Hot take: wrong answers to old questions should be hidden if a new updated one is there in its place.

Question

Regarding this question.

If common sense would be for the better good, why not rely on that rather than solely on something that isn't viewed as negotiable? In this case, that would mean that when an answer that is given is clearly wrong (and the user who posted it isn't even active), why should we keep it there instead of just keeping the correct listing?

sumwun said something to the degree of "nowhere in the rules does it say we have to remove old answers", and I countered with "They should be in this case, though. Common sense should trump the rules." You can't see either of them anymore because apparently I've been overruled and both of our comments were removed by Fizz.

Needless to say, I think this is the wrong call, and I think so enough that I'd like to get thoughts from other users on it. Thanks.

Answer 1

The reason I removed the comments is that they were taking the thread off-topic (you shouldn't open a PokeBase thread and find an old debate about rules). I removed another few comments on the other answer for the same reason. (For those wondering why you're allowed to answer old questions.)

Making a meta thread is a good way of handling issues like this. I will give my explanation. Others can give their opinion also.

If common sense would be for the better good, why not rely on that rather than solely on something that isn't viewed as negotiable? ... Common sense should trump the rules.

I don't agree this is common sense and I think it would be bad practice.

• This situation is exactly what the down-vote button is for. If you down-vote incorrect answers and up-vote correct answers, then the correct answers will appear first.
• Staff do not have perfect information about which answers are correct or incorrect, which makes it impossible to remove incorrect posts consistently. It also opens a can of worms with advice-based posts, where staff don't necessarily know better than other people. Inconsistent rules should be avoided when possible.
• Incorrect answers don't necessarily lack value. They can show one approach to answering a question that didn't work, so other people can try something different. They can flag misinformation on a particular issue (assuming you use the vote buttons), which is value added onto the correct answer. A problem is that there is no 'mark unresolved' button to keep questions visible when they have incorrect answers.

I de-selected the incorrect answer so it isn't pinned to the top anymore. We'll select the other one soon. If this explanation isn't convincing then you can tell me.

Comments

I like your reasoning, I just saw a personal problem with this one, and I think the action taken fixes it fine.

> This situation is exactly what the down-vote button is for. If you down-vote incorrect answers and up-vote correct answers, then the correct answers will appear first.

But the answer is 10 years old and garnered a BA + 4 votes for a wrong answer. That was really the whole shtick I had with it. I know advice-based posts are different, but the answer here was pretty clear-cut; of course I'd see the problem with things asking for *possibly* subjective advice approaches.

Unresolved button would be a great idea, honestly.