Question

What can I do if I don't like the answer that someone gives to my question?

Answer 1

Here's what you could do.

Explanation:

This is a very interesting question.

When someone asks a question on Socratic, it is usually assumed that the first answer posted will be to that person's liking. There are indeed cases when this is not the case.

This is a relevant question because unanswered questions attract contributors more than answered questions, so you're more likely to get another answer on a separate, unanswered question than an alternative answer on a question that has already been answered.

So, let's assume that you ask a question. A contributor then posts an answer that you're not happy with, for whichever reason.

• Your first option is to flag that answer for "more explanation". The flag will let other contributors know that you are not satisfied with the current answer.

This will increase the likelihood of someone else either updating the flagged answer, or posting a separate answer altogether.

• You can also post a comment on that question explaining that you're not satisfied with the current answer. This will also help improve the chances of someone else stepping up and either editing the answer or posting a separate one.

Multiple instances of the same question are not necessaraly treated as spam. Usually, we either mark identical questions as duplicate or remove them altogether.

If you post a question, receive an answer fo it, then post the same question again, more often than not we will merge the new, unaswered question with the old, answered one.

If you try using the first two methods, i.e. flagging the answer and posting a comment asking for an alternative/better answer, and you still don't get a better answer, then you can post the same question again provided that you let one of the five Heroes know about it first.

That way if we see the new question we won't merge it with the one that has the subpar answer.

• So, if you find yourself in such a position, post the same question again and let us know about it by @mentioning one of the five heroes in the comments section - this is so that we don't merge or remove this new question.

Once you get an answer for the second question, we will merge the first and second questions into one question that has two answers.