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Unfortunately I am seeing more and more people creating a temporary account on "Stackoverflow/and others" just to make a question (no matter's the reason) but the issue here is when they never return to validate an answer.

I am sure many good people spend time (a lot sometimes) trying to help by answer the question, but in the end there is never a "reward" for this time, because of this so called "parasite users" that never return.

I am wondering if is this an issue with some future solution (implemented on the system)?

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Downvotes on meta signify disagreement. I personally disagree with your premise that there is a problem. –  Oded Jan 10 '13 at 12:09
You eventually manage to pick up a 6th sense to detect these kinds of users; then it's your decision whether you want to proceed with an answer or not. Check their accept rate. Check the quality of the unedited version of their question; does the time they spent formatting their question warrant you to spend your time answering it? –  Matt Jan 10 '13 at 12:10
If any one of those accounts gets banned. that computer with that ip address is lost. meta.stackexchange.com/questions/86997/… –  Sibi Jan 10 '13 at 12:12
Oded, with all due respect, but do you think that is nice to "use and abuse" of people generosity and kindness and never return to choose a correct answer (and there are almost a correct answer to choose from) ? Meanwhile I really do not understand your downvote. –  Dryadwoods Jan 10 '13 at 12:13
I would also say this issue is more widespread in some tags facebook, javascript, php, than in others c++, for example. –  Matt Jan 10 '13 at 12:13
do you think that is nice to "use and abuse"... of course it's not, but our point is it doesn't matter that much. As Matt says, you eventually develop a sixth sense for those kinds of users. I often add comments asking for clarification, and wait for OPs to provide it before I answer - if they come back, it's a very good indicator they actually care. Users who give their real name, and add a gravatar are also more likely to be invested in their account. –  Pëkka Jan 10 '13 at 12:20
@Dryadwoods - Well. Consider the people who never register on the site, never post a question or an answer, never vote on anything. They only come to the site and gasp horror, find answers to questions they have! How abusive are they? –  Oded Jan 10 '13 at 12:42
Not all of us care about reputation... personally I answer questions to help people, not for the "reward" of reputation. If I help someone with their problem, I'm happy. I suspect many people are the same way because after a certain point, reputation doesn't mean that much. –  Rachel Jan 10 '13 at 14:16
@Dryadwoods aside from what others have commented its worth pointing out that your answer can be up voted by other users aside from the OP, and just two up votes already results in more rep then the answer being accepted. –  Jack Jan 10 '13 at 14:39

1 Answer 1

up vote 11 down vote accepted

We don't care if the question asker is using a temporary account. What we care about is quality questions and answers.

We already have mechanisms in place to deal with low-quality posts; we can vote, vote to close and flag for moderator action.

So, for low quality questions (regardless of whom asked it), just downvote, or flag or vote to close.

Note that if an account continues to create posts that are of low quality, they run the risk of acquiring a posting ban. A posting ban extends to other accounts from the same ip address, and moderators have further tools to detect new accounts created by people with a ban.

Also be aware of the fact that being awarded a 'answer accepted' flag is never a given, on any question, of any quality. It's the question asker's prerogative, 'temporary account' or otherwise.

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