Automatically upvote the selected answer [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Accepting answer without upvoting?

I see a lot of posts where an answer has been selected as the best (green tick) but not upvoted by the OP. How about a feature that upvotes the answer when you click on it as the best (accepted) answer.

The upvote text says (this answer is useful) it is most likely that it is useful if it is the best answer, and you could always have the option to undo.

The caveat I guess would be if you answered your own question as you wouldn't want people generating points for free!

Answer 1

The main question I would have for this is why? What is gained by doing this?

If the goal is to gain more reputation, then just look to increase the existing "accepted answer" reward.

Applying an upvote by default to an accepted answer defeats the purpose of having both voting and selecting an accepted answer. By having two different dimensions by which to rate or differentiate answers, more information is provided to the system, allowing for more flexibility. By auto-upvoting the accepted answer, you are effectively compressing the two dimensions, reducing each of their effectiveness.

There are also cases where the accepted answer helps the asker, but the community finds that other answers are better due to their completeness, comprehensiveness, or even just better written. By auto-applying an up-vote, you are shrinking this effect as well.

Lastly, there are a number of badges, like the Unsung Hero badge, and the Populist badge that explicitly reward people for things that relate to the difference between votes and the accepted answer.