

Why accepted answers have never really been a problem on ELL

• Language sites such as ELL and EL&U are non-technical, so there is no such thing as an obsolete answer. A nontechnical question may ask about obsolete practices or archaic terms but a well-supported answer will not become outdated next year or in ten years.

In an era where advancements in technology are being continually made, it makes sense that an answer accepted in 2010 on Stack Overflow, but now obsolete, should not be displayed at the top position. This is not true for social science and the humanities where any changes that do occur happen more slowly and over a longer period of time.

Answer 5

I urge readers to vote to pin the accepted answer at the top of the page. This feature does a lot of silent good work whilst the very few annoying instances where an OP picks a (seemingly) obviously wrong answer are very scarce indeed, however memorable these are (see Cag51's post on Academia and the information therein.

Despite the terms voting and upvoted, there is a severe problem in terms of how democratic the voting system is. Early posts get voted on a lot, later posts much, much less so. Around 48+ hours after a question is first posted, the number of views by active voting members drops off significantly.

Pinning the accepted answer allows relatively 'late'-arriving but excellent and helpful answers to be recognised and pinned to the top of the page where they currently benefit readers. Without this feature some of the best and most helpful information on the site will languish unseen underneath a list of earlier mediocre answer posts. This current system still retains the benefit of having the highest-voted answer directly beneath the selected one. The new one will see many existing good posts vanish into obscurity.

Another benefit of the current system is that the Original Poster is the only member who is routinely alerted to new answers, especially those that arrive weeks, months or years after the question is originally posted. Because of this, they are in by far the best position to curate their own question page, and, if appropriate, accept a late answer. Certainly, the slew of voters on the original few answers will not be notified and will not get the chance to vote anew on the full range of answers.

Lastly, the current system affords some respect and agency to people who ask questions on the site. Whilst there are always vaguely annoying members in every aspect of the daily life of every SE site, we don't allow this to destroy or make us abandon useful and helpful features of the site. Where the odd muddle-headed OP might select the wrong answer, this is rarely anything more than an annoyance, and a rare one. In contrast if we in essence lose the selected answer feature, users will lose the benefit of many excellent posts and the helpful information that they provide. The vast majority of people asking questions here are sensible adults fully capable of making appropriate decisions regarding selected answers.

Some SE sites, for instance SO, get thousands and thousands of views by active voting members. So, for example, the highest voted answer on SO has over 33,000 votes. On these sites a very high number of votes over a quite sustained period may be the best indicator of the accuracy and helpfulness of an answer. Here, however, this is not the case.

The voting system on English Language Learners is a GOOD THING. However, it is not perfect for many reasons, including those detailed above. The 'accepted answer' feature helps provide checks and balances within the system. In particular it defends against the unintended and unwelcome tyranny of the early upvoted answer. Just like a healthy democracy, where second chambers and the separation of the legislature, the judiciary and the police provide safety in the form of checks and balances, the same is true of the accepted answer feature in its current form. Vote to keep it!

Answer 6

Here are some relevant points from other another meta-site that may be pertinent here:

I personally like the idea of having some control over the ordering of answers in my questions. I can imagine many scenarios where this is actually a good thing:

• In general I would say that the person who asked the question is probably the one who [is most invested in] the topic. For example, a short and superficial answer may be easier to digest and therefore gather more votes than a long and detailed one. As the OP, I will probably spend more time and effort in going through the answers, and therefore my choice of "best" is better informed than that of the community.

• Selecting a best answer by hand fixes issues introduced by the "time factor". An early simple answer is more likely to have more votes than a recent one, even if the new one is clearly superior. Specially in the case of HNQ posts.

• In the same vein, selecting an answer helps counter the natural inertia of "most voted answer keeps getting more votes" even when it is not substantially superior to other answers.

• When the question is somewhat controversial (or is disliked by the community for whatever reason), it is easy to game the system and post an answer that intentionally does not really address the core of the question, but instead dismisses it by either explaining why it is a bad question, or by focusing on an entirely different reinterpretation that will satisfy the casual reader. An actual answer to the OP will get fewer votes than the dismissive one.

• Finally, the opinion of the community is not always the best.

Of course, I can also imagine many scenarios where this feature can be abused, but in my experience this has never been a real issue.