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I expect that when someone asks a question, he/she must eventually either pick one of the presented answers or leave the question open.

What I see happening a lot is that, questions are left open for long time without an answer being chosen. If I contribute an answer to such questions, I never get to know whether my answer was read by the person who asked the question or not or even if they are still interested in more answers to be posted to that question.

It might require some software change but this is important in my opinion.

What do you think?

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  • I wonder why would any one down-vote a question as long as it is in scope and is valid!
    – NoChance
    Nov 20, 2011 at 11:05
  • 2
    Downvotes on meta generally mean "I dont agree with you" not that your question is invalid or off topic. Not the same as main site, no rep loss.
    – yannis
    Nov 20, 2011 at 13:57
  • @YannisRizos: Interesting business rule. Thanks.
    – NoChance
    Nov 21, 2011 at 5:24

1 Answer 1

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I never get to know whether my answer was read by the person who asked the question

So what? If your answer has at least one upvote, there's someone out there that either agrees with you or found your answer beneficial*. Why is it important that the person who originally asked the question reads your answer?

The way I see it the answers are answers for the community and not for the person asking, the same way the questions are to the community. Even on questions with selected answers, if you feel you can provide a different perspective that would be beneficial to the community, go for it.

I've read a few of your answers, they are good, and the community seems to agree with me (4k rep in three months), hope you don't get discouraged over this.

AFAIK there are a few nagging mechanisms (notifications and such) in place for people with low accept rates or really old questions without accepted answers, but I don't see any point in doing much more.

* Assuming the system works as intended.

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  • 1
    Excellent summary of how the system works (or doesn't depending on your point of view!)
    – ChrisF Mod
    Nov 19, 2011 at 22:53
  • @Yannis Rizos, thanks for your explanation and complement. I still think, that a Close function is of value - But that is just my opinion (as I am already getting negative ratings already!).
    – NoChance
    Nov 20, 2011 at 5:53

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