Is it okay to have a 0% accept rate on this site?

Question

I have recently come under some criticism for having a 0% accept rate.

I want to ask the community how they feel about this.

Please note, that I do intend to accept some answers, but I feel it's a bit early to do that. Some reasons I have not yet accepted answers:

• I'm still pretty new to Islam, as a subject matter, and don't necessarily feel I'm yet in a position to determine which answer is best for all of my questions.
• Some questions I feel will likely benefit from public beta, and will likely receive new answers.
• As a person who likely has a minority opinion on this site, I don't want to look like I'm pushing a personal agenda or my own beliefs on anyone. So if I agree with a minority answer, I don't necessarily want to accept it--or at least not yet, during the early formative stages of the site.

How does the community feel about this? Do I need to bring up my accept rate, or is it okay to have a low accept rate on a site like this?

Answer 1

I personally consider it fine (so long as you're willing to accept the fact that some people may be less inclined to answer your questions because of it). I prefer to wait for an answer that I actually accept before accepting an answer, rather than just accepting a sub-par answer because I feel I need to accept something.

From http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/08/new-question-asker-features/:

It is considered good manners to accept answers on your questions, eventually, but accepting answers is not required.

As the behavior is explicitly not obligatory, I pay no actual attention to the accept rate of the poster, nor would I disparage the poster for not bettering himself in this regard. No more than I would disparage a poster for only having bronze badges (when gold badges are so obviously better). These cues are used to reward the poster for doing things "the StackExchange way", or warn them when they're not, there's no real need for me to point it out as well.

Upvote and answer good questions, downvote and close bad questions. Upvote good answers, and downvote bad answers. It should never matter who posted them, or what they decide to do with the answers when they get them.

Answer 2

I'm not even sure if accepting answers is suitable here. A lot of the other Stack Exchange sites (Math, Overload, RPG, etc) are designed in a way where there are problem, and answers which solve that problem.

With Islam SE, there are often conflicting answers from different perspectives. All of them can be good answer, but it might seem rude to actually consider one answer true. Some questions, like legal rulings may have an answer that fixes the problem. Some questions are more open-ended, like "What does Islam think of (so and so)" and have conflicting answers from Sunni and Shia', modern and traditionalist, for example.

Answer 3

Accepting an answer does not mean that it is the best answer. It means that answer helped you the most.

Besides that, I understand waiting until Public Beta, but don't wait too long. Some people want bother answering your question if they think they have no chance of it getting accepted.

Answer 4

I think it is OK for a number of reasons at this point

1. You are personally aware and concerned about this.
2. You are looking forward to improve on that
3. The site is in beta and to be honest, there are no great answers here yet.
4. You have been an active member of the beta. That makes you somewhat privileged member.

So at this point, it is totally acceptable to have a very low acceptance rate.