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We had a nice post a while ago about not accepting answers too early. This is good! Well done. Remember to poke* people who accept too quickly to remind them.

However, let's look at the flip side of this. Can we please poke* people who have questions over a week old, with answers that have at least 10 votes on to accept an answer?
Not all questions will be appropriate for this, so use your judgement. But let's keep the number of accepted answers high (as I know we can do).

It also doesn't have to be a Thursday to do it, but I'm an immediate kind of person and today is Thursday.

*And by poke I mean comment. On their question. With their @Name

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  • $\begingroup$ Inspired by a comment in the chat $\endgroup$
    – Mourdos
    Sep 25, 2014 at 14:21
  • $\begingroup$ While I didn't see any problem at the time, and made that chat comment to save Mourdos the hard work of poking everyone with no assistance, I've now seen Robert Cartaino's answer and fully agree there should be no poking. $\endgroup$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Sep 25, 2014 at 17:32
  • $\begingroup$ In that case, I'll delete it in a bit $\endgroup$
    – Mourdos
    Sep 25, 2014 at 18:32
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    $\begingroup$ I would rather see this question remain (and not be deleted) since others may also have the well-meaning idea that neither of us saw any problem with. By leaving the question here others who have the same thought will be able to see the answer and understand why it's not a good idea. $\endgroup$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Sep 25, 2014 at 18:39
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    $\begingroup$ This question will still be a useful reference in future for months or years. $\endgroup$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Sep 25, 2014 at 18:45
  • $\begingroup$ Also, I don't know if you're allowed to delete a question that has an upvoted answer ( cc @githubphagocyte ) $\endgroup$
    – Shokhet
    Nov 11, 2014 at 22:15
  • $\begingroup$ You can (delete button is there for me and clickable) $\endgroup$
    – Mourdos
    Nov 11, 2014 at 23:01
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    $\begingroup$ I still hope you don't delete it. Downvotes on meta indicate disagreement with the suggestion - it doesn't mean anyone has a problem with the question being asked, just that they think the answer should be no. $\endgroup$
    – trichoplax is on Codidact now
    Nov 14, 2014 at 11:11
  • $\begingroup$ Were I doing to delete it, I would have done it last month, or when I realised that it was still deletable a couple of days ago. $\endgroup$
    – Mourdos
    Nov 14, 2014 at 11:32

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No, please do not do this.

The system already has processes in place to prompt the user to accept an answer when warranted, so please don't prod user further to accept answers.

While well intentioned, all these "gentle reminders" sprinkled throughout the comments everywhere starts to look somewhat harassing to new users — so I would ask you not to do that.

We learned this lesson when we used to display a user's "answer rate." The constant prodding to "please accept an answer" only makes the entire environment of the site somewhat unwelcoming. Accepting an answer is a completely voluntary activity, and it is up to the user to decide when (and if) an answer should be accepted at all. I understand this post is in followup to a specific initiative to forestall this activity, but commenting on posts to ask for accepted answers is not necessary or even all that helpful to the site. So please don't poke users to accept answers. Thanks.

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    $\begingroup$ Good question but agreed, the system is already in place and most users familiar with SE are good about answering, and prodding a one time user wouldn't likely do much good anyways. $\endgroup$
    – James
    Sep 25, 2014 at 16:01
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    $\begingroup$ I agree. The point of my meta post to not accept answers too early was largely to have people hold off on accepting until a decent number of people had had a chance to post well-researched answers. It was certainly not meant to be read as that we never should accept answers on those questions! $\endgroup$
    – user
    Sep 25, 2014 at 16:05

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