[Xavi]

I agree, this does help fix the "fastest gun in the west" issue, but I don't think it eliminates the problem.

A mediocre answer that was posted one minute after the question was submitted often has more votes than a well thought answer posted several hours later.

A better solution might be to randomly order answers, regardless of votes, for the first couple of hours (maybe even day). This will further help remove any ordering bias.

I also feel that authors of answers should be hidden for the first couple of hours (or day). Just because John Resig answered a question, doesn't necessarily mean it's the best response.

[throw_away]

reddit also tried to solve this same problem with their "best" ordering: http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-s...

[sundarurfriend]

If I understand it correctly, they introduced this algorithm to solve the exact same problem. Hence, it should work beautifully for solving the "Fastest gun in the West" problem also.

StackOverflow should seriously consider using this algorithm, at least for a day since the question was asked, as one previous commenter said.

[CamperBob]

Why not hide all submitted answers until 24 hours after the question is posted? Once this interval expires, there would presumably be enough of them to be shuffled and presented without any sort of fastest-gun bias.

Optionally, question submitters could pay for "Urgent" status, where the submitted answers are posted as they come in. No ratings or votes would be accepted for the same cooling-off period, however.

[pbz]

I don't think you should hide the answers, but you should definitely hide the ranking (votes) for about a day (or half a day) or so. During this stage the answers would be randomly sorted. After a day you get to see the votes for each answer...

[dustingetz]

i posted a question because im stuck and i want my answer nownownow