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This answer to this question was in the review queue just now. The current best answer to this question is no longer completely correct. I now have a problem:

I should draw the focus to this answer, because the other one is outdated. However, I can't edit the best answer to include this one's information, because the best answer is not community wiki.

I don't want to comment asking the author of the question to change their best answer selection for a few reasons: It doesn't make sense to instruct the author of a question to change their best answer, they may not even see my request, and if they do they may not change it. I also don't want to have to follow up with this (if I have to, I may not bother in the first place). Additionally, any comment I add will be lost to other viewers as there are already numerous upvoted comments on this question.

How should I handle this? Should I edit the OP to link to this answer? Or should I just leave it be and hope passers-by look through all the answers?

(This one is particularly bad because it leads users to install a plugin, which (though I haven't dealt with this one myself) can often be very irritating.)

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2 Answers 2

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Leave a comment on the outdated answer stating that the answer is out of date, and include a link to the up-to-date answer. (You can add link in comments by using [link text](http://link-url))

This will help users with the same problem find an answer regardless of what version they're on, and the comment alerts the author of the outdated answer so they can update their answer if they want to.

What you don't want to do is update another person's answer to include new information. That type of edit would probably be rejected for changing the content of the post too much.

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    It would be buried under upvoted comments, so I doubt anyone would see it.
    – user206222
    Commented Apr 5, 2013 at 18:54
  • @Telthien if upvoting comments are too chatty (and they often are - "greatanswer", "+1", "mademyday"), that would be a good reason to flag for mod attention and ask for cleanup - which, incidentally, will help making your comment more prominent
    – gnat
    Commented Apr 5, 2013 at 18:58
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    @Telthien Well, there's no free lunch here. A single person should not have the power to overrule the votes of so many people. (even if the OP technically does)
    – Mysticial
    Commented Apr 5, 2013 at 18:58
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    @Telthien I would think that most users read the comments on an answer they are thinking about implementing, instead of just blindly implementing it. And typically those kinds of comments get upvoted fairly quickly as users seeking answers to the same problem often find the comment extremely useful.
    – Rachel
    Commented Apr 5, 2013 at 19:03
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In this situation, I would edit the answer to include a header to say "As of mmm dd yyyy, this answer may be obsolete. Please check other answers."

In edit comment note the exact situation so it looks germane to anyone who may review the edit (even after it takes place or is approved).

The bottom line is SO's normal workflow of upvotes, downvotes, new answers, comments, and courteous edits do not handle this problem. What I suggested is about the most germane, nonconfrontational edit I can come up with. Bottom line is there is no way around the fact that a disruptive edit is needed, so please do this with care, delicacy, judiciousness and restraint. And please, see to it that when you make an edit like this, you're actually right.

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