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On each SE there's an "Unanswered" tab which shows all questions that don't have a positively voted answer. Even if you answer your own question (and it gets an upvote), the question doesn't appear in that tab any more. Now I can see how that makes sense on any other SE, because there an answer is an answer. But I'd say on PPCG 99% of time, a self-answer will be a reference implementation and not an actual competitive submission. Case in point: my own recent popularity contest.

So, while I usually don't have any hopes that we'll get any custom modifications to our SE instance, would it a) make sense and b) be possible to exclude answers by the OP from the query that selects questions for the Unanswered tab on PPCG?

(As a side note, the same might make sense for the Revival badge.)

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Does a community wiki self answer still remove a question from the unanswered tab? Even if it does, I'd still like to see this feature introduced, but I wondered if community wiki might be a temporary workaround in the meantime. \$\endgroup\$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Oct 15, 2014 at 12:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ @githubphagocyte I think from a general SE perspective it would be inconsistent if CW answers didn't count. \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin Ender
    Oct 15, 2014 at 12:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ That's a good point. I won't try to find out in that case... \$\endgroup\$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Oct 15, 2014 at 12:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ For my own challenges, my answers aren't actually reference implementations, but genuine entries. How do we handle that case and still implement your suggestion? \$\endgroup\$
    – C. K. Young
    Oct 15, 2014 at 12:57
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    \$\begingroup\$ @ChrisJester-Young Do you post your own entry before any other answers coming in? And even then, if it only has your answer, for the purposes of PPCG, it's still pretty much "unanswered", no? \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin Ender
    Oct 15, 2014 at 12:59
  • \$\begingroup\$ True, fair enough, I would like to see more entries than my own, now that you mention it. \$\endgroup\$
    – C. K. Young
    Oct 15, 2014 at 13:00

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This is kinda crazy. It appears y'all have a custom of providing reference implementations that aren't actually supposed to be seen as "answers", but are posted as answers anyway... And you want the system to ignore them.

That's probably not gonna happen. I really can't think of any other scenario where that behavior makes sense. Heck, I'm not even sure it makes sense here.

If the implementation is truly just a reference for those answering, if it would be seen as a non-answer if it were posted by anyone else... Then don't put it in an answer. You could append it to the question, or even post it somewhere else and link to it if it's not really essential to the question either.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ This is actually the response I expected. There are basically two situations in which I'd post an answer to my own challenge: 1. as a reference implementation that is valid but not really competitive - that's definitely an answer, but not one that is supposed to indicate "hey, this challenge has been solved". 2. If I just want to participate in the challenge myself. Even then for the purposes of PPCG, I would not consider that "solved". I don't need to post challenges here if all I do with them is answer them myself. I can do this at home, alone. I post challenges for others. [ctd.] \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin Ender
    Oct 16, 2014 at 23:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ So even if I do participate myself, if I'm the only participant that kinda defeats the purpose of posting in the first place. In fact, now knowing that my own answer will remove my challenge from the "Unanswered" tab, I will definitely withhold my own attempt until someone else answers, because there's absolutely no benefit to it - in fact, by posting it I decrease the chances of being able to compare my own attempt with others. The semantics of questions and answers are slightly different here than on most SEs sites it seems, so from that perspective I think it kinda makes sense. \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin Ender
    Oct 16, 2014 at 23:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ (Thanks for taking the time to reply though! And I completely agree that this would not be a sensible change on other SEs, which is why I was asking whether it would be possible to customise this for this instance. And I can also understand if that's not feasible, but I thought I'd try to convince you why it might not seem as crazy from our perspective.) \$\endgroup\$
    – Martin Ender
    Oct 16, 2014 at 23:46

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