An example post that shows this happening
If you read the post above. You see that someone was writing an answer to a question, and before he finished, someone else already posted his answer.
If you don't want to get in the way of someone, is it possible to see if a question is currently being answered or commented on by anyone?
There's no current way, as far as I'm aware - if you wanted one, you'd probably want to consider re-tagging this question with feature-request.
That said - By providing an answer when someone else is already working on one, you wouldn't be getting in the way. There's a good chance that your answer will be better than theirs, and equally a good chance that theirs will be better. Either way, you may add information that the other answerer(s) don't and vice versa. I can see no reason why the fact that someone else is answering a question should be a reason to not provide another answer =) Unless of course the other person working on an answer is Jon Skeet, in which case I give up! ;-)
If you don't want to get in the way of someone, is it possible to see if a question is currently being answered or commented on by anyone?
Even if someone was currently typing in an answer box or comment box, how do you know they'll actually post it, until they do?
There's no way that what you're suggesting could work, because as I'm sure you know many people begin working on an answer and then discard it. Sometimes you start a paragraph and then go and do some research. You don't "own" the answer and haven't committed to the answer until you click "Submit Answer". And even then you only own your answer.
In the question you linked to, the poster is merely expressing the common frustration of being sniped which is fair game in the Stack Overflow "competition". But it was expressed in an entirely friendly way that showed good sportsmanship, so better luck next time.
