Why do so many not choose a best answer but let it go to voting?

I have noticed this too. Not only do flippant answers get voted for, but also really well-informed or researched answers get ignored.

Some people cannot be bothered to pick an answer for themselves once they have the information they want. Others do not know what is the genuinely correct answer so they leave it to someone else to decide. Many people treat the website not as a genuine source of information but as a game or pastime. Some sections draw more absurd comments than others, and whilst quite a few people have a genuine sense of humour and their answers can be hilarious, others have a perverse turn of mind. Finally there are the people who will vote at random just to accumulate points and do not care about whether what they have picked is the correct answer or not..

It takes all sorts, but I agree it is frustrating to have spent time to write an informative answer for it to be discarded in favour of something that is irrelevant or even completely wrong. However you have the satisfaction to know that YOU provided the correct answer whether this is rewarded or not by points that actually bring you nothing in the long run since there are no prizes or no winnwers at the end of the road.

Choosing the best answer is the fun bit, isn't it? And you get five points (I think). The ones that aren't followed up often seem to be homework questions, where presumably the person just looks for the answer & then goes on to the next question, or the ones where the questioner gets insulted, or there are lots of joky answers but nothing really worthy of Best.

The reason some silly answers are chosen as Best is because you can go back and vote for your own! (Shh, don't tell anyone) although they don't count towards your percentage of best answers.

Most answers are given in the 1st hour after a question was posted. However, you can't choose "best answer" until 4 hours have elapsed. Some people just don't have the attention span necessary to come back, LOL!

By the way, your 4 hours are up, hint, hint.

True, but if i choose an answer too quickly yahoo tells me to give it a couple more days, then i forget or don't have time to go back and the answer is chosen for me.

I have a feeling some just post the questions to give us something to do and have no intention of reading the answers.

Surely you're not taking this seriously? My few best answers, which I really don't want to see as that's not what I'm on this site for, have been bollocks man!

I agree! I think that choosing Best Answer is part of the fun of all this.

I do it because I want my points back lol. Im hoping no best answer is picked.

some people are to lazy and get everyone else to do the hard work for them

true true pick me!!!!!!!!!!!!!