Encouraging multiple solutions to be given in multiple answers?

Question

As the site grows, I think there will be a lot of Drupal development/theming how-tos which in the Drupal world may result in "try one of these # modules" as we see in the (currenly) #1 answer for How to implement two way node references?

I think it's great to have a nice & clean collected list of modules (if someone can collect them in a single answer) but maybe it'd be worth while to encourage contributors to answer 1 solution to each answer, in the hopes that we could get a voting system on debatable solutions?

Mark did this on https://drupal.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7/what-questions-are-on-topic-and-what-questions-are-off-topic

Encouraging 1 solution per answer will (obviously) encourage people to offer the single best option rather then rattling a list of every module available and maybe adding to the confusion.

Answer 1

Most often, things are not that simple. There may be cases where one module is better to use than another, and other times where it is reversed. Some could be more feature rich, but harder to configure etc.

Listing several ways to solve a problem is not a bad idea in itself, but when it becomes a list of try one of these modules, it looses it's usefulness, but a list of possible solutions with pros and cons is IMO the best way to answer a question. Most times, questions aren't detailed enough, to know which solution is the better, and sometimes it's a matter of preference / style of development.

Answer 2

When the question is vague, and the modules in question are duplicates of each other, I see no problem with listing multiple. If there were definite merits to one over another, I would list them.

In that particular case, I was too frustrated by the needless module duplication to bother weighing the pros and cons. :\

Answer 3

I agree with what said from tim.plunkett and googletorp.
I will add that some questions can be replied reporting which already existing module can be used, and how to do it using custom code. It seems to me that forcing who answers to give just half of the answer they would give is forced.

I don't see then any reason why (for example) in a question about which module to use for redirecting the user in some cases, I should just list one module. If I would list only a module, when more than one module is available, then the answer (giving the impression that is the only existing module) would be "not correct."