What contributes most: a long answer with more than one way of doing a task or a short answer with the method known to be more professional?

Question

I answered this question using a method that looked ok and solved the user's problem. But later a more experienced user added a comment showing a method that is the solution "by design" and looks more professional. With his authorization I improved my answer with that method and removed mine (see edit 2 of the answer).

Knowing that new method made me feel like mine was more like a workaround, yet mine was the one used by the OP to solve his problem. I'm completely ok with removing my 2nd place method for the sake of brevity.

But that got me thinking: is the answer more valuable to the forum being brief and showing only a really professional method or being long and keeping alternative methods?

Answer 1

As in so many things in life, it really depends on the question.

For some questions, there needs to be several methods of solving the problem since not everyone will have exactly the same problem, and each resolution might be uniquely helpful to them.

It's great to see that you incorporated the comments and suggestions into your answer, making it more useful for future visitors to the question.

Answer 2

I'd put a TL;DR header saying something like "The consensus appears to be method 1, but you can also use method(s) 2, (3,...) below the first one).

There may be edge cases for which the other methods work better - let the OP and any future visitors (who may have related, but not identical, problems) choose. The more complete an answer is, the better it makes the site (IMHO).

We're grown ups here and users can make decisions for themselves. Plus, alterrnative methods might give the OP further insight into their own issue.

p.s. welcome to meta and +1 for a thought provoking question!