"My worry here is that it will be 10 times more difficult to make the uninitiated accept other approaches to solving a problem if some bookworm, with 5 stars and "test passed" and who knows what, happens to be wrong or suggest a non-ultimate solution."

I'm sure the other 'passed exam' members will be keen to point out any errors. They will also be able to score the post down.

At the moment we have a situation like this:

Q: How do I forecast the weather with an 8051?
A: Easy - write a neural network program to learn the weather patterns. It'll be working in a week and it'll fit into 2k. You can download sample code here:

This is exactly what novices *want* to hear, so they all score it an 'good answer' or something. They outnumber the members who have a clue so the post gets +6 points.

Only allowing 'passed exam' members to score would eliminate this sort of thing.

It would also eliminate the opposite problem:

Q: How do I forecast the weather with an 8051?
A: You can't. Buy a Cray and hire a team of mathematitians.

Which then gets a load of 'answer not useful' scores and winds up with -6.