What should I do when someone answers my question?
Decide if the answer is helpful, and then...
- Vote on it. Vote up answers that are helpful and well-researched, and vote down answers that are not. Other users will also vote on answers to your question.
- Accept it. As the asker, you have the ability to accept the answer that you believe is the best solution to your problem.
What does it mean to accept an answer?
The system allows you to mark an answer as "accepted", in order to indicate which answer solved your problem or most thoroughly answered your question in the end. Accepting an answer is beneficial as it rewards posters for correctly answering your question and informs others that your issue is resolved.
Which answer should I accept?
- Don't hesitate to accept an answer that is well-written, suggests a good practice and works for you.
- Otherwise, if there are answers that are good enough but you're not entirely satisfied by, you might want to wait 24 to 48 hours to give other people a chance to give you a better answer. A question with an accepted answer isn't as likely to receive further attention as one without an accepted answer.
- The bottom line is; you should accept the answer that you found to be the most helpful to you.
Can I accept my own self-answer?
Yes; if you've self-answered your own question, you can mark your answer as the accepted answer.
Why are some answers selected as 'best answer' by moderators?
In very few specific cases, answers might be selected as best answer by moderators, along with a comment explaining why. (Example)
These include questions that after a long period of time never received feedback back from the Original Poster. In other words, questions that were abandoned by the Original Poster, and we believe the content of the Answer is of high value to solve the problem, or is indeed the solution to the problem.
This helps new users understand that the question has a potential solution, avoid comments like "Did it work?" , and avoid creation of duplicate questions.
This does not mean you should be asking Moderators to select your potential best answers from years ago! This happens organically as we continue to manage the community and encounter content that is useful and relevant for the community.
You can instead leave a comment as a reminder to the OP. Such as:
"If my answer helped you solve the problem, please consider selecting my answer as Best Answer."
