note merlyn <blockquote><i>Furthermore, there will always be a delay before an answer can be corrected - during that delay people could read the wrong answer, and take it to be correct.</i></blockquote> And <i>then</i> repost it somewhere else (maybe even here) as the "correct" answer. <p> I've seen bad memes that refuse to die, posted again and again in response to the same FAQs. <p> I'd prefer it if someone posts "this isn't tested", or "I saw this answer but there may be better ones" if that is indeed true. Even <i>I</i> still answer that way on the areas in which I'm not a firsthand expert. <p> Over time, people can sometimes assess "This person doesn't really know as much about this particular subject as he/she thinks they do", but that's hard to pick out in the beginning, especially if they talk big. There's a particular troll in the newsgroups who is like this, leading the true beginners astray. Luckily, the experts haven't entirely given up putting prophylactic postings around the troll's answers. <p>-- <a href="http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/">Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker</a></p> 195372 195373