23

Now that accepted answers are in the process of being unpinned, and that's likely to happen on meta sites too, we probably need another way to pin certain answers to the top. This will go in line with my other proposal about creating an "index answer".

So, I suggest that on meta sites, moderators (and possibly other staff members) should have the power to pin a certain answer to the top regardless of vote/sort. That answer will need to have some visual indication that it's a pinned answer.

This will have two useful use cases that I can think of:

  1. Pinning index-like answers or answers that provide a summary of all other answers (see the link above for more details)

  2. Pinning official answers that might not be well-received but still have some level of importance because they reflect the company's (or moderators') decision about a certain discussion/request.

This will also be better than keeping accepted answers pinned on meta sites as a workaround because pinning the answer will no longer be in the OP's hand.

Not exactly the best illustration but maybe something similar to this:

Two answers where the top one has a lower score than the other with a pin icon in place of the checkmark

9
  • 1
    I think I've seen this FR before.
    – bad_coder
    Sep 8, 2021 at 19:29
  • @bad_coder Maybe this?
    – 41686d6564
    Sep 8, 2021 at 19:35
  • No that's not it. I've seen this FR before sometime when dark theme launched. Maybe on MSO maybe here.
    – bad_coder
    Sep 8, 2021 at 19:37
  • 1
    This should be extended to include the main site as well, not just meta.
    – Werner
    Oct 18, 2021 at 15:49
  • @Werner I can't think of any reason to do that and it would be useful. Why would moderators or employees want to pin a certain answer on the main site and override the community's votes?
    – 41686d6564
    Oct 19, 2021 at 8:40
  • @41686d6564: It's not so much about overriding community votes. An OP picks an answer that suited them best at the time. Over time, this answer may become obsolete (technology is updated/changed), but the nobody can change the accepted answer. This often happens with new users who just want a solution and then never returns. Selective pinning of answers would skirt around this issue. My proposal would be to raise a question on the child meta and discuss the issue (that's what the child meta is for) about a new proposed answer to pin and the moderator can take action...
    – Werner
    Oct 19, 2021 at 15:36
  • 1
    @41686d6564: ... this would work equally well in canonical questions with numerous answers. It makes sense on TeX - LaTeX (where I spend most of my time) since the technology is both stable and evolving, and you often have fleeting users who come and go. It's not necessarily the case that an all-in pin or unpin the accepted answer works for us, so having the (moderator) option through community discussion to change this is a viable alternative.
    – Werner
    Oct 19, 2021 at 15:39
  • @Werner "Over time, this answer may become obsolete" That's exactly what the Outdated Answers project is trying to solve. Accepted answers are no longer pinned on many sites and there's a discussion on TeX Meta about that. I'm not a member of TeX so I don't know. Maybe having the answer with the highest score at the top is not enough there? That might need to be discussed separately though (either on TeX Meta or on Meta.SE if it's the case for other sites too).
    – 41686d6564
    Oct 19, 2021 at 16:48
  • @41686d6564: I know there's a discussion on TeX - LaTeX Meta about it, which led me to suggest the option of a per-question pinning option for moderators that can be discussed on child metas. Highest-score answers are often good, but not necessarily the best in general.
    – Werner
    Oct 19, 2021 at 17:01

0

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .