Answered questions not answered?

Bob,

There have been quite a few threads in this forum, especially shortly after the change, where it was shown rather convincingly that it is far certain that the best/right/most useful answer would be the one marked; one of the reasons is that the OP may mark the first answer that seems to work,  sometimes just the first answer, and then later on, a better answer is offered, or the OP finds out that the supposed answer did not work; in all such cases it is too late because point giving cannot be reversed.

And then there are cases where the OP finds the answer, sometimes even before anyone else has posted.

And ultimately, especially in some applcations such as Illustrator, there may be a number of ways to do things and therefore a number of right answers.

Further, when a thread is marked Answered, helpers may be less likely to open them at all, and the definitiveness of the marking may discourage further contributions.

All in all, the marking of threads/posts may form part of the reason that there are fewer lively, creative, long, and comprehensive, threads than in the days of the fair forums.