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How does accepting an answer work?
Accept rate-why accept an answer that isn't an answer?

I had a 0% accept rate up until a few minutes ago, purely because I have not received any suitable answers to my questions.

I asked a new, fairly innocuous question and got comments about my 0% accept rate.

I went and accepted an answer to a question that is not actually the correct answer in order to stop this happening.

Does this behavior harm the community?

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  • 25
    Only mark answers as accepted if they help you answer your question. If your questions are not satisfactorily answered, don't get pressured into just picking something. A lot of times, people will get their questions answered but not mark anything and that's what we really want to get marked.
    – Jeff Mercado
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 19:22
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    This answer seems to answer your question -- why isn't it accepted?
    – Adam Rackis
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 19:30
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    This answer also. But based on your comments, it looks like you wanted the person writing the answer to then answer something else. It seems you need to try to ask more focused, clear questions that ask only one thing
    – Adam Rackis
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 19:32
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    Does this behavior harm the community? yes, yes it does. Flag these comments and ignore them. After flagging them. Don't ignore them before flagging, otherwise you won't know to flag them.
    – user1228
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 20:04
  • @AdamRackis I was waiting for the 5 minutes to pass for the 1st one, and I tried the 2nd but it does not work at all.
    – darryn.ten
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 20:45
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    @darryn.ten - you don't understand. The problem with your second question is not that the answer is incomplete, it's that your question was bad. If you have to leave comments with links to other pages describing what your problem is, then you've done a fundamentally bad job of asking your question. The question itself should have everything the answerer needs.
    – Adam Rackis
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 20:47
  • @AdamRackis I see - so I should remove the question and rephrase it?
    – darryn.ten
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 21:00
  • @darryn.ten - don't delete the question - it has an upvoted answer, and deleting your own questions can get you banned. If the answer answers the question as originally written, accept it. Then ask a new, crystal clear question that demonstrates exactly what you want.
    – Adam Rackis
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 21:02
  • @Josh - for sure - to delete the post darryn would have to flag for moderator attention. I didn't mention that because I didn't think deleting was appropriate here.
    – Adam Rackis
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 22:39

1 Answer 1

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If you flag the comment as non-constructive / off-topic and it contains the words accept rate or some form of that, the comment will get deleted immediately. I just removed the comment on your latest question as a test to make sure it still works.

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    fix ur axept r4te pls
    – a cat
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 19:50
  • @lunboks: Obtuse comment is obtuse.
    – user102937
    Commented Mar 13, 2012 at 23:20
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    @RobertHarvey Well, I could have said that, armed with this knowledge, people will probably just avoid using the magic word(s). Also, you should really work on your except rat.
    – a cat
    Commented Mar 14, 2012 at 0:45

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