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From what I remember, Sec.SE sorts answers based on the net vote score. If an answer is accepted, it is moved to the top automatically. In fact a question I asked became a hot network question. I accepted the answer that had the second most number of votes, which bumped it up to the top, resulting in people upvoting it until it had the most votes. This was just a few days ago, so at that time I was sure that accepted answers were automatically put on the top. However I came across a question where the top answer score is 1 (+2/-1), with the answer below it having no votes, but being accepted. I am sorting based on vote count. Does this mean the sorting algorithm has been changed and the accepted status of an answer no longer pushes it to the top?

EDIT: I now also see another question where the expected behavior occurs (the accepted answer, despite not having the most votes, is at the top). This is confusing me.

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  • Huh, interesting. Perhaps an accepted answer must have a positive score to be bumped to the top? Just a guess.
    – Anders
    Commented Mar 19, 2018 at 8:17
  • @Anders I don't think so. I (temporarily) upvoted both of them so the top answer was +2 and the accepted one was +1, but it still remained on the bottom. When I downvoted the top one so they were both 0, only then did the accepted answer jump to the top.
    – forest
    Commented Mar 19, 2018 at 8:19
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    Ok, next guess: Is it because the answer is from OP? That would sort of make sense, that you cant move your own answer to the top of your own question. But I am just throwing out guesses here, I have no idea what is going on behind the scenes.
    – Anders
    Commented Mar 19, 2018 at 8:31
  • @Anders Oh I think that could very well be it! I actually did not notice that the answer was from the OP.
    – forest
    Commented Mar 19, 2018 at 8:34
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    Yes, it is as @Anders said: if you accept your own answer, that is exempted from the sorting priority.
    – AviD Mod
    Commented Mar 19, 2018 at 9:51

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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As Avid confirmed in comments, self answers does not get bumped to the top when they are accepted. While there is nothing wrong with self answers - on the conrary, they are encouraged - this sort of makes sense. At least it explains your example.

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  • Figured perhaps there should be an answer and not just comments.
    – Anders
    Commented Mar 19, 2018 at 20:23

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