6

Are you allowed to use the comments section of a question to request for an asker to mark an answer as accepted if they've left it for a long time, seemingly forgotten?

i.e. I recently answered a question for a new user, it was correct (quite a straightforward SEO question) and received 4 up votes but it seems to have been forgotten about by the asker.

3
  • 1
    Unfortunately failure to accept answers seems rather too common. Remember also, that for new users (<15 rep) it is the only way they can pass rep, since you need 15 rep to upvote (even answers to their own questions). Which is why I nearly always upvote questions by new users, providing they are remotely acceptable.
    – MrWhite
    Jan 5, 2013 at 17:28
  • 1
    @w3d And there's also the users that come in, ask a question, get their answer and never return. I answered a question on SuperUser that fixed the user's problem, he came back, said thank you, but probably didn't know he had to accept an answer, and left. So that answer will never get accepted, even though was right and fixed his problem. I think that's an issue too. Jan 23, 2013 at 14:55
  • 1
    Sometimes people put a lot of effort, in some really elaborate answers, and the person who asked a question simply does not accept it, or never signs in again. People answer to help, but also for their score. I think the moderators should consider something like "community accepted" for example. Quite frankly, people don't really upvote much here too, so not only it would be an incentive to upvoting, but it would get answers accepted. A way to do so could be via a number of votes, after reaching that if the percentage is "x" bigger than the other answers, it could be accepted. A suggestion. Mar 7, 2014 at 16:42

1 Answer 1

7

So long as you're polite you can use the comments section for that. The asker may not see your comment though, if they aren't a regular user of the site.

4
  • Does Stack Exchange ever send email reminders o users, or would that be considerate a spammy technique? Some people sign up, get their answer and never sign in again, or, forget username or password used. Perhaps for some old questions with a certain number of upvotes the question should be automatically accepted after a while no? Jan 4, 2013 at 12:22
  • You can get emails for the things that appear when you click on the symbol to the left of StackExchange at the top of the screen. However you have to turn it on, it's not on by default. To do that, click on that symbol and then click on email settings at the bottom of the dialog that appears. Most people won't do that. Jan 4, 2013 at 15:25
  • Ah ok. Yes, I don't do that myself, and am not interested in doing so. It was just a "suggestion". It would be nice to find a way to help reward the efforts of people who answered questions that never got accepted like Sam. Jan 4, 2013 at 15:31
  • That's what upvotes are for. Accepted answers aren't that meaningful to be honest. Jan 12, 2013 at 17:26

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .