I was shocked and embarrassed when I saw my 'accept rate' this morning, so I went through my questions with no accepted answer to try to clean them up.
If no answer meets my needs, is it ok to answer it yourself, flag it as wiki, and accept it?
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6 Answers
Yes. It's encouraged (answering your own question). Accept it if it's the best answer.
I generally wait to see how others vote on my self-provided answer before I accept it, even if it did solve my issue.
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3"wait to see how others vote on my self-provided answer before I accept it" - Thats a great idea, but what would you do if it either doesn't get voted or gets voted down? Some people do down vote without cause. Aug 24, 2009 at 17:30
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3If it is massively down-voted, I won't accept it. If it gets just a couple down-votes, no comments, and a few up-votes. I'll accept it after a few days of no other alternatives.– SampsonAug 24, 2009 at 17:31
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Does this apply to answering your own questions through the "answer your own question" option? Apr 19, 2015 at 14:24
Yes, I have done it here (DevExpress CheckEdit Control - Place label part on left) I did this is because I did a bunch of searches and couldn't find the answer, I then contacted a colleague who has worked with the product extensively and he informed me on how to resolve my issue, I posted because it will be useful for me in 6 months when I forget how to do that ;-)
answered Aug 24, 2009 at 17:33
The rules/regulations/FAQ explicitly state that you can accept your own answers.
BUT...often times other members of the community may look at someone accepting their own answers as trying to game the system or achieve some easy rep and they will attempt to punish the user accordingly. I do not condone this type of behavior, just pointing out that it DOES HAPPEN, so don't be shocked if there is a bit of negative feedback even though you aren't doing anything technically wrong.
I generally advise waiting before posting your own answer. Some people won't provide an answer to a question that the question owner posted. Some users may down-vote such answers, just to get them below the other answers.
answered Aug 24, 2009 at 17:34
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Thanks Brad ... Both of these questions have been unanswered for a while (one was July 2nd, the other in Feb) Aug 24, 2009 at 17:37
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Yes, but there is a two-day delay to accepting your own answer. You don't need to CW it since you won't get any rep for accepting your own answer.
answered Aug 24, 2009 at 17:34
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2Or maybe I'm just so damn fast, the code calculates the time diff as negative, which isn't accounted for in the validation .... or is it only Jon Skeet that can do things like that? ;-) Aug 24, 2009 at 17:43
Just to migrate my answer from Twitter to this place:
If none of the provided answers fits the bill, I will generally try to provide an own answer detailing how I ended up solving/circumventing the problem. I will then accept this answer if none of the others provided the decisive hint that sent me in the right direction.
CW’ing the question is IMHO not generally called for, even if you accept your own answer. However, I once got accused of rep-whoring in a similar situation (although the question wasn’t even mine, I had just edited it last, so I was listed as one of its authors) so it might be wise to do so to avoid giving a wrong impression.
answered Aug 24, 2009 at 18:27
