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I see the accepted answer here is definitely wrong- What is the difference between %d and %*d in c language?

Should I encourage people (who might come across my blog) to downvote this answer? I think that the right to select the answer rests with the OP, but the quality should be determined by the community.

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    No, encouraging downvotes is wrong. If people see it and they think it's wrong, they can downvote. There is no need to direct people from anywhere else for the sole purpose of downvoting.
    – Tim
    Jul 12, 2015 at 21:29
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    It's important to discard the idea of the accepted answer being the best answer. The asker might accept an answer and then never return to examine subsequent answers. Whatever the reason, it matters more how future finders of the Q&A benefit from the better answer.
    – David
    Jul 13, 2015 at 2:56
  • @David I made the edit.
    – goelakash
    Jul 13, 2015 at 5:39
  • @David, then why in the world is the accepted answer always shown first?! If another answer is better (has a higher score), shouldn't we display that first? The problem in this question is a very real one.
    – NH.
    Jul 25, 2017 at 20:48

3 Answers 3

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You shouldn't directly say say Downvote this answer.

Instead, comment on it saying what is wrong, what you should do instead (you could just link to somebody else's better, more correct answer) and why it is wrong. Most likely, people will read the comment, upvote it, and downvote the answer if they agree with you.

An example comment:

Note: This answer says to do x, but this does the complete opposite the OP originally wanted. Instead, use @BetterPerson's answer (link).

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    Yes, I was thinking of doing something along those lines.
    – goelakash
    Jul 13, 2015 at 5:41
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You could upvote the existing comment explaining why it's wrong. That will draw more attention in-page for visitors who (often) don't read past the first answer.

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I think a lot of advice elsewhere on this site already covers accepted answers and other (possibly better) answers. Here is an example:

Here are examples of possibly related or duplicate existing questions:

Encouraging people to vote one way or the other is probably ultimately a waste of your time and energy, rather than an ethical issue. Accepting that people will make their own decisions about voting will be less frustrating. Having said that, here is the guidance on downvotes:

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