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My questions all say "0% accept rate" (example). Although this is correct, the rate apparently is not always published (example). I'd like to hide it too. How can I do so?
Note: I don't like the feature, because I don't like to decide for other users what The Right Answer is.
Let's see:
never ask more than 3 questions.
make all your questions community wiki.
That's about it.
You can't.
The feature is not there for you, the feature is there for us. It is there for those of us who may (or may not) want to spend the time answering your questions.
Dimitri C.,
There is another point of view I would like you to consider.
This service is provided to you free of charge. The people who help you, they do it free of charge. The questions and answers are all available free of charge. But "free of charge" refers only to financial remuneration. There is one way you compensate the system and its users for the time and expense they put into it; by providing content.
Content doesn't just include the questions and answers you provide, but the value-added information you provide by participating in the community. Your votes, your comments, your profile, your reputation; they all add value to the system. And accepting answers adds value to the system.
Now, no one "requires" you to participate in any of these activities. They are strictly voluntary. But the behavior of the system is designed to encourage activities that are best for the community.
Regarding "accepted answers": You choose not to participate because you do not agree with it. That is your choice. But you are also, in a sense, abstaining from providing a bit of "compensation" that users might expect for their efforts. Users have a right to know that up front. Not have it "hidden" from them.
In one of my comments, I quipped that hiding your your acceptance rate is like saying, "I don't like my credit rating. How can I hide it from lenders?" I feel that that analogy is apt.
The fact that you have 0% accept rate just shows that you don't like the feature. If you're happy for it to be widely known, why do you care whether it's published or not? It gives an answerer the information that you're very unlikely to accept any answers. This is true, isn't it?
Admittedly there's also the implication that you're unlikely to be particularly active in terms of responding to answers, adding comments, editing your questions etc. That implication may well not be true for you, but there's usually a correlation.
The reason it's not published for some users is that they haven't asked enough questions for it to be statistically relevant.
The acceptance rate is not there for your benefit, its there to display the information to the public, allowing them to make an informed decision. Additionally, as Jeff says, if you don't want your percentage shown, you have to have less than 4 questions that:
People like gaining reputation and badges, by not accepting answers, you are hindering them from gaining both of these. While you are entitled to your choices for your own reasons, other people should also be allowed to make an informed choice.
