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What should I do if I get the answer to my question, but it's scattered over multiple answers? Should I pick something and accept or just leave it unaccepted? Request additional info in comments of the currently best answer (but then again the answerer will need to copy parts of the other answers)?

Example: What should I look for in a monitor for photo processing?

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This kind of question cannot have such a thing as a "correct" answer. This means (in my opinion) two things:

  • It should probably be a community wiki - it's not a question that has an answer, so the full Q&A thread could be considered a "living document".
  • No answer will be the answer - since there is no clear correct answer, none should be marked.

The fact that you don't mark any accepted answer could affect you "accepted answer rate", but luckily the accepted answer rate does not take community wiki posts into the calculation, so this is not really a problem. Just leave it open. This could also open up for more answers being submitted. Selecting an accepted answer can have the effect of "killing" the thread; no more answers are submitted since there is already an accepted answer.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ In this case I wouldn't use the word "correct", but rather "exhaustive". My problem is not that the answer is incorrect, but there are multiple answers that in compiled form would be something to accept. \$\endgroup\$
    – Karel
    Jul 30, 2010 at 17:21
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In this case it's a question with a clear answer, it just happens that no single answer contains the complete answer -- it's spread between many answers.

Someone could come along and create a new summary answer and you could accept that one, or you could just not accept any answer.

I don't think this is a community wiki situation.

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I provided one of the answers to this question. I could add some of the other information you are interested in, however, I did not want to steal from other peoples answers. Even if you do choose one particular answer as the "chosen answer", the other good answers ratings will keep them higher up the list.

Another possibility is that you answer the question yourself, gathering up all the information you feel was most helpful, and accepting that. Its ok to self-answer questions, and its ok to accept your own answer as the chosen answer.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The only feeling worse than earning rep from accepting my own answer is compiling the answer from other peoples answers AND earning rep from it :) Although I'm not sure if rep is awarded in this case. \$\endgroup\$
    – Karel
    Jul 31, 2010 at 7:48

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