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That hasn't proven, in reality, to be an issue on any of the Q&A sites like the Stack Exchange network or Quora.
The best answers do rise to the top when the accepted answer proves too simplistic or insufficient.
We'll indicate the accepted answer, but the answers will be sorted by score... so it may be that the accepted answer is actually the third highest.
Velocio-
Ah, so they allow voting to continue after the time has finished, and the accepted answer is picked. That sounds ideal for a Q&A thread. (I've not played in Stack Exchange or Quora all that much, so am coming at this fairly uninformed.)
I'm trying to think of what you would want for a 'competition' thread if you were designing it from the ground up (rather than using a Q&A thread).
- Thread opened with the 'competition' question.
- Deadline for entries and voting set (as part of thread opening)
- Thread opened for entries (replies)
- Once time limit for entries has passed, thread auto closed to new entries, and voting opens automatically.
- Once voting time limit has passed, thread auto locks and re-sorts to show entries in vote order.
But that would require a whole load more work, and is most likely overkill :)
- Thread opened with the 'competition' question.
MrDrem
Could we order the thread by time until the point at which a 'best' (or winning) answer is supplied, and then switch the order to votes at the point that the best answer has been selected?
I guess that the issue with that is that if selecting a 'best' answer effectively stops voting on a thread, if someone comes along with a better answer (e.g. in terms of the seat post example) 6 months later, that answer can't pick up the up votes...
Not quite sure where I'm taking that TBH, feels like I'm playing devils advocate a bit, as I'm not sure what the solution looks like.