Dealing with quickly edited, copied answers?

Question

Edit: This question isn't a duplicate of Acceptable solution for 'answer copying'?. The quote in the highest voted answer on that question is "Bottom line: if you want to get up-votes, WRITE A GREAT ANSWER." that works well in that question. But in this question the situation is that the potentially great answer could just be copied and made to look as if the author of the answer was the one who did the copying. This is not the same situation.

This isn't a huge issue, but it's something I've witnessed more than once now.

Take this question for example: How to open new dynamic form with dropdown menu[Select tag]

When I posted my answer about using jQuery's on change event listener there was one other answer which only said something along the lines of, "you can use AJAX for this", nothing more - not helpful at all, especially as AJAX wouldn't be used for this anyway.

After posting my answer I commented on the other answer saying that AJAX wouldn't be used and a few minutes later that answer was changed to also use the on change event.

The problem here is that as this edit was done so shortly after the answer was submitted, the original content doesn't appear in that answer's edit history.

Anyone looking at the two answers would think hey, this guy [edited answer] posted the correct solution first so this answer should be accepted.

How would this be dealt with? What's in place to stop people making a really quick invalid answer then editing it as soon as somebody else has posted up a working solution to replicate that?

Answer 1

First off, if it's an exact, word-for-word copy, flag it and say so - plagiarism isn't cool.

Beyond that... The same advice applies as to the question you link: make sure your answer is better. In this case, the guy may have adopted your method, but he certainly didn't adopt your style: no comments, little in the way of explanation, no working examples...

You could throw in a link to the docs and make it extra embarrassing I suppose.

Answer 2

Ultimately, yes it is annoying when it happens because you spent time posting a really great answer and then someone edits their quick and dirty answer to add details from your really great answer.

But there is not much that can be done in many cases since the edit history isn't shown.

First, if it is an exact copy and paste from you, then flag so a moderator can look into it. And if the individual has a history of doing the same, you should also flag.

But what if it wasn't a copy and paste answer? How do you know the earlier answerer didn't plan on adding that info originally. In fact, s/he could have been typing it as you were typing yours. That is the essence of the Fastest Gun in the West Problem I mentioned in the comments a while ago, you write a quick answer to be "first" then work on expanding the answer in the first 5 minutes.

You should try to avoid confrontation (via commenting), as that rarely ends well and will often end with a revenge downvoting spree, accusations of who downvoted who's post, or end up with a moderator locking the answers. And if you do comment, you are either going to accuse an innocent person of plagiarism or you are going to accuse someone who won't admit they plagiarized you. And if you do comment and someone just deletes their post, that might not be a sign of guilt, it could just be there are trying to avoid a confrontation.

The best advice is to just ignore it and move on.

But in the end, you are still convinced, you can ask a mod to investigate but unless there is a history of repeat behavior or an exact copy & paste, it usually will not go anywhere.