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I posted a question on StackOverflow about a problem to solve. One answer is pointed out a mistake that I made, but itself didn't solved the problem, hovever after this I was able to solve the rest of the problem by myself.
How should I make an answer acception?

  1. Accept the answer that helped than write a comment?
  2. Edit the answer to add additional information then accept?
  3. Answer my own question?
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    This one, right?
    – Charles
    Commented Dec 26, 2012 at 0:57
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    Edit then accept.
    – jcolebrand
    Commented Dec 26, 2012 at 1:10
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    I would like to disagree to that suggestion of edit and accept. Mostly that edit will be rejected for invalid edit/radical change. It is better to point it out in comments and let that person change it. That way he can make sure that the answer is corrected.
    – iDev
    Commented Dec 26, 2012 at 1:57
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    For that specific scenario, i think you should write your answer and select that as the best answer. You might get a little whining, though.
    – asheeshr
    Commented Dec 26, 2012 at 3:01
  • @ACB I think the edit will be accepted if you explain the situation in the edit summary text box.
    – irrelephant
    Commented Dec 26, 2012 at 4:11
  • @irrelephant, That actually depends on who is reviewing. Most of the times it will be rejected since that changes too much in the answer. The thought on reviewer side will be that why didnt this person post it as a new answer. What if the answer is not correct and he is trying to put a wrong content on that. So the safe assumption will be that it is an invalid edit.
    – iDev
    Commented Dec 26, 2012 at 10:31

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Since accepting an answer is totally up to you and not to the community as voting is - you can decide for yourself.

I personally accept answers if they solve the problem and upvote them if they are useful.

But what you should not do is add additional info to an other users answer. That would be vandalizing the post. You can add a comment to tell the answerer what solved the problem actally. And most users will add that you their answer if you point out that you will accept after adding it.

If the answerer does not respond and you can add useful info for the community you are welcome to post your own answer. It might help future visitors.

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In my opinion you can do this;

  1. Put a comment below the answer that it helped in finding the solution partially. And then point out the mistake that was there in the answer.
  2. Wait for that person to update the answer with correct solution.
  3. If the answer is updated with correct solution and you are satisfied with that, accept the answer.
  4. Give him a day or so. If that person didn't reply and the answer is still not correct, you can post a separate answer yourself. You can also give the credit to that person for helping you to find the correct answer.
  5. Accept your own answer as the correct solution. (You can also consider upvoting the other answer in this case, since that was useful for you. But that is up to you to decide.)

Important thing is, do NOT edit the other answer yourself. Instead you should add a comment mentioning the issue with that post and how it can be corrected.

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