Good question! The Solved Plugin is indeed an official Discourse plugin. However it works differently from this plugin. The Solved Plugin allows the original poster (or an admin) to select a solution to the question in the first post. In contrast, this plugin allows each user of the forum a vote on what they think is the best answer. Different forums will want different kinds of Question / Answer style topics.
I’ve added a brief description of similar plugins and Discourse features to the original post:
Here’s where this plugin fits in to the array of similar plugins and features available in Discourse:
- “Like” button. There is already a way of expressing support for a post in Discourse in the form of the like button. The main difference between that button and this plugin is that this plugin re-arranges the posts in the topic based on those that have been supported. This plugin may also add the ability to ‘down vote’ posts.
- Solved Plugin. The Solved Plugin is an official Discourse plugin. It also allows you to create QA style topics, but of a different style. The Solved Plugin allows the original poster (or an admin) to select a solution to the question in the first post. In contrast, this plugin allows each user of the forum a vote on what they think is the best answer.
- Feature Voting Plugin. This plugin allows you to vote on topics themselves, as opposed to specific posts. There is a great discussion of the thinking behind this in the plugin topic and associated spec.