Having the same answer in an open-ended question

Question

I made an answer in a certain open-ended question on Puzzling.

I revisited the site later, to find that another answer had been posted and accepted. The answer was identical to mine, only with a different move-count (which I assume was the reason the answerer posted their answer as a different one). I checked my count with a computer this time, and since the answers were the same, I ended up with the same number of moves.

TL;DR, I posted an answer that had the wrong score, someone else posted the same answer but with the right score (which was better than my wrong score). I updated my answer to show the correct score (nothing else was changed).

Is this just bad luck for me, or should something be changed in terms of accepting an answer?

Answer 1

Based on how things work on other Stack Exchange sites, the acceptance of an answer is at the sole discretion of the question asker. It doesn't really matter who is more right or who got there first, the checkmark only reflects the OP's preference. Sometimes this is based on faulty information or bad logic; and sometimes, in these cases, it is later corrected. The number of votes an answer accrues is far more meaningful a metric than the checkmark, because it reflects the community's input instead of an individual.

In the case of your answer - if it were my answer, I would be satisfied knowing that I had a good and fast answer. If the votes and/or checkmark ultimately reflect that, wonderful. If not... no big deal.