Hey Askvillers,
We know that some of you just can't wait to see some of the great answers that others have submitted to interesting questions. Waiting 7 days to see the results can feel like an eternity. So we've allowed everyone to see the answers before they close with the caveat that they will be opting out of submitting an answer to the question. This allows users who have no interest in answering the question a way to see the answers before the question closes, while also maintaining the integrity of our answer submission process where no one can see other answers until after they submit their own.
How will this work?
Going forward, every open question that has at least one submitted answer will now have a "Show all answers" button (this can be found by moving your mouse cursor over any of the "hidden" answers). As soon as you click on this button you will see all answers and will no longer be able to submit an answer to that question. However, you can still continue to participate in the discussion board even if you opt out of answering the question.
As you know, answer integrity is vital to our community and prohibiting answerers from seeing other answers reduces cheating (copying/editing other people's answers and submitting it as their own) and also gives each answerer credit if they submit the right answer, whether they were the first, second, or last person to submit the same answer. This also helps the asker who should feel more confident about a particular answer if it was given by more than one person.
We've also moved the Answer this Question button from the upper right-hand corner of the question box to an area right below the question details. This was done based on newbie users who could not find the answer this question button.
So go ahead and click-thru to see the answers to those questions that you've been patiently waiting to see close.
Cheers,
The Askville Team
