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I found this situation and think it is not well.

  1. A user creates a question
  2. Another user answers it
  3. the first user accepts the answer.
  4. time passes
  5. the first user un-accepts that answer
  6. the first user creates an answer to his own question, based on the accepted answer!

I think this is not right. Is it right? If it is not, how can I notify it? How can we solve it?

This is the link that generated my question.

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  • 2
    For example? Link or it didn't happen.
    – Oded
    Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 16:02
  • 1
    Based on or identical? How different?
    – Oded
    Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 16:02
  • 1
    Question in question - the OP's new answer looks different to me though
    – Pekka
    Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 16:06
  • I think it is identical, plus other things that are not related with the question. Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 16:09
  • The question is not about commands, it is about context menus Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 16:11
  • 2
    I think his answer is different from yours, but I left a comment on the question anyway. Note that users who ask questions are free to use the checkmark in any way they see fit, or not at all.
    – user102937
    Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 16:29
  • 2
    Does this answer your question? Is it appropriate to answer one's own question with code derived from another answer?
    – starball
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 10:12
  • That suggested duplicate is specifically about code. I think these questions are sufficiently different. VTLO.
    – Joachim
    Commented Jan 4, 2023 at 12:40

3 Answers 3

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If the answer differs substantially from the originally accepted answer, or combines several different answers into a single one, then I don't see a problem. The OP apparently found his answer more useful.

If the new answer is essentially the same as the original answer, I would leave a comment stating that you feel it is bad form to hijack someone else's answer, and downvote his new answer.

If it's basically a copy/paste of another answer without attribution (crediting the original author), you can flag for removal, citing plagiarism.

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5

It's not cool, but in my experience it happens rarely enough. It's happened to me maybe 1 or 2 times - with about 7,000 answers authored.

If it happened to you, leave a comment asking the OP why they did it.

If nothing comes out of it, let it go.

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Well for 1 I don't think that the OP get any reputation from accepting his own answer as opposed to someone ease's answer(at I'd hope not, it's a bad incentive).

It's a mean thing to do, it's essentially telling you that your answer's not good enough to deserve to be marked, but there's really not too terribly much you can do about it. he's free to determine the answer to his own question.

And after a cursory look, his answer looks a little bit different from yours(it's longer for 1)., and if he believes it to be substantially better, than he's within his rights to mark his own as the answer. A lot of the point of the marked answer is for people who come here googling the problem, not for the glory of the answerer.

I have answered my own questions before, but ONLY if nobody else has provided a correct answer at the point where I have gone ahead and found my answer.

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  • 1
    "Well for 1 I don't think that the OP get any reputation from accepting his own answer as opposed to someone ease's answer" It's the loss of rep for the OP of this question that bothers him, and the other asker could still potentially get rep from upvotes. "It's a mean thing to do, it's essentially telling you that your answer's not good enough to deserve to be marked" It's not mean if he really doesn't think it's as good of an answer. If he came up with something better marking his own answer is certainly appropriate and not mean at all.
    – Servy
    Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 16:16
  • I'm agree with accept your self answer your self question, but only if it add new things related with you original answer that were not answered before. If it is the case, if you accept a question it is supposed that it solves your question. Commented Nov 20, 2012 at 16:23
  • It's not mean. The green checkmark just indicates "this is what solved my problem". If none of the other answers do that, or helped do that, then the self-answer should be checked. In this case, it looks like the op followed Robert Harvey's advice and accepted one of the other answers, since it was similar and most likely helped him come up with his answer...
    – jmort253
    Commented Nov 22, 2012 at 18:46

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