tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (Accepting an answer for a community-wiki question)

WillieWong comments on "Accepting an answer for a community-wiki question" (12355)

2011-01-03T08:11:53-08:00

There's of course the one exception to the rule: when the question gets edited too many times by the OP....

Anton Geraschenko comments on "Accepting an answer for a community-wiki question" (12313)

2011-01-02T01:24:52-08:00

I agree with Scott. It almost always strikes me as really weird when a CW question has an accepted answer.

Scott Carnahan comments on "Accepting an answer for a community-wiki question" (12304)

2011-01-01T14:10:39-08:00

I don't think it is necessary, and I would discourage it in most cases. There have been some big-list CW questions where one answer was accepted from a large pool, and to me, the choice often seemed to be rather strange and arbitrary.

If I remember correctly, designating a CW answer as accepted does not award any points to the account that started the answer.

Timothy Chow comments on "Accepting an answer for a community-wiki question" (12303)

2011-01-01T13:18:46-08:00

Ideally, is one supposed to accept an answer even for a community-wiki question for which, by definition, there is no single right answer? I looked at a few of the most popular big-list questions on MO and did not see a de facto consensus on the matter. I ask because common sense suggests that it is ridiculous for me to, say, accept one of the 50+ answers to my recent question about the Museum of Mathematics as the "right answer"; at the same time, I get the vibe that one is always "supposed" to accept an answer unless no satisfactory answers are provided.