Some questions were ask several years ago. The answer given was the best one at that time. Now years later, a new answer comes up with an approach that wasn't available at that time. It's also correct. Now the owner of the question wants to switch the correct answer to the latest one. Shouldn't there be an historical answer marking on the first question even though it was no longer the best answer. It used to be the best.

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    What purpose would that serve? – miradulo Apr 1 '15 at 14:16
  • @DonkeyKong if a baseball player won the award the fastest pitcher in 2001. and in 2002 a fast pitcher beats him in 2002, didnt the 2001 winner still win? – Pinch Apr 1 '15 at 14:18
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    @Pinch That doesn't answer the question of why anyone would care what the best answer was a year ago, rather than being interested in just what the best answer is now. Also note that being accepted by the OP doesn't mean that the answer was the "best" answer, just that it's the one that the OP liked the most. – Servy Apr 1 '15 at 14:19
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    StackOverflow isn't about sports. Old features deprecate. The old answer is no longer valid, and (aside from the votes it's gotten) really shouldn't be given more attention, if newer, more efficient / safe methods exist nowadays. Frankly, the fact that it was the best answer years ago is irrelevant. – Cerbrus Apr 1 '15 at 14:20
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    Why do you assume this is a contest with "winners"? It is just a Q+A site, the only winners are programmers that need to have their problem solved. We don't know who they are. – Hans Passant Apr 1 '15 at 14:20
  • 36 views / roughly 1/3 against (questionably independent minded) 1 strong minded individual for and nearly 2/3 abstained. – Pinch Apr 1 '15 at 15:00
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    I doubt being against this feature request has any correlation with how independent minded people are. – miradulo Apr 1 '15 at 15:10

No, there's no need to "honor" old answers with some special designation just because they used to be right. An old correct answer will presumably receive upvotes for that. Older answers should be kept around if they're still useful to people who might be using old technologies, but if a newer answer comes along that's better, then it should be accepted so it sits at the top, since that's what most people will be searching for. That's the way Stack Overflow was designed from the beginning.

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