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Recently I edited and bumped this question; I thought it was interesting and it had garnered no attention in over two years. I wasn't able to solve it, but I mentioned I solved a problem with a similar, though not identical, condition as in the problem statement. However, a few days afterwards, another user posted a full solution to the original problem. Their solution doesn't really use my methods at all, so I'm wondering:

  • In this case, where the full answer doesn't use methods from the partial answer, should I delete my partial answer?
  • Would this change if the full answer used a technique from a partial answer?
  • Would this change if the question were asked recently and hadn't been ignored for some time?
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    $\begingroup$ I would advise you to leave your answer as it is. Other viewers might decide to upvote some answers, that will automatically manage the relative importance of both answers. $\endgroup$
    – Dominique
    Sep 11 at 7:34
  • $\begingroup$ @ryang because it doesn't answer OP's question $\endgroup$
    – Integrand
    Sep 11 at 12:05
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    $\begingroup$ The entire premise of your query is that someone else has posted another answer, so I'm not sure how that automatically caused your partial answer to not address the OP's question. $\endgroup$
    – ryang
    Sep 11 at 12:13

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In this case, I don't think you have to delete it, regardless of whether or not the full answer uses your technique or if it was posted recently, since it was posted in response to the OP's request.

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    $\begingroup$ Also, the partial answer may give inspiration for the OP or someone else later to come up with an alternative answer that may be more preferrable in some aspect. $\endgroup$
    – Tony Mathew
    Sep 20 at 8:33

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