As a comment to the new links in the question I can add a few counter examples from personal experience during the last week.
Here is one example
using compile time constant throws errorusing compile time constant throws error
where the poster selected one answer (mine :-) even though it didn't get any upvotes at all, and is technically inferior to the other answers. However, the person asking the question obviously thought that - this time - a simple explanation was what he wanted.
Another example is
Why declare a struct that only contains an array in C?Why declare a struct that only contains an array in C?
where a similarly quick answer got lots of upvotes, and a personal "Thank you!" comment from the person asking the question. I even got an entirely undeserved "Nice Answer" badge for that.
However, some of the other answers have an even more hilarious number of upvotes, and a "Thank you!" comment from the questioner. Every single one of them!
But no selected answer.
So, now that we haven't heard from that person in a week, how do we select the forced answer?
We just cannot!
