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One of my questions garnered a "there are no hacks" answer and posted links to existing products. As explained here, "No" is a valid answer.

However, since they answered, other users have posted valid, working hacks making that answer outright wrong. What should I do?

  • Nothing?
  • Comment and hope the OP changes?
  • Flag for deletion?
  • Downvote (I've already done this)

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Wrong answers are supposed to be downvoted, not deleted. Leaving a comment explaining why the answer is wrong is helpful as well. Some users will delete their answers if they realize they're wrong, but it's not required that they do.

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I say comment and downvote if you so choose, but choose downvoting carefully. Answers that are wrong should be downvoted and commented on, because I have found no flag that says you can delete, because it is wrong.

But in my opinion the Answer is both wrong and right. The answer could be interpreted that no answer could be found by that user and if no safe or healthy alternatives can be found then the answer even though stating "No" could be correct. Whose to say the other answers are safe and therefore good answers.

I plan on leaving a comment on the person's post who answered to see their insight into the post, but I for one think that all downvoting and flagging should be paused until it is ruled out that this answer is not the best answer. In the future if you don't understand a answer you should comment about improving it, but if it is to far gone then you should flag it. But asking on Meta is appropriate, as well.

Here are some questions you should ask before downvoting:

  • Why is this post wrong?

  • Is this post worse than the other post?

  • Is this post safer(or less) than the other post?

Because just because users are posting "answers" doesn't mean that there are answers to a problem. The answer states:

you should buy a better charger, that can charge any number of batteries at the same time; anything else probably isn't worth the effort, probably isn't safe, and could damage your batteries.

Unless the other posts can guarantee that they're methods don't damage your battery in anyway the answer could be correct.

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  • Good insight. On some other se's I wouldn't even consider deletion for an answer like this. I'm not sure why I thought any different here
    – James Webster
    Jan 8, 2015 at 21:22
  • @JamesWebster Well Scope is in debate and people are trying different things. The beginning of public betas can be sort of confusing :) Things may be get better when we get mods, but apparently people are not accepting and SE haven't been added mods yet, so we may not even graduate to get mods :( You should nominate yourself for moderator-ship though, we need people who care for the site and are dedicate to understanding problems if we do get that far :)
    – Pobrecita
    Jan 8, 2015 at 21:35

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