Would you like a feature to hide previous answers while you're still answering?

No. I am able to focus on my own thoughts…besides, I’m a slow typer and am busy staring at my keys while I type ;)

No, because often the asker comes back in answer to a question and provides more information or the thread has taken a certain turn that I want to respond to.

It would lead to more duplicate answers.

Sometimes, yes. I think I just posted something similar recently. I’d be really curious to see how things might change.

I like seeing what others have said, it does influence my post, perhaps enhancing my understanding of what I’m trying to convey, perhaps preventing me from simply repeating what someone else has said.

No.

On the contrary, sometimes I would like a feature that won’t let you answer until you’ve read what others have posted.

I want a feature that will only display my answer, because it is usually the best.

I don’t want to duplicate what someone else has already said. I also want to know what has already been said so that I can write with knowledge of what has already been said.

In situations where there are multiple people answering, I’d like to not have the typing window scroll down every time someone else posts an answer. It gets to where I can’t even use it properly without having to readjust it. It’s annoying.

First world problems.

I speak my mind. I am not influenced by those who speak before me.

My answer is no.

It is helpful to read previous answers. There are times when the OP will add additional information that is not included in the details of the question. There is also nothing wrong with agreeing with those who answered before me.

I’m with Jeruba and jonsblond for the same reasons they voiced.

We already have enough exact duplicate answers. We certainly don’t need to encourage any more.

When I write my answer, I almost always purposely deflect my eyes from other people’s answers, because yes, if I read them, it will influence my comments. After posting my answer, I usually stick with it. I may edit it or make grammatical corrections, but other answers still would not make me change my answer to reflect them.

I almost always read everything before I answer. I don’t think it influences my own answer, but it does influence whether I answer. If someone’s already said what I intended to say, I don’t want to repeat it. Sometimes I will just agree with what they said, sometimes I don’t feel the need to answer at all at that point.

@snowberry :: I wrote a greasemonkey that stops all the bouncing around when others are replying. The script is here. It works in Firefox with the greasemonkey extension installed. It also works in Chrome without greasemonkey.

No.

Not particularly fussed.

Not particularly fussed.

Edit: Damn…, well, maybe it’s not a bad idea after all.

I was going to write an answer to your question, but I read through the answers first and realized that @augustlan somehow stole my answer. damn you! :)
This illustrates one of the reasons why I don’t just jump down to answer without reading the responses first.

How about a feature that summarizes any answer longer than five sentences? Or sends any full page of text with no breaks to the dark side of the moon?

I think uninfluenced answers can help build “answer-statistics” and even aid in the development of different viewpoints. Of course as @Jeruba the opposite can be useful as well in some questions. Ideally this could be decided by the question author, but turned off if the responder doesn’t like this style.

So for example in this question where it’s partly collaborative, the opposite (Jeruba’s suggestion) would make more sense. But for some questions you want to see the variability in answers and not hinder it.

Good discussion regardless. I often address questions – from the void. Sometimes I read over to see if my answer is already included – and add more detail or a slightly different take.

True, happens quite often with me. I try to read the details of a question, craft my answer. After I’m done posting I read the other responses. But you can’t go on like that forever.

I usually leave a reply, something that hasn’t been said. Sometimes I do it just to open possibilities for discussions. If we’d all think the same and reply the same thing it would just be lame, we’d read the same answer several times.
I read before answering but sometimes when there are to many replies before me I don’t bother and just reply what I’m feeling right then.
Most time I’m accused of being rude towards others or offensive in replies just because I offer a different view OR because I’m too blunt.

@Hibernate I hear you. But to me, what’s more important is to really try to answer the question. Not just to provide entertainment (as in as different of answers as possible). Sometimes different answers highlight dimensions of the question, but sometimes it’s just an attempt to entertain, which skews the answers.