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Not really a discussion, more of a cautionary tale:

I sometimes write answers that are basically just compilations of facts that have already been noticed in comments to the question, but which I think add up to a resolution of the problem. Usually I mark these answers as CW, because I don't think my essentially clerical contribution warrants me getting reputation from upvotes.

Recently I noticed that when the OP accepted this answer (which was CW because originally it was only one line), the OP did not receive the usual +2 rep for accepting an answer.

It appears to be by design that accepting a CW answer does not gain the OP +2, but it was certainly not my intention to penalize the OP in that way when I CW-ed my answer.

In the future I think I will just write ordinary answers and soak up the unearned rep gain myself.

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    $\begingroup$ There is also a meta.SO thread on this: Why doesn't accepting a CW answer for a not CW question give reputation? But I did not find any explanation there, either. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Aug 25, 2012 at 13:45
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    $\begingroup$ Perhaps I am mistaken, but my impression is that relatively few people actually care about the +2 rep for accepting answers--it's essentially a trivial amount of reputation. But I agree that it makes no sense to penalize the OP for accepting a CW answer over other, non-CW answers. $\endgroup$
    – Charles Staats
    Aug 25, 2012 at 16:02
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    $\begingroup$ Even secretaries get paid :-) Seriously, the ideas should be put into an answer, and compiling comments deserves some reward. $\endgroup$
    – robjohn Mod
    Aug 25, 2012 at 17:15
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    $\begingroup$ Agreeing with robjohn. I don't think your rep gain is unearned, but if you are uncomfortable with it, you could always offer it as a bounty on some question you'd like to see answered. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Aug 26, 2012 at 0:25
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    $\begingroup$ @GerryMyerson: My conscience is perfectly comfortable with receiving the points. It's my vanity that worries about giving the impression that I'm leeching on others' work. Nothing to see here, move along. :-) $\endgroup$
    – hmakholm left over Monica
    Aug 26, 2012 at 0:41

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