The one good thing, compared to Wikipedia, is that if you produce a well-researched, well-sourced answer that fully resolves the asker's question (and IF it is selected as the best answer), then that answer will be in the database, never to be modified by others, and will be available to anyone wanting an answer to the same query months from now. You never have to worry about it being vandalized or subtly (but significantly) altered while others aren't watching. However, the short interval in which questions can be answered -- and the sock-puppet-based voting procedure -- undermines this process.