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Looks like PurpleMonkey and Miniman both took the time to write good, thoughtful answers to this question: Do dragons of all sizes get lair actions and regional effects?

And it looks like they were posted within 3 minutes of each other - so probably both were written independently, and one wasn't copying the other. But they're using basically identical reasoning, with many of the same quotes even, and coming to the same conclusion. So, strictly speaking, I don't think Posterity(tm) is improved by having both around.

But, I also don't want to downvote or flag either answer - on their own, they're good answers!

What should we do in this situation?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Meta question has amusingly become self-referential with three nearly simultaneous answers. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Aug 26, 2016 at 16:10
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    \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie Yes, good thing I've got advice right here on how to handle it ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – SirTechSpec
    Aug 26, 2016 at 16:52

3 Answers 3

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Nothing needs to be done. They're not identical, so it's likely that over the long term one will attract more votes than the other based on subtle differences.

Since we want the best answer to float to the top, this is all as it should be. We can't know which one is best now, so we leave it to the voting system and time.

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I use this sort of situation as a little bit of micro-scale A/B testing. The answers are both right and both well-written, so I figure they'll both get a reasonable number of upvotes. Nothing's harmed, then, by "withholding" an upvote I might normally give based on small variations.

So then it's looking at the small differences in presentation: more-explanatory vs. to-the-point, extent/appropriateness of citation, layout. I step back and do a ten second skim of both.

If, after that, one strikes me more positively I go ahead and upvote just that one; on the other I either leave a very gentle comment or chat with the author if they're pingable. Something along the lines of "I think you could improve this by mentioning frobbing."

If not, I upvote both and move on. (Which was the outcome in this case.)

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Upvote whichever answer(s) you think is good. If that's both, upvote both.

If you're the asker, you can only accept one. But you can upvote as many as you like.

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