In the past few days I finally had some time off work and started answering more questions on SO (mostly iOS). While doing that I stumbled upon a few users that have already asked a couple of question (5+) and did not accept any answer while some answer clearly solved the problem as the OP sometimes even says in a comment. I do not like this behavior/situation. I think these kind of situations arise from a lack of knowledge (about SO and the ask-answer-workflow) or ignorance or simply the user forgetting about the answer. He got the help he needed and is off to some place else.
The latest example is this user. Since he accepted a few answers I would guess option 3 is what happened here. I stumbled upon him in this question and am currently waiting if he will accept my answer (even if the question is closed by now).
Note that I am talking about relatively active users, nothing we can about users who visit one time only and ask a question and are off forever.
My question is now wether or not there is some kind of reminder system implemented that tells users to check back on their question containing answers where the acceptance is missing. Or if such a system has been actively thought about and discarded?
In regards to how such a system might work I was thinking about reminding the user
- from time to time
- when he accepts an answer that there are still other un-accepted questions
- when he asks a new question
- when one of his answers gets accepted
Or even more strictly disallowing any more asking of questions all together until he changed the situation.
Of course there would have to some way to remember that a user actively chose not to accept an answer, e.g. if the answers given simply did not solve the problem.
