Revision 27a8b8ff-02e5-49c8-a0f6-0ba9e633e91f - Meta Stack Exchange

**Meme:** Fastest Gun in the West (FGITW) 

**Originator:** [Omer van Kloeten][1]

**First Heard:** September 11th, 2008

**Definition:** A problem identified as a side-effect of sorting votes by descending score where first-posted answers are quickly up-voted, trumping vote opportunities for people who sit down and answer a question in a long, thorough way.

**Background:** This problem was originally identified on UserVoice.com and reposted to meta.stackoverflow.com here: [Fastest Gun in the West Problem][2]. Whether the FGITW problem is actually a problem has been a source of controversy. Many considered it a feature — get fast answers, by design. Various solutions were suggested including this one ([Randomly reorder all answers posted within 10 minutes of each other][3]), which was eventually implemented, inciting another protest labeled "[The Slowest Cheater in the East (SCITE) problem][4]".


 [1]: http://meta.stackexchange.com/users/132257
 [2]: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/9731/fastest-gun-in-the-west-problem
 [3]: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1302/randomly-reorder-all-answers-posted-within-10-minutes-of-each-other
 [4]: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/19478/the-many-memes-of-meta/19535#19535