In a way, I'm happy that our community has taken to heart the "vote early, vote often" maxim. But it's starting to be a real problem that answers which do not answer a question seem to be getting upvoted because people like what's being said. This is not how stack exchange is supposed to work. Two examples:

• The answer that begins "Parties can agree..." from Could a futures market be included in the Bitcoin protocol? just talks about what a futures market is, while the question clearly asks about incorporating a futures market into the Bitcoin protocol itself. Why does this answer have two upvotes? It seems like the person either didn't read the question properly or just wanted to post even though they didn't have an answer.

• The top two upvoted answers on What unique business models has Bitcoin enabled? are off-topic. And they have 4-5 upvotes, too.

Questions to which people don't know the answers should go unanswered. This alerts skilled users to the fact that an answer is needed. Can we get some tough love on the off-topic answers around here? (feel free to post others in comments and answers).

In a way, I'm happy that our community has taken to heart the "vote early, vote often" maxim. But it's starting to be a real problem that answers which do not answer a question seem to be getting upvoted because people like what's being said. This is not how stack exchange is supposed to work. Two examples:

• The answer that begins "Parties can agree..." from Could a futures market be included in the Bitcoin protocol? just talks about what a futures market is, while the question clearly asks about incorporating a futures market into the Bitcoin protocol itself. Why does this answer have two upvotes? It seems like the person either didn't read the question properly or just wanted to post even though they didn't have an answer.

• The top two upvoted answers on What unique business models has Bitcoin enabled? are off-topic. And they have 4-5 upvotes, too.

Questions to which people don't know the answers should go unanswered. This alerts skilled users to the fact that an answer is needed. Can we get some tough love on the off-topic answers around here? (feel free to post others in comments and answers).