Why do people erase other people's perfectly good viable informative answers to replace them with their own instead of accepting that different views can actually help the person who asked?

Answer 1

In general, the boards provide a forum for a number of different inputs. Particularly on questions where there is no "pat" answer. The idea that your answer is "all that" may not be an objective one. It's your answer, and you might be a bit less objective as to how it looks than someone who has no investment in the work. Certainly there are differences of opinion here that are clearly based on ideology and personal points of view. The "Creation" section has a number of questions that demonstrate this. Additional questions in the "Science" sections (and their answers) have been "attacked" by "vandals" whose motivation is passing along religious ideas that have absolutely basis in science. But let's not go there. The question that should be asked is, "What can I do about it?" Certainly you can repost an answer. You are still an editor. Why don't you put your work back up? You don't have to remove their work like they did yours, but edit your answer back up. See how it goes. It's probably true that most of the changes that are not outright vandalism are made by contributors who think their answers are better than yours. And most of them are signed up. A contributor who is signed up can be contacted by message. You might inquire as to why someone edited your work or stripped an answer off the boards entirely. "I saw you had edited my answer to such-and-such a question off completely. Why did you do this? It said 'A' and it said 'B', both of which directly answer the question...." Lastly, there is help. There is a group of folks here called supervisors (supers) who can help you sort things out. No one may come here and harass anyone else by stripping off their answers, and supers are bound by the policies of the boards to assist and effect moderation in these and other situations. With these things in mind, why not conduct an experiment if you feel the way you seem to? Contact an editor who has removed your work. Ask why. If it's a super, you can still ask why. And supers can be called to account for their work. Supers have been asked to interceed between other supers and a contributor or even between two supers who have a difference of opinion. There are solutions to problems. Sometimes we need to experiment to find them, and at other times we work with another or others to find all the puzzle parts needed to complete a thing.