What happens if you answered your own question and no one else did? You can't 'accept' your own answer, can you?
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You certainly can! Not a particularly good example, perhaps, but this is the first case I found. I say "not particularly good" because after the OP there had apparently waited 6 months before posting his own answer (which he duly accepted), it was a bit of a downer to discover that essentially that long-awaited answer simply says "There is no answer to my question". But at least he tried.– FumbleFingersCommented Feb 15, 2014 at 22:49
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I'm sure this has come up before, and I suspect I myself have both answered and accepted on my own questions. I can't see anything wrong with it. You might have just discovered something outside of ELU, and wish to share the information, for example. If no-one else has already asked about it here, asking yourself is the only option. Or, you might discover things after asking that no-one else seems aware of.– FumbleFingersCommented Feb 15, 2014 at 22:54
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2 Answers
Possible yes, weird usually, rarely it is the best.
But, sometimes one has a question that one spends time answering (before getting to ELU), but then you realize that the Q/A might be helpful to others. Also, sometimes the answers create a number of partial answers and it is nice to have a single unifying answer which often the questioner is the best one to make.
That said, for the most part it looks weird.
And you don't get the 15 pts (otherwise you could create questions all day and accept them yourself and increase rep arbitrarily). You get rep for -others- voting on your answer but just not the acceptance points.
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You can also answer your own question when you write the question, which I believe (though I've never used the option) makes your own answer instantly accepted. Commented Feb 16, 2014 at 12:49
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@JanusBahsJacquet Over on ELL I had occasion to post a question with a response so long it had to be split into 6 different Answers. None of those has been Accepted. Commented Feb 16, 2014 at 15:21
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@Stoney, did you tick the “Answer this question yourself” checkbox when you asked the question and then wrote (the first part of) the answer right there? Or did you add the answers in the ‘normal’ way? Commented Feb 16, 2014 at 15:29
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@JanusBahsJacquet I didn't even notice the checkbox. You mean the system has to be explicitly informed that the quaerent, ID 32 is identical with the respondent, ID 32? Commented Feb 16, 2014 at 15:39
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@Stoney, I think there's just a bit of automation done when the question and answer are submitted at the same time. Probably a good thing that subsequent answers by the asker aren't automatically accepted. Commented Feb 16, 2014 at 15:43
Yes, you can accept your own answer.
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If your answer helped you the most it is natural to accept your own answer. Commented Feb 14, 2014 at 10:26
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What if there are other answers besides your own, but you still think none beats yours? Commented Feb 14, 2014 at 12:07
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