The statistics of our site on Area 51 says that we have only 2 answers per questions instead of the required 2.5. We are still at a nascent stage and it may not be a big problem for us now. But considering the future of our site, this may become a great hindrance to graduation. The main cause for this problem is that some of us are accepting the very first answer, without waiting more answers.
For example,
- What is the panchang to be used when generating horoscope?
- Why does lord Shiva have three eyes?
- Where did Duryodhana and the Pandavas go after their death?
- In which veda(s) is Ayurveda included?
- Why is lord Hanuman known as “Pavan putra Hanuman”?
All these questions were asked just a few days before. Not even an entire week has passed after these (any many others too) have been posted and they now have an accepted (and only that) answer. I understand that they are accepting only when that first answer satisfies them. But, once they accept the first answer, others (people like me) may find it unnecessary to post another answer to the question. Some of them may also be capable of posting a better answer.
If this continues, I'm afraid that the number of answers per question may further go down and significantly prolong the existance of the site in the beta stage. In order to avoid that, I request the users to wait for a reasonable period of time before accepting the answers to their questions. This will help in increasing the number of answers for the questions.
Even after the wait, if the question doesn't draw much attention, we could try putting some bounty on the question. This will attract the attention of other users towards the question. I also suggest that we frequently check the list of unanswered questions and try to make possible contributions to the questions listed there. This will ultimately increase the answer count per question.
I welcome constructive discussions about the idea.