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I've answered a few questions so far in my short time using chess.SE, and I've been flattered that a number of them have been accepted rather quickly. I do think these were pretty good answers, probably worthy of being accepted; that's why I posted them, after all. However, I've noticed that this quick acceptance is a trend occurring with many of the questions getting asked, and I think that those active users who are asking a lot of questions (and thus doing a great service toward growing the site!) might be able to do a further service by waiting a spell before actually accepting answers. (Sometimes it might make no sense to wait, but I'm speaking generally here.)

Once a question is marked as having an accepted answer, I think folks will be somewhat less likely to post additional answers. Maybe it only makes it a little less likely, but my point is this: we're hoping to grow the site right now, and as new users come by, the more "open" questions around, the more likely they are to start joining the conversation. Moreover, aside from the growth aspect, accepting an answer too quickly (even one you think is nice), might just lead you to missing out on some other great, better answer, say from a slightly different perspective no one else has thought of.

So my suggestion to superstar question askers: once you've posted a question, maybe hold off 24 hours before clicking "accept." This will encourage more answers from more sources. I also think this could lead to more voting, as users will be keen to support one option over others (or support them all!). It's great that you want to put a further stamp on nice answers beyond voting them up, and it's a good thing to do so, but there's really no rush. It'll still be there for accepting tomorrow, and maybe some better alternative will be too. :-)

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  • +1. I usually am slow to accept an answer on SE. The reason is precisely as you suggest.
    – thb
    Jul 5, 2012 at 18:29

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Real focus now needs to be in my opinion on the matters that are important:

  • 15+ Questions a day, that are "expert" chess question that meet SE rules
  • Expert answers, honestly think that's covered
  • Grow the community

SE ecosystem is design and tested - and while I understand the urge to want people to vote, and questions to get the best answer, right now this seems like over optimization. Beyond that, it would be an issue is users were not selecting answers, so my suggestion would be to focus on matters that will lead to the success of the site, and to me, I don't see the issue of telling people to wait to select an answer as being of value. (Also, I might note that the top user rep wise post answers even if an answer is selected; which is to say, there's nothing to stop you from posting a great answers, and I don't believe it would go unnoticed, especially given the volume of questions.)

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    +1. My main focus with bringing this up at all was just on trying to have as many "loose ends" available as possible to make it more inviting for brand new users (who might be less inclined to add additional answers than Andrew is) to dive into the topics they find. But, like I said above, I suppose folks might only be slightly less likely to do so when there's an accepted answer. In any case, meta doesn't seem to think this is a big deal.
    – ETD
    May 25, 2012 at 1:13
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What about doing something like stackoverflow where you can only accept an answer 10 minutes after it was posted. This would give others time to come up with answers and it would also give others incentive to write answers because one was not accepted yet. The first answer is usually the accepted on, but this shouldn't be the case.

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    I hope it's not a 10 minutes matter.
    – Nikana Reklawyks
    Nov 27, 2012 at 4:45

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