user32: We are now in the public beta, which means it is a good time to start trying to get people to accept answers–especially after they have been around for a few days. 
What are some ways we can help encourage the practice of accepting answers? 

user289: In the comments, remind people of the benefits of marking an answer:

The community can shift their focus to other questions
Future readers get one more clue about what the best answer is (answer acceptance usually matches the highest vote, sometimes not)
It makes the community look good, although hopefully not artificially so.


user157: I totally agree with this. We should move towards accepting of answers now. I appreciate that sometimes it feels as if the 'perfect' answer is still out there but if the question is a week or two old the question might have gone cold and it might be time to round it out with an accepted answer. Stack Overflow used to flag up on people's profile how many answers that they accepted. I kind of liked that though I know it was felt to be counterproductive so was dropped.
Also your preferred answer might not be the top scoring one and that is really worth knowing.In this spirit I have accepted my first answer. Felt good!!

32: <p>We are now in the public beta, which means it is a good time to start trying to get people to accept answers–especially after they have been around for a few days. </p>

<p>What are some ways we can help encourage the practice of accepting answers? </p>
 289: <p>In the comments, remind people of the benefits of marking an answer:</p>

<ul>
<li>The community can shift their focus to other questions</li>
<li>Future readers get one more clue about what the best answer is (answer acceptance usually matches the highest vote, sometimes not)</li>
<li>It makes the community look good, although hopefully not artificially so.</li>
</ul>
 157: <p>I totally agree with this. We should move towards accepting of answers now. I appreciate that sometimes it feels as if the 'perfect' answer is still out there but if the question is a week or two old the question might have gone cold and it might be time to round it out with an accepted answer. Stack Overflow used to flag up on people's profile how many answers that they accepted. I kind of liked that though I know it was felt to be counterproductive so was dropped.</p>

<p>Also your preferred answer might not be the top scoring one and that is really worth knowing.In this spirit I have accepted my first answer. Felt good!!</p>
