Do you delete your answer if someone answers while you were putting your answer together?

Question

Just curious how others would deal with this scenario.

I come across a question I want to answer. I begin putting together an answer. Writing the code, testing the code, collecting relevant links, screenshots etc. I post the answer only to see that someone else answered in that time. They beat me by 4 minutes. The answers are pretty much the same.

Do you delete your answer? I generally only delete answers if I find that they are incorrect, or I completely misunderstood the question. Is there harm in leaving it? Just curious as to how others handle this. I have no problem deleting the answer, just want to see if others had some input on the etiquette here.

This is the Q/A that triggered my thoughts on this. Clearly the other answerer is a bit peeved that I posted a similar answer.

Date Format in VisualForce

Answer 1

I see no harm in leaving the answer, especially since you've expended the time and effort putting it together. The same thing frequently happens to me where I've been composing an answer and someone else finishes theirs a minute or so before I finish mine.

Often one person has a slightly different take or approach to answering a question than another person does. If my answer is essentially a duplicate of someone else's or I feel the other's answer is much better, then sometimes I'll delete mine. The more participation we get here, the better this place will be. Multiple answers are a good thing; far better than no answers at all. :)

Answer 2

If mine is wrong, I'll delete it. If not, I'll let the votes sort out what others find useful. I can't recall an answer of mine being voted down because it was similar to another.

Answer 3

I personally avoid deleting my answers; if I get a notification that a new answer was posted, I'll load it and then determine if my answer is (arguably) better or not, and discard or continue as appropriate. However, in the event that I missed an answer showing up before I save that's substantially similar to my own, I'd rather delete my answer than have two similar answers. After all, the other person took the time to answer and beat me fair and square.

Answer 4

I posted an answer and after page refresh I came to know that @sfdcfox has already answered the same question. I deleted my answer (Of course his answer was way too high from mine with respect to explanation and approach) and commented on question to go with his answer. @sfdcfox @crmprogdev @sfdc_ninja, My heartiest respect to you legends.