So this is not a big deal really, but I can't quite figure out how responses to a question are ordered when they have the same number of upvotes. Many times I will post an answer and someone will post essentially the same answer slightly after mine. Theirs gets pushed to the top, and it seems to me that, all things being equal, people (including myself) generally give the answer at the top of the list their upvote and then move on.

Of course I may very well do this to someone else. It seems to me that the questions should be ordered by time of post until upvotes sort out the good from the bad. Anyway, just a thought, it's not really something I care deeply about.

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It depends.

If sorting by vote then answers on the same vote score are sorted randomly.

If sorting by activity then answers with the most recent changes are displayed first.

If sorting by oldest then answers are displayed in the order they were posted - oldest first.

The only exception to this is when an answer is accepted it rises to the top of the list regardless of sort order (except if it's your answer).

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