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I got this message today while trying to accept my answer on my own question.

Why must I wait this time, if I am sure that the answer I answered is the right one, just want to understand the point of view?

I faced that just today on Super user and didn't get this message before.

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2 Answers 2

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Original resistance:

Blog post Why Can’t I Accept My Own Answer?

Eventually relented here:

Blog post Accept Your Own Answers

Now, there are some special rules around owner-accepted answers, to prevent gaming:

  1. Wait 48 hours. You must wait 2 days from the time you originally asked your question before you can accept your own answer. This gives other users a chance to answer the question in good faith, and earn the accepted answer.
  2. No change in sort order. Normally, accepted answers are “docked” under the question. This is not true for owner accepted answers; they stay in standard sort order like any other answer.
  3. No reputation is earned. Normally, accepted answers confer +15 rep to the answerer and +2 to the owner. Owner accepted answers do not earn rep (or badges) for anyone.

I was initially very much against this, but several commenters in the Why Can’t I Accept My Own Answer? post convinced me that, with a few rule tweaks, it could work. As you can see on a question I myself asked, sometimes you really have no other option than to close the loop yourself, and it’s nice to be able to do so by accepting your own answer.

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  • Ok understood, thats ok, but about gaming with accepting own questions, i think its not a very famous thing and SO users can still vote it down if its a bad answer and like that the game will be a loss. by the way that my point of view, but in all cases this issue is not annoying me.
    – Amr Elgarhy
    Commented Jul 16, 2009 at 10:04
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    What about allowing it for high rep users? Gaming seems unlikely since there is no rep to be earned, therefore there is no incentive to game the system... thoughts?
    – Chase Florell
    Commented Jan 16, 2012 at 22:23
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The rep restriction on this is obviously pretty sensible, but the other two aren't really imo.

Users are used to be seeing the accepted answer at the top of the answers. Regardless of who the author is the right answers should be presented first.

The time restriction doesn't make much sense either, there's nothing to gain from posting and accepting your own answer straight away, in fact I'd probably down vote a question if I thought this was being done.

In cases like this where I've put up a solution to the original problem as the answer a few hours later I don't see why it can't be immediatly marked as accepted, and placed at the top of the answers list for anyone else who reads it.

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    The restrictions are in place to keep users from 'gaming the system'. Being at the top of the sort order is a very valuable reputation position, and you're likely to get up voted if you're at the top and correct. This just gives everyone a fair chance.
    – Ian Elliott
    Commented Jul 26, 2009 at 7:29
  • Who is to say the answer that was owner accepted is correct? So, it being presented first gives the question owner, and answerer, an unfair advantage.
    – ProfK
    Commented Aug 1, 2011 at 7:11
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    @IanElliott: This could easily be fixed by not awarding reputation to own answers. That way, the accepted answer is at the top as usual and it benefits those who arrive at the page as a result of searching.
    – Steve
    Commented Jun 2, 2012 at 5:49
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    @IanElliott, Exactly, what Steve said. Indeed it is beneficial because answerers can know that "Yes he had fully solved it already I can go on to answer other questions." If someone else 'do come along with an even better solution to the problem', the asker can always change his accepted answer. It's the exact same situation when 4 days later someone comes along with a better solution after the asker had already accepted his own answer 2 days ago.
    – Pacerier
    Commented Feb 27, 2015 at 14:57
  • @IanElliott ... and what exactly is the problem if you get upvoted for a correct answer? You get rewarded with reputation points for your contributions. Besides, what exactly changes after 2 days? If you posted a correct answer, it is highly unlikely that the question would receive more answers quickly, but by that time, the self-answer may have already got some upvotes and is in top position anyway.
    – Masked Man
    Commented Apr 20, 2017 at 14:25

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