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I have posted questions on SO for which I have received answers that do not answer the question. No correct answers were offered (I guess I have really good questions ;) )

People tell me my accept rate is low, making my questions less attractive for answering.

Should I accept the wrong ones to boost my accept rate? Is there another option? Can I mark an answer as wrong?

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4 Answers 4

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People tell me my accept rate is low, making my questions less attractive for answering.

Ignore them. You are in no way obliged to accept an answer, and it's completely up to you when and which answer you'll accept. If the comments are impolite, or even repetitive, flag them.

Should I accept the wrong ones to boost my accept rate?

Absolutely not.

Can I mark an answer as wrong?

Yes, down vote the answer.

Update

Accept rate will no longer be displayed, the "plz accept answers" nonsense is over.

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  • This is when I usually find people who say, "It looks like most of your questions do have a good answer, but you have neglected to accept them."
    – chris
    Commented Jun 3, 2012 at 3:08
  • @Yannis ok with the accept rate, but what is your opinion for users that are using the SO for months, make a lot of questions and give some answers, and did not even vote ones ?
    – Aristos
    Commented Jan 25, 2013 at 6:33
  • @Aristos I don't waste time concerning myself with such users. Who cares?
    – yannis
    Commented Jan 25, 2013 at 6:35
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Short answer: No.

Long answer: Keep in mind that your question is not just for you. It's for anyone that will come after you and will have the same problem, for those who wander there randomly and for those that directly come to your question after a Google search.

What would happen if they came to your question and they took the accepted answer as the right one while it's actually a wrong one? No need to answer this... :)

You're here to get correct answers (other than good ones). You are responsible towards future visitors on what answers you accept. It's your question, but it's also not just your question, if you get what I mean.

Don't worry about your accept rate: I also have a low one on one of my sites. A low one doesn't always mean you're a bad user. It also means you simply haven't received a good answer yet. In that case, first try to improve your question, then notify under each answer for users to edit their answers. If that doesn't work, place a bounty if you have enough reputation.

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Only the people who are here for reputation will ever look at the accept rate. People who really want to share knowledge and help you will answer your question no matter what your accept rate is, so don't worry. If you think an answer is wrong just comment it to tell the answerer that their answer is wrong, though its not always good to downvote.

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  • 6
    though its not always good to downvote. Hm? Why? If the answer is wrong, the correct action is to downvote, that's exactly what downvotes are for...
    – yannis
    Commented May 31, 2012 at 8:32
  • @YannisRizos, I mean to say that answerers shouldn't be penalized for their efforts meant for good. If the answer doesn't solve the problem, it doesn't mean it doesn't share a good piece of knowledge which would be helpful to others.
    – Tabrez Ahmed
    Commented May 31, 2012 at 8:38
  • @YannisRizos, People always downvote a downvoted answer. If the answer is totally irrelevent, there's no harm in downvoting
    – Tabrez Ahmed
    Commented May 31, 2012 at 8:46
  • Care to explain, Mr. Downvoter ...?
    – Tabrez Ahmed
    Commented May 31, 2012 at 11:47
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    I don't agree. If the answer doesn't answer the question, it's not a good answer and could deserve a downvote. A downvote is nothing personal and doesn't indicate that we think the author had any intentions other than to do good.
    – Bart
    Commented May 31, 2012 at 11:56
  • @Bart, Well, It's the way one thinks... But my policy is: If you cannot accept an answer, at least don't penalize the people who tried to help you....
    – Tabrez Ahmed
    Commented May 31, 2012 at 12:08
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    @ahmed leaving a bad answer un-downvoted on the other hand may mislead unsuspecting readers who may not yet be at the stage where they can tell the difference. Bad answers can sometimes be worse than no answer at all.
    – Shawn Chin
    Commented Jun 1, 2012 at 20:24
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You have 10 questions so far all from May 2012, 4 of which do not yet have any accepted answers. Sooner or later, your accept rate will rise automatically. Having a low accept rate is completely ok for new users. The fact that you're aware of it shows that you're going to improve your Stack Overflow skills, as you're interested in how Stack Overflow works.

So don't worry about it too much, continue asking good questions and giving good answers. Your score will eventually evolve in the right direction.

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