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I think one of the reason we have so many unanswered questions is because vagrant users come by --> ask a question --> get answer and never bother to come back and understand/ know how to vote ( or care).

You know something like " Hey someone took the time to answer your question on WPSE, it would be great if you took the time to respond or give them credit."

Just an idea, I know email can be a touchy subject, but we also have a drive-by question problem.

Edit** Here are some WPSE stats.

Category        Users   Total Rep   Avg Rep    % Users  % Rep  
--------------- ------- ----------  ---------- -------  ------ 
All             7,356    604,710       82.21    100.0%  100.0% 
Rep>1           4,553    601,907      132.20     61.9%   99.5%  
Rep>10          3,807    597,651      156.99     51.8%   98.8%  
Rep>100         2,706    564,470     208.607     36.8%   93.3%  
Rep>1,000          50    214,671    4,293.42      0.7%   35.5%
Rep>10,000          4     75,241   18,810.25      0.1%   12.4%  

Rep>100,000     null

Rep<10          3,518      6,749        1.92     47.8%   1.1%   
Rep<100         4,648     40,040        8.61     63.2%   6.6%   
Rep<1,000       7,306    390,039       53.39     99.3%  64.5%  
Rep<10,000      7,352    529,469       72.02     99.9%  87.6%  
[10..100]       1,132     33,491       29.59     15.4%   5.5%  
[100..1,000]    2,658    349,999      131.68     36.1%   57.9%  
[1,000..10,000]    46    139,430    3,031.09     0.6%   23.1%%

Raw query aren't saved so it's from:
Here
Using this query

4,553 users with 1 rep or under (61.9%), also there is a cliff between rep 100 --> rep 1000

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  • 2
    That's a great idea, a notification of a pending unaccepted question would be fantastic to have.
    – soulseekah
    Oct 21, 2011 at 16:39
  • 1
    @Soulseekah any question with upvoted answers is considered answered by site mechanics. It is polite and proper to accept answers, but it is not terribly important to hunt down users to make them do it.
    – Rarst
    Oct 21, 2011 at 18:33
  • 1
    It's not 'hunting down' it's just one e-mail reminder; can be very polite and kind. Maybe send it out along with the weekly newsletter that they can opt in for, could have a small section dedicated to their pending questions.
    – soulseekah
    Oct 21, 2011 at 18:35
  • 3
    Maybe this could be delayed. So if no visit was done after (ex.) 3 weeks after an answer, the mail could be triggered.
    – kaiser
    Oct 21, 2011 at 18:53

2 Answers 2

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If the email could be automatically sent by the system (i.e. not a to-do task for moderators) then this might be an OK idea.

A lot of times, the drive-by question askers are referred here by other sites (i.e. Stack Overflow, the WP forums, Twitter) and they simply aren't a regular visitor. In other cases, the asker might be a frequent SO user who somehow doesn't have their SE and WPA accounts linked together ... so they don't see a notice that they have a pending answer.

On the other hand ... just because there's an answer posted to your question doesn't mean it's the right answer or worthy of being accepted. I'm all for notifying people who've been inactive that there are new answers. But if they keep coming back and haven't accepted an answer because no quality answers have been provided, an automated email reminder will quickly become annoying.

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SE network has a history of being extremely minimal with email notifications.

Current (and recent) iteration requires user to opt-in when creating question, see Improved Global Email Notifications.

I think this is sufficient implementation and we definitely won't get any kind of emails sent out without explicit opt-in by user.

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