When there is only one answer to a question, should that answer eventually become a best answer by default?

There is a legal term called easement, which basically means that if somebody uses your property, and you fail to defend its use or set up an agreement over it, you could lose this property to the user after a set period of time (ususally up at 10 years or something).

This same principle applies with knowledge. If somebody gives an erroneous answer--be it incomplete or just wrong--and you do not correct it, then YES, it must be the best answer.

Of course, I do think that shallow answers are dumb, and I wish people would actually put some thought into what they say once in a while! I was only answering your question from a TECHNICAL standpoint.

Users who "abandon" yahoo answers should be completely erased from the system.

That might mean a nonsense answer joining the ranks of "Best Answer."

Deleting or letting a one-answer question age off could lead to losing a whole bunch of good answers.

What I'd like to see is some sort of peer review of these one-answer questions. A vote of some sort, maybe a choice between acceptable or not acceptable. I've always favored "none of the above" for the election process.

In one group that I've participated in, simple suggestions are decided by simple majorities, the method currently used here. More complex questions and questions that affect more people or the basic foundation of the group are moved into the category of needing a *substantial* majority. That is, they must get from 2/3 to 3/4 majority in order to be passed. Questions that cannot gain a substantial majority are considered too closely equal to be fairly applied to the whole group.

I bring that up, since I introduced the idea of voting to this question, because I've seen a great many questions, many of my own in fact, decided by one vote and only three have been cast.

Let's keep chewing on these topics, here or with the hamster. One tenet of psychology is that as group input increases, average intelligence goes down but average judgement improves. We don't need a good answer, we need a wise one.

Some of these answers should be chosen as best, but I think in the majority of cases the reason the question is still open is because they didn't get a satisfactory answer. More people would put worthless answers in if they knew that they would get the ten points so long as no one else answered.

(Update) I've gone through some of your old questions and added answers, so that should help get them resolved.

No, someone could have given you an answer that is in no such way related to the question. Example: "Thanks for the 2 points."