Should questions be accepted based on who answered first?

Question

I answered a this question shortly after another user had posted an answer. Both answers were similar, but my answer more explained why you had to do it rather than just how to do it.

When the other answer got accepted, I was somewhat surprised considering I had a higher score. The other answer was certainly deserving of being accepted since it was correct; when I asked the original poster of the question why he chose that answer, he said it boiled down to "the other answer was posted first".

Is this a correct way of choosing an answer to accept? Understandably, there are some cases where you will have to accept an answer based on whether it was posted first or not.

Answer 1

It happens.

Keep posting good answers and don't worry about the reputation. That will come later :)

Answer 2

There can be no one single correct way of choosing which answer to accept.

Giving an answer that gives additional information to an existing answer is a good thing. However, the OP will choose one or the other (or neither) based upon their own criteria. They should not feel pressured by some rule to accept one over another.

I have, in the past, accepted one answer to my question and upvoted another. In this case both answers seemed logical and useful but one suited my needs better. You cannot legislate for the questioner's interpretation or acceptance of an answer.

Answer 3

While you're not referring to a 'correct' vs 'incorrect' answer, it's still similar to what you're asking.

Why do incorrect answers keep getting “accepted”?

Accepting is about whether the answer solved the problem for the person asking. Sometimes this person is not knowledgeable, and often times (especially for a beta site), they may not actually act in line with the philosophy of Stack Exchange (being useful for future users). That's ok! As it turns out, we want to be useful for both new people, repeat users, and future users. Accepting a question is about what it did for that person. Votes can help drive overall better-quality answers (there's even a badge for having an answer be voted much higher than an accepted answer).

Ultimately, it's ok as long as your answer still exists. That said, you can also edit the answer that got accepted (you altruist, you).