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I was looking at my previous questions and noticed that I have a question Is there a simple GUI-based program available to join/combine mp3 files? that has (rightly) be closed, but I could mark the answer there as the accepted answer if I wish.

Is this just a quirk of the system or is there a reason why it is still possible to mark answers as accepted when the question ha been closed

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  • Sounds like a quirk of the system to me.
    – jrg Mod
    Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 10:53
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    Why not? The purpose of closing isn't to stop people from saying "This is a great answer that works for me"; it's to stop people from wasting their efforts duplicating answers and creating unnecessary splintering. If we don't delete answers to duplicates, it seems reasonable to allow them to be accepted.
    – Chan-Ho Suh
    Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 11:02
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    @Chan-HoSuh If the answer is great it should be merged with the duplicate, if the question is closed as off topic or not constructive then it shouldn't be possible to accept or give reputation as those answers won't be relevant.
    – coversnail
    Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 11:07
  • How does the person that's merging know which answer to merge, or realize (without a whole lot of effort) that there's even a good answer that maybe should be merged?
    – Chan-Ho Suh
    Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 12:34
  • @Chan-HoSuh We do the work, and flag good answers for merging, so a moderator knows. If it's actually a terrible answer, it should get voted down anyway.
    – belacqua
    Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 17:44
  • Your reasoning applies to non-dupes too, @belacqua, in the following way: there is no need for accepted answers since voters do the work and vote up good answers and vote down bad answers. But the reason we have accepting of answers is that it allows those asking to voice their opinion on what is the most helpful. My point is that there is no reason to take away this functionality from dupes just because of closure.
    – Chan-Ho Suh
    Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 19:41
  • I just realized people responding here might might be overlooking that sometimes you can't tell whether an answer works unless it is accepted.
    – Chan-Ho Suh
    Commented Jun 8, 2012 at 19:57
  • @Chan-HoSuh You may want to consider posting an answer based on your comments.
    – Eliah Kagan
    Commented Jun 11, 2012 at 18:07

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