I guess none of us like to see questions where the OP disappears once the problem has been resolved, without leaving any clues as to what exactly worked to solve the problem.

For this reason, I tend to believe the quality bar for an OP answering their own question should be lower than the bar for other posts. We want to encourage the OP to enter their own answer, if the problem got resolved and none of the other provided answers in themselves can be accepted by the OP.

I often see such answers showing up in the low quality review queue. I tend to answer `Looks OK` as long as I believe that somebody in the future facing the same symptoms will be able to use the answer to figure out if they are in fact facing the same problem as the OP and that the answer will at least provide a hint as to what can be attempted.

I do hope that when somebody else find the answer to be useful despite being lower quality, they will edit the answer to become better.

Here is one case where [the OP answered his own question][1], which I think would be useful to somebody facing the same problem. It was in the low quality review queue, but I voted `Looks OK` even though the OP had not put nearly the same amount of effort into writing the answer as had been put into the question.

There still has to be a bar though. The OP could answer in a way, that is too poor to be helpful. And I think [this answer][2] is one such example.

Does others agree that the quality bar for the OP answering their own question should be lower than the bar for other posts? Any suggestions on what criteria could be used to better decide if such an answer meets the bar?

It may be that the question itself is too poor quality as well. But if that is the case closing and possibly deleting the question is the proper approach, and we don't need to worry about the answer.

I am mainly concerned with cases where the question is good quality, but after resolving the question the OP didn't spend an equal amount of time writing up a good answer.


  [1]: http://serverfault.com/review/low-quality-posts/144500
  [2]: http://serverfault.com/review/low-quality-posts/145559