I recently answered a question on Stack Overflow only to see 5 minutes later that 4 people had just posted the exact same solution a few minutes later (without any in depth explanation). What should I do? Leave a comment telling those people that their answers are useless?
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9I'd recommend focussing your efforts on better questions. If five people can post the answer in a few minutes, it's probably a trivial, useless question.– jonrsharpeCommented Mar 4, 2017 at 13:54
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2At least one of the other answer has a better explanation than yours ...– DavidPostillCommented Mar 4, 2017 at 14:45
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1 Answer
There's nothing wrong with basically the same answers being posted within a few minutes of each other. All this means is that these people saw the question at the same time and thought they knew the answer. This is by design. The fact that all of the answers are the same would imply that it is a solution to the problem - as stated in the question.
If the other answers are basically the same as yours, then it would be a little churlish to down-vote them - they are equally as helpful and useful as yours. From the questioners (and other users' perspective) if they think that all the answers are incorrect or unhelpful then, assuming they have at least 125 reputation, they can (and indeed should) down-vote them.
However, if all five answers say basically the same thing and were posted within minutes of each other then perhaps there's an issue with the question. Is it clear enough? Is there enough information to be able to address the real issue? You could leave a comment under the question asking for more information or clarification and check back to see if that's been added. If it has, then update your answer to reflect the new information.
Ultimately if one person makes their answer the best possible answer to the question it will gain votes and, in the default view, show up right underneath the question.
