How to help with a wrong answer?

Question

Someone asked what a preface was.  I took wording from the definition from dictionary.com and they still selected a wrong answer.  How can answerers be helpful if others select blatantly wrong answers?

Steven J Pemberton · Accepted Answer

This is why I tend not to answer questions where the answer is on the first page of a Google search or in the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article. Someone who's too stupid or ignorant to be able to look up a word for themselves on dictionary.com is hardly qualified to pick the right definition from a list...

All you can do is keep giving good answers and improving the signal-to-noise ratio. You could tell this person that they're an idiot, either by email or by answering another of their questions, but it's hard to do that in a way that won't get you blocked or reported.

Dragonsnatch · Answer

All you can do is keep giving thoughtful, on-point answers.

People are gonna do what they're gonna do - I hope you don't let it discourage you.  I answer because I enjoy feeling as if I am helping people - and more often than not, I am.

Shrug.  If someone can't even select the correct definition of a word, they may well be beyond help!  :)

? · Answer

One reason is that they are points gaming (That's basically when they create an account where they ask questions and select best answers).

But all you can do is say the right thing and hope they listen

Persephinae · Answer

You can leave a message either with the question (even if it's closed) or message the user through yahoo to give them a heads up.

Most of the time though it's not worth getting upset over (even though it is annoying when your answer is _clearly/obviously_ the right answer).

Sometimes too, people create multiple accounts to give themselves BA and shortcut their way to points.  /shrugs

Don't let it get you down :)

Anonymous · Answer

Go to other dictionary sites

How to help with a wrong answer?

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