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Is it just me, or are many users on the serverfault site not quite getting the "game" of selecting an accepted answer, thus encouraging further help in the future? I've only been there a few days, but it seems like many users will comment, positively even, on answers, but not actually check them off.

Is a user education campaign in order, or is that just the S/A time management culture, and it ain't gonna' change?

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Not spending much time on SO these days, I don't know if SF is any worse than SO, but back when I used to hang out on SO the accept rates weren't real hot there, either. I think it's just that most people want hit-n-run answers and don't want to learn the intricate mechanics of the site. I've learnt to deal with the raaaaaaaaage of comments on my answers saying "this was awesome, thanks!!!!!" with no upvote or accept. Do the sysadminly thing, and drink heavily to forget.

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  • I really want more than just one upvote for "Do the sysadminly thing..."
    – Ward
    Dec 6, 2009 at 4:56
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It's happened to me a couple of times in the last week or so - more than before, though my time to date has been brief.

I wonder if account creation should include a wizard of sorts, where the user has to run through the task of asking a question, including formatting, and accept the answer before being able to post a live question. Also, they'd have to read the FAQ & successfully answer questions based on FAQ content.

I realize that account creation was setup with the idea of the community educating, but I don't have links to various meta/etc questions onhand. I participate in questions; there's enough education going on as it is.

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  • Hmm. That might be a little too much friction, but it would get the point across. ... And lest I be guilty of what I am carping about, I guess I'll pick this as an answer :-)
    – Roboprog
    Dec 14, 2009 at 21:46
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If you want to maximize your upvotes for time invested in the site, you might refrain from answering questions for those with a rep of lower than a few hundred.

If you just want to help people out who are stuck with some challenge, then just answer and see what happens.

I personally find myself somewhere in between. Although if it really is a good answer, you will probably get some upvotes several weeks later as the thank-you-upvoters stumble across your answer.

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  • Upvotes are nice. But I just thought it odd that "the answer" was seldom selected (on many/most questions, not just the very few I happened to toss a few crumbs at)
    – Roboprog
    Dec 14, 2009 at 21:45

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