Been noticing many questions in the "Unanswered" portion of AskDifferent that have factually correct answers. I've even spotted one frequent offender (105 questions, 61% accept rate).
What do/can/should we do with these people who take advantage of the community without following the norm/protocol of being courteous?
Appreciate advice or links to previous discussion on this.
The reason why the accept rate number is public is to provide those answering the question with the likelihood that the asker will accept an answer, possibly theirs. That withstanding, there's no rule that says that someone must accept answers to their questions.
However, the "Unanswered" tab lists questions with no accepted answer and no positively ranked answers. If you see a correct answer on a question in the Unanswered tab, upvote it. Actually, it's good practice to upvote any good, correct answer you see.
I think some sort of reminder on a monthly basis would go a long way towards users choosing an answer. Life happens and sometimes people just forget to accept an answer. I know I've done it. Something subtle to be sure such as an email to the effect "Hey, it's been a while since you looked at this post, did you want to review for a possible answer."
I have been penalised for "wrong" answers (because someone disliked without providing no reason at all) after a long time and effort to think/type/etc. So I believe it is unfair that someone could keep asking questions at will and "forget" to accept answers. Maybe he even got the solution for the problem and just went away. The email reminder is a good idea, but if the OP won't give any feedback for the subjetc I think his reputation should get down too...
