This can be regarded as related to other questions that have been posted regarding this topic; to include:
Is it desirable to have the community award "acceptance" to answers on abandoned questions?
which seem to also have been mostly asked by the same user and interestingly none that I saw had an accepted answer... however these seem to have been forgotten and the issue presented still remains.
I have been using (mainly) this site more and more lately. At least daily, if not more. And while I admit that I do not fully understand the way everything around here works I have a growing interest in some aspects of how it is managed. I continue to see the same issues over and over: Questions that have answers that have not been accepted, questions with accepted answers that are wrong, and questions with an accepted answer that is not the best answer to the question, etc.
While I understand the premise to these sites is that "he who asks the question holds the power" (as it should be) it does not seem entirely fair to the one that took the time to research and answer the question to not get the credit. I enjoy both researching and sharing my knowledge about my favorite universes, but I would be lying if I said I did not get a little endorphin boost when someone accepts or even upvotes my contributions.
For example this question I came across: Does the mental link between the Jaeger pilots simply just connect and synchronize their movements, or does it also control the Jaeger?
Within there is an answer that has been accepted by the OP that does actually answer the question, it does lack sources and could have been better.
In this situation another of the answers does have sources and a better, more thorough explanation of the answer. IMO it should have been the accepted answer. Although it does have more upvotes it is still the very last answer on the topic and would not necessarily be seen unless someone cared to continue looking after seeing the accepted answer. Imagining someone who was linked to the site for the first time, might think it a complete waste of time to come here for that accepted answer.
I would like to think that first time visitors would not judge the site based on one answer to one question, but I would also like to think that people are smart enough to know the world is not flat... people are not perfect... and they may be in a hurry or whatever...
Keeping the core of the site intact would it not be acceptable to have the ability for the community to take action to remedy these situations. My initial thought would be for the following:
Everything stays exactly the way it is currently regarding asking, answering, voting, etc for questions and answers.
There is an additional action that can be taken to simply mark an additional answer as "community accepted" with the premise that such answers "may have been marked as 'community accepted' for many reasons such as other, including accepted, answers as having been determined to be incomplete or incorrect by the community."
This new action could be even be a marker near the original question similar to the duplicate tag and etc. so that it is easier to see when first encountering the question, prior to even reading the answers. It could say "There is an answer below that has been accepted by the community for (either specific or general reasons)."
While the originally accepted answer will still be the first answer that a reader will see, the emphasis toward the community accepted answer will also inform the reader (possibly someone linked to the site and never having been here before) there may be a better/more thorough answer available and also give a better indication to the user that answered the question that we appreciate their work.
Regarding who would have the power to make such a determination I would suggest that the answer simply needs to have a certain number of upvotes (or possiblly just more upvotes than the accepted answer) and then follow the same process as marking questions as closed or duplicates as is currently in place.
And in anticipation of someone possibly mentioning that such an action may be too much power for a few users to have; I would argue that is a completely different issue altogether and solely based upon the motives behind those we recognize with the authority to hold and close questions in the first place. While we need individuals with that authority, there does seem to be a knee jerk reaction to some questions that are posted.
One more quick example regarding the power we give (actually one of my own answers): What accounts for the Nox's apparent double ethical standard?
This question was put on hold (no ill will towards those that did, i fully understand the motives to keep the site clean and organized), but I ended up having to report the situation to get the question reopened so that I could answer it (which I think I did a pretty good job at...). Despite leaving a comment that I felt I could answer it and how i would the question was not reopened until after I reported the situation.
Sure this will of course not solve all of the foreseeable problems, but I feel that it is a big step in the right direction and we should always be looking to make our site better. In addition, I am sure that I will get some users that would like to leave the status-quo as is simply because it is the way it has always been done, but as a 'newer' user to the stack exchange I would like it to be understood that "the way it has always been done is not the best way." If my idea, or any idea, is for some reason not possible I understand, but I would hope that we can reopen this discussion respectfully and potentially find a solution to the issue.
