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This question of mine didn't get much attention, but from a comment I was able to get an answer, which I posted after I checked it. I know that answering one's own questions is ok, but I'm wondering what is the policy on accepting them.

I gave an answer which I think is right, but I can't be sure since I'm still very new at that topic, so I tried to get the attention of the commenter which suggested the approach, but that did not work out. Then, I edited the answer to include a little comment asking for a comment about the correctness of my answer in order to accept it, but this did not work either.

So I'm wondering, what should I do next? Just accept the answer as is or what?

Actually, this begs another question (which I think is sort of unrelated): is it ok to edit one's question as little as possible in order for it to get "bumped"? When I did it I felt a bit guilty, since I think of it as cheating.

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    $\begingroup$ Actually, it raises another question. To beg a question is a logical fallacy in which you essentially assume that your conclusion is true as part of your premise. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Jan 29, 2016 at 18:53

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Answering and accepting one's own question is perfectly fine, as long as you asked the original question in good faith.

There's even a badge for that.

If you are not sure whether your question is correct, you can always wait a couple more days before you accept it. Questions with no accepted answers tend to gather more views, so you are more likely to have another user examine your proposed answer.

Note that another way of giving "incentive" for people to look at your question is to issue a bounty on it! After you start a bounty, the question will appeared in the "Featured" panel on the Main Page.

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  • $\begingroup$ actually, I was starting to think about a bounty, since the question is now kind of old. Thanks for the advice $\endgroup$
    – Andy
    Jul 23, 2011 at 15:17
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As others have said, there's nothing wrong with accepting your own answer.

Note that, however, you do not get the +2 rep bonus for accepting an answer nor do you get the +15 rep for writing an accepted answer when you accept your own answer.

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If your answer is the right answer, then you are certainly entitled to accept it. The acceptance process should ideally be answerer-independent: it should only depend on the content of the answer.

I think edit-bumps are fine. They indicate, correctly, that you are still interested in the question, and therefore that it would help someone if they put time into answering it. They are better than answer-bumps, which might be responses to a question from a user who is never coming back. If you feel guilty about it, perhaps you should add a bounty when you do this.

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  • $\begingroup$ the problem is I can't know the answer is right. It looks right to me, but I can't be sure. I mean, it is kind of a hard question for me. :) $\endgroup$
    – Andy
    Jul 23, 2011 at 15:12

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