Can the answer of a Q&A be auto-accepted when both are posted at the same time?

Question

Catija convinced me: dumb idea. Thanks for putting me straight!

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Original question:

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Yes, I'm aware of Jeff Atwood's original blog post from 2008 and the partial relent from 2009 and the other question and another and yet another...

So this question is not about: not finding a solution, being exasperated, posting a question and a few minutes or hours later finding a solution and answering, but it's all about:

• Having an issue
• Looking into it
• Talking to people in chat, not getting any solution from the resident expert
• Continuing on the road of blood, sweat and tears and finally finding a solution!
• Someone telling you "You should write a Q&A about that!"

• Actually writing the question and ticking the box:

  "Answer your own question - _{^{share your knowledge, Q&A-style}}"

• And finally answering at the same time you post your question.

So can we have these kinds of Q&As auto-accepted, please?

Why?

• Answers posted at the same time as their questions have an answer that has been verified to work.
• It's easy to change the acceptance if someone else would come along and writes an awesome answer as the OP gets pinged when a new answer to his question gets posted.
• I'm too busy at work during the day and too busy at night answering questions to actually remember and go back and accept my own answer. (I found one about a year ago that I forgot to accept for a few weeks or months or so)
• Jeff Atwood wrote the original in 2008 and partially relented in 2009. Wouldn't it make sense to review this again nearly a decade later??? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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_{OK, I'll settle for the system pinging me you to tell me "Hey, go back and accept your own answer, the 48h waiting period is over and no one else has answered in the meantime!"}

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Please? Pretty please with unicorns and rainbows?

Answer 1

I see no reason for this.

You finding your answer doesn't mean that no one can come up with a better one or explain it better than you can.

While accepting doesn't prevent people from answering technically it has been argued for a long time that people are less likely to answer questions that are accepted... so the potential for attracting high-quality content to your question is suppressed. It tells people "I'm happy with this, you needn't bother writing anything else".

On top of that, doing it automatically seems troublesome as users may be unaware that self answers will be automatically accepted and be confused when it occurs, particularly if that wasn't their intention.

Accepts, particularly of self-answers, don't really do anything other than tell users their participation is unwanted. You don't get a bonus for accepting, the answer isn't stuck to the top if it's not the highest voted. Until the answer gets some actual buy-in from users, I don't really know that it makes sense to let you instantly accept them... heck, you have to wait fifteen minutes to accept an answer you didn't write. At the very minimum, you should have to wait that long.

Perhaps 48 hours is more than necessary - 24 is the guideline I give people when they accept answers too soon on the sites that I use - but instantly doesn't do anything for me.