Is it in bad Answerbag form to occasionally provide an answer to one of your own questions?
by 
Ruby Doomsday
ANSWERS: 11
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No, I do :-p
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I don't think so. Good time to bring up some AB History. There are a lot of questions out there that used to be "glossary terms" (example http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/14989) and were not questions when they started out. And note the date. . .way before AB had points, so it wasn't just a ploy for points as some might think. A few older users, such as myself, also asked questions in an effort to build the site up, so you will see lots of questions and answers like that as well. Note: Qs were not always attributed to a specific user--only answers showed who answered them. People frown on it now and wonder why a person would ask a question only to answer it themselves, so not many people do that anymore. Of course, AB is big enough now to where no "building" is required either. I have answered some of my own questions just to be participatory if it's a fun question, but I will ask that it not be rated (see http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/2106581).
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I think it depends on the question sometimes. One practice that I thought was in bad form was when someone answered all of their own questions.
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No. We can actually answer our own questions here. Under "What to do now", you can see "See or answer my question." It only means we are allowed to answer our own questions.
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If no one else is willing to, yes.
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I think it's acceptable to answer your own "personal opinion" question. Chances are the membership would like to know your opinion as well.
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No, it's just a little odd is all. Although most of the time when people answer their own questions it's because there wasn't enough room in the question box to finish what they were saying.
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Sure, God forbid one should think for themselves. ;)
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Not taboo, but in many cases bad etiquette in certain circumstances. An example is asking a question that exposes people's opinions and then answering it yourself with an answer denouncing everyone who selected certain answers. It ends up being a setup for a pre-planned attack. In some cases it is logical. An example of that would be "what is your favorite movie?" No big deal in answering it. I don't mind people answering their own question except when it is obviously a setup for an argument.
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I hope not because I have done it a couple of times
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No... It's not taboo, but people may look at it funny if you ask a question with a single answer ("Who sang "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy?") and answer it yourself, especially if you almost immediately do so. I asked one early on in my AB career, and no one answered it. Later, I found the answer, and answered the question. No one complained. Also, for older question, it MAY be a way to "bump" them back to the home page, allowing newer and maybe more people to answer. (I wouldn't do this too often, especially in a short period of time, as THEN people WILL get POed.) And, because AB only allows 255 characters for questions, sometimes you will answer to expand on that question. (If you have it in a text-based system, can copy-and-paste it into the question and answer fast enough, and get the answer to appear, you can grab the permalink and put it in the "reference URL" of the question. If you do this, it might be best to end the question part with "(See my answer in link)" or "(see link for more)", so people know.
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