Best Answer

What if something was added that allowed for marking which post was most helpful, like yahoo answers?

I'm sure it would end up just like the karma system.

Then again, I don't really care who a poster marks as the best answer, so maybe I'm looking at it biasedly.

If the judge were able to accurately judge who had the best answer, they probably wouldn't be asking the question in the first place.  The only thing it would really be measuring (accurately) was that the question was answered, and we already have a system in place for that: the solved button.

If the judge were able to accurately judge who had the best answer, they probably wouldn't be asking the question in the first place.  The only thing it would really be measuring (accurately) was that the question was answered, and we already have a system in place for that: the solved button.

Well, I was thinking of it as more of a way to say which post best helped solved the OP question.

I personally don't want to see that kind of system here.

It would be abused, and it would go to a lot of people's heads.

I don't know if I needed to mention, that only the OP can choose the "best answer".

Eh true, didn't really consider that.  So that takes out most of the abuse factor.

What about the people with 3 posts though that never come back after they get their answer?  Would they spend time picking a "Best Answer."

I guess I'm just against it because I don't want that kind of environment.  I think people should help just to help, not to see how many "Best Answer" points they can get under their belts.

I can't stand the environment of Yahoo Answers (in particular the Best Answer elements), although it has been useful a couple of times.

It would be abused, and it would go to a lot of people's heads.

Corbin is the real reason why. If this was implemented, we would never hear the end of how great he is ^.- 

As for me, I am against it. People looking for the answer will read through each posts and figure it out. That or they will do like most of them do, ignore searching and just post a similar question.

If you are the person asking the question then you will probably not be in a position to judge whether response A was better than response B anyway. That's why a lot of people come here with outdated code and deprecated practice after they've read some stupid old book about PHP. They will not be able to tell whether the code is good or bad.

Oh god....

The best ones are:

<?
if($username == 'blah' && $password == 'bleh') {
echo 'logged in';
}

Whai no work?

Or maybe not even a "Best Answer" button, maybe just like a star rating, where people can rate a post/reply and the one with the highest star rating is marked "Best Answer", "Good Answer", "Top Pick", etc.

Or maybe not even a "Best Answer" button, maybe just like a star rating, where people can rate a post/reply and the one with the highest star rating is marked "Best Answer", "Good Answer", "Top Pick", etc.

This sounds like Yahoo Q&A, this is a forum more than a Q&A. There is actually a "community" here.

I think it is perfect how it is

If you are the person asking the question then you will probably not be in a position to judge whether response A was better than response B anyway. That's why a lot of people come here with outdated code and deprecated practice after they've read some stupid old book about PHP. They will not be able to tell whether the code is good or bad.

I often see people getting lots of answers to a single question and using the one that they find easiest to implement, not the best one, or the most up to date one, just the one they found easiest to use. Doesn't make it the best answer by any means. What this would do is introduce an easiest to implement rating system, not invoking good or practical coding.

A lot of times people also go with the first answer....  And I've seen a lot of "Wtf?!" first answers.