Can I post as many answers as I want?

Question

It seems obvious to me that users should be allowed to post several answers to the same question.
But some might not agree, so I thought I would ask here, just to make sure.

Let's say UserA has experience with 7 different apps that are valid answers for a single question.
UserA posts for each app an answer detailing:

• the app's own strong points and weak points,
• screenshot and other information that make it a good individual answer.

Can we blame UserA?
Or is it perfectly acceptable to post as many answers as you want?

Answer 1

Good answers on this site will recommend the software that you think best meets the requirements of a situation. The idea is not to poll all the available packages but to have people with real experience with a product explain why how it meets the criteria. Questions that you feel need to be addressed with a list of several answers probably need narrowing down. In many cases you can also recommend several things in a single answer as long as they represent a single solution to the problem (example, example).

There might be rare cases where posting more than one answer makes sense (e.g. you find a better solution after having previously answered, example JBaruch's two answers here), but these should be the exceptions rather than the rule.

Answer 2

Can you? Yes.

Are you allowed? Yes.

Should you? No.

If you have multiple tools that fit the same question, you can post them as separate answers. Or you can post them in a single answer which additionally explains when would pick each tool. If the same tool was consistently the best one then you'd only post that as an answer — so if you want to mention multiple tools, it has to be because there are different circumstances that call for different tools. You should show what these circumstances are.

This is not a site for polls, it is a site for recommendations. An answer here is not just “use X”, it's “here's how to accomplish what you want to do”. If this calls for different tools in different circumstances, so be it. That's still one answer.

While we do not enforce a single answer per user, you should ask yourself what you have to gain by posting separate answers, and what you have to lose. Post separate answers only if you find a really good reason to do that.

Answer 3

It is perfectly acceptable, as long as each answer is a good answer.

We would consider them valid answers if there were posted by different users, so it makes no sense to downvote/close them just because they are posted by the same user.