Two SImilar answer of a MATLAB Question

Hi everybody, i am new to Mathworks and jsut started giving answers to MATLAB questions.

Sometime when i answer a question, there's already a similar answer (by any other contributor) just few moments before i posted my answer (mean i was writing the answer when another contributor posted his answer).

The other contributor is maybe in the impression that i stole his answer. What should i do in such scenarios?

Regards,

Muhammad Saad

[Bjorn Gustavsson]

Don't worry about it, tomorrow the roles will be reversed, and in the long run it doesn't matter much (This mostly happens for short answers, so not much time will be "lost" - it would be more of a bummer if one spent more time on a long explanation and then someone else gave a close-to-identical one simultaneously, but that is rare.)

Answer 1

[John D'Errico]

Don't worry about it. It is often the case where two people write very much the same response, but one of them must be slower than the other, even if only by a few seconds. In fact, my answers are almost always slower than someone else, since I tend to write fairly long, detailed answers. I try to use examples when I can, so I may spend a significant amount of time in writing an answer. Having spent that time, if I think my answer adds information to what has already been said, why delete it?

Some posters will delete their own answer if they see another has appeared that replicates the information in theirs. But an extra answer is free. It adds some assurance to the person asking the question that the answer they received was correct and accurate.

And remember, their is nothing to be gained by "stealing" someone's answer. Website reputation is worth the bits it is written with - essentially nothing. If you do write an answer, the only real reward is what it should be - that you did your best to help someone else.

(The odds are good that my answer will not be the first, OR the last to respond to your question. I won't worry either way. In fact, extra answers on something like this question are, in my opinion, a good thing.)

[Bjorn Gustavsson]

John, that you started your answer the same way as I commented and then gave a more in-detail explanation that in-depth answers tend to be delayed making your answer slightly delayed made me doubly happy - this becomes some kind of reversed Russels paradox.

[Steven Lord]

I agree with John's response. In addition, answers that are similar may include different tidbits of information such that they're not identical, each mentioning or using a slightly different function or approach that the other did not while both including a common core piece of information.

[John D'Errico]

And some of the time it turns into a game of sorts - a game where we all try to come up with interesting ways to solve a problem, yet are all fundamentally different. Even a game like that is of value, as the various tricks that we use and show are fodder for others to learn from. Every one of us once learned from someone else the various MATLAB idioms that that we use.

[Mehmed Saad]

Thanks a lot