How to politely tell someone that his choice of answer is poor?

Question

Recently, I was alerted to how questioners choose which of the answers best solve their problem(s). I observed that, especially for beginners, that they did not select the best answer from the available ones, but rather one that imposed the smallest change to their question and in some cases preserve the clutter and bad solution in their code example (in my opinion).

Somehow I understand such an approach. Beginners, especially those who are for some reason forced to use LaTeX and therefore not likely to learn more than the bare minimum for their temporary needs, have a very narrow LaTeX horizon. Consequently, they aren't aware of better possibilities for writing theirs LaTeX code.

One example, which illustrate above description is the following question. This question received three answers. However, the OP selected the first post answer, which in my opinion (well, here I'm slightly biased) is not the best choice.

I know that the acceptance of an answer is up to questioner. However, how does one politely warn her/him that (s)he should reconsider other answers again, because they present a better/nicer result, or have removed all the clutter in the OP's code, or suggested code that is more clear and intuitive, etc?

Answer 1

If the accepted answer is provably wrong, it seems fine to add a comment saying so. But the comment IMO should be aimed at the answerer, not the questioner, and the answerer should suggest unaccepting the answer if that's the case.

But if your opinion is that another answer is better, then again, it's fine to add a comment to that answer saying something like "I think this should be the accepted answer because...", but again, not aimed at the questioner as an attempt to tell them to change their acceptance.

People accept non-optimal answers for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's the first answer they get. Sometimes it's the answer that has code that they can understand, as opposed to a 'better' answer with more complex/ingenious/tricky code. Sometimes people like a hack, even when a more general solution is possible.

The only people who should try to change people's acceptance may be people who have answered the question and think that their own answer is inferior in some way.

Answer 2

If a user chooses a solution that is not as robust as your own, it may be (as I think you suggested) that they do not yet understand the intricacies of Latex code and needed a solution they could most easily (and quickly) understand. I don't know if being in a pinch necessarily says anything about their ambitions, though.

However, on the subject of tone, maybe start by thinking about how people prefer to receive input in person:

A person asks a question. A knowledgeable person's response might begin by restating the question being asked, so the person asking knows that the nature of his problem is understood (useful if the original question is rambling). The answer provided is ideally phrased in a way that people with a broad range of expertise can understand.

If the person answering thinks the asker has misunderstood something, or intends to say something else, he/she should absolutely go out their way to NOT imply that they think the asker is foolish, or inexperienced (which they may be).

The asker does not care about your intentions if you make them feel embarrassed for asking a question, and will be less likely to ask more questions. An asker will almost always volunteer their inexperience in exchange for not feeling called-out.