Timeline for What to do about extremely similar answers?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
20 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 30, 2018 at 15:00 | review | Close votes | |||
| May 1, 2018 at 21:39 | |||||
| Apr 30, 2018 at 14:38 | comment | added | KingLogic | Possible duplicate of Questions with multiple, very similar answers | |
| Mar 28, 2018 at 11:50 | comment | added | 4386427 | I think 15 min is too short time to say that the later answer is a copy. I'm not good at the syntax for writing a nice math formula so I can easily spend more than 15 minutes on answer. | |
| Mar 27, 2018 at 8:07 | comment | added | Raphael J.F. Berger | Can editing an answer take longer than 10-15 min? Should one during editing continuously check if other answers were added? As long as you cannot exclude yes/yes one should not take any means, it would impose more pressure to users. | |
| Mar 24, 2018 at 0:31 | comment | added | Andrew Li | @Deepak I agree; I spend most of my Stack Overflow/MSE time on my phone. I used to write 90% of my answer on my phone the coincidence of answers was common. But I'm talking about situations where coincidence seems highly unlikely, and the "late-duplicate-posting" happens habitually. | |
| Mar 23, 2018 at 7:59 | comment | added | Deepak | @AndrewLi I think it's uncharitable to ascribe similar answers appearing even many minutes later to dishonesty. I've been in a similar situation before because I typed up my answer on a phone when I was outside my home. When I started, there were no answers. When I was done there were at least two, and one was strikingly similar to mine. Someone actually commented to that effect, and I had to explain that it was hard to type MathJax on a mobile phone to which a somewhat sarcastic reply (to the effect of "real struggles, man") was made. I took it in stride. | |
| Mar 21, 2018 at 4:14 | comment | added | copper.hat | @JoonasIlmavirta: Many times I have written something (not on MSE) and thought I did a good job only to revisit later and wonder what I was thinking when I wrote it originally. I was hoping to glean some insight from the MSE responses, but nothing obvious leaps out at me :-(. | |
| Mar 21, 2018 at 4:04 | comment | added | Michael | @miracle173 : I don't understand what you are objecting to. I was advocating not ignoring prior answers and comments. Are you suggesting one should ignore prior comments (and/or answers)? I did not mention posting answers in comments. Nevertheless, I do often give hints in comments, and I expect the asker to fill in the rest of the homework themselves, only to find another answerer has jumped in with a full answer, often without giving the asker any time to think on their own. | |
| Mar 21, 2018 at 3:42 | comment | added | miracle173 | @Michael: prior comments? you shouldn't post answers in comments! This is a misuse of comments. you should post answers as answers and that may need more time than writing a comment. | |
| Mar 21, 2018 at 0:17 | comment | added | Joonas Ilmavirta | @copper.hat Some new users also accept every (good) answer they get, not knowing that only the last one has effect. Other than that, even subtle differences in wording can make a world of difference to someone not already familiar with the topic. | |
| Mar 19, 2018 at 21:37 | comment | added | Michael | I find it annoying when an answer is given that seems to ignore the existence of prior comments/answers, particularly when the content is similar and plenty of time has elapsed. It never hurts to say something like "similar to the xyz comment,..." or to add a line that shows the prior answer appeared while you were typing yours. I sometimes delete my answers that come just a bit late and would be redundant. Sometimes I even delete my answers that come first when I suspect a second-responder will not bother to delete theirs. | |
| Mar 19, 2018 at 20:56 | comment | added | SK19 | But the internet points are natural! :D | |
| Mar 18, 2018 at 20:18 | answer | added | marty cohen | timeline score: 43 | |
| Mar 17, 2018 at 17:59 | comment | added | copper.hat | It is a little irksome. MSE needs some machine learning to highlight essentially same answers :-). I am often curious why a later answer, essentially the same as another, often gets accepted. Perhaps the OP just selects the top answer that works? | |
| Mar 17, 2018 at 17:56 | comment | added | Andrew Li | @copper.hat I understand that, just seems especially nasty when there's already an existing answer that has the same if not more info that's posted well outside the timeframe of coincidence | |
| Mar 17, 2018 at 17:52 | comment | added | copper.hat | Some simple questions have a relatively unique answer, so it is likely that in the rush to grab MSE gold that similar answers appear. | |
| Mar 17, 2018 at 7:08 | comment | added | miracle173 | can you give us some examples? | |
| Mar 16, 2018 at 6:12 | answer | added | Aloizio MacedoMod | timeline score: 17 | |
| Mar 16, 2018 at 5:24 | history | edited | Andrew Li | CC BY-SA 3.0 | added 106 characters in body |
| Mar 16, 2018 at 4:54 | history | asked | Andrew Li | CC BY-SA 3.0 |