Posting an approximate answer and deleting it when a better answer has come

Question

I am still pretty much a begginer in what I call “Japanese in the wild”(real-life Japanese). However, I pretty much like trying to answer question here because it is great way to practice.

Nonetheless, I may post wrong answer sometimes because of my lack of experience. In case I post a wrong answer I may not know that it is wrong but I know that it may be clunky. I have also found that posting a clunky wrong answer boost a bit the question since those who know do not want that only a wrong answer remain for a long time. Once the question has gotten a good answer I feel very pleased to remove my clunky answer.

Do you think that what I do (posting sometimes clunky answer in order to attract more answer from those who know) is correct behavior or should I post only if I am 95 to 100% sure.

EDIT:

Here are my conclusions after reading @user3856370 and @Aurast's posts:

• Posting a wrong answer can still have some very bad side effects, in particular misleading those who skim the answer or lack experience. Especially when the bad answer is the only one.
• Comments can be used as a check device. If I am told that my comment is ok I can move on to the answer side without much harm.
• I will refrain to answer if I am not reasonnably confident (> 90%) and will include a warning. In the other cases I will use comments.

Answer 1

I think it's fine to post an answer you're moderately (60%) sure about and then choosing to improve it after receiving feedback or discussing in Chat, or choosing to delete it after other better answers get submitted.

I don't think we should be afraid of clutter and misleading people, since our content is after all community generated and any amount of healthy skepticism in a reasonably rational person should defend the person against unquestioningly accepting answers.

If you doubt your answer, you can always add a disclaimer or caveat somewhere.

Learning doesn't just occur when receiving answers, I think answering(wrongly) is a good way to learn too. It reveals more questions and sometimes shows a different perspective on the issue. Just as it's important to have positive test cases (having correct answers to read), it also helps to have negative test cases (having incorrect answers pointed out) in order to have a more complete understanding of the issue.

Also, wrong answers might just attract good quality answers:

Answer 2

As a beginner I am mostly on the receiving end of answers. I would prefer that the answers be accurate from the start, otherwise I am likely to be misled. If you want to post as an answer (rather than comment) I think you should have reasonable confidence that you are correct. But I think it should be okay to post a more speculative answer if (and only if) you make your uncertainties very clear in your answer.

At the end of the day the number of up and down votes should prove the quality. I've posted some nonsense in the past and it became apparent pretty quickly, but I'm not sure there's enough voting on this site to guarantee that to be the case. Especially for the new users who can't see the split between up and down votes, using votes as a measure of quality is dangerous.

So in summary, If in doubt please caveat your answer.

Answer 3

In my opinion you should post a shortened version of your proposed answer as a comment and make it clear that you're not sure. Then, if other commenters tell you that you're right, go ahead and make an answer out of it if you then feel confident enough to do so.

Wrong answers add clutter, can more easily mislead people, especially people who are just skimming your answer, and make you look bad. If you are not confident in your answer, you should not post it as an answer. The expectations for comments, however, are not as high.