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I just attempted to change my favored answer to a new reply here and I got 2 points reduced reputation as not having an answer accepted. The context is that the answer was accepted before it turned to community wiki, thus reputation was given. If I change now, the system assumes that I unmarked the answer more appropriated like I did not choose any other, when in fact I am accepting other answer (after it turned wiki). The end result is deducing reputation.

Is this a glitch or was it intended to be like this? If it is intended to be like this, would someone mind explaining the reasoning? In a way it sort of kept me from moving my answer to a possible more appropriate one, it might keep other people to move the acceptable one as well.

Just after changing answer after it turned to CW (notice the -2):

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Then if I click back on the original answer (notice the 2):

enter image description here

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This is by-design. There is no reputation conferred to you when accepting an answer that is community-wiki.

What is more important than rep is if the answer best answers your question - if you feel it does, then you should mark it as the accepted answer.

Don't get too hung up on not gaining +2 points for accepting the CW answer; as you contribute quality posts (which you are doing!), you'll get this back many times over.

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    $\begingroup$ Thank you, this was inspiring :) Im highlighting them on the original post edited as well although this doesn't seem as an unusual practice, but as a wiki user I ended up organizing as that by preference since I can't go on editing each answer. Im glad that post ended up as a cw, the amounts of views have been considerable now for what I expected. $\endgroup$
    – Oeufcoque Penteano
    Apr 10, 2012 at 4:32
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    $\begingroup$ I don't think it is acceptable to say that losing points is no big deal. When points can be lost for silly reasons these losses can pile up. $\endgroup$
    – Michael R. Chernick
    May 9, 2012 at 17:00
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I am not sure I understand your question correctly, so please leave a comment if I'm completely off track. Community-wiki owned threads do not allow you, or your answerers, to earn reputation; this apply as soon as the CW mark has been checked. In this case, accepting an answer allows it to stay on top of the responses queue but nobody will earn any reputation (+2 for OP, +15 for answerer) following that action. I don't see any loss of reputation in your history:

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However it happened that your post has been turned to CW automatically because of your numerous edits. Please, consult What are “Community Wiki” posts? for more information. Note that all relevant badges apply in this case (nice question, popular question, nice answer, etc.).

Besides, I would encourage you to read our FAQ and get familiar with how this site works. In particular, you can use the comment box to leave specific reply to your answerers, rather than updating your question with a lot of edits that are just comments. Editing a question is useful to provide additional information when it is requested through, e.g., a general comment, or when it sounds like the question hasn't been understood the way it should. Vote on replies you found useful; that will allow the system to rank them by relevance. Mark an answer as accepted if you think that solved your problem.

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  • $\begingroup$ Hello, thanks for the pointers. I will clean up the question using the pointers given here and by @whuber soon! However, there was indeed a loss of reputation. It dropped from 53 to 51 when I did this. Currently there is no loss of reputation because I switched back to the original accepted answer, and them it moved to 53. Does this make it more clear? I just switched the answer again, my reputation dropped from 58 to 56. I added a figure to the original question as well. $\endgroup$
    – Oeufcoque Penteano
    Apr 5, 2012 at 16:06
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    $\begingroup$ Well, that probably means that you got your +2 before the thread turned to CW. After CW, you won't earn anything more, except badges. I guess the system is trying to accommodate rep gain depending on timestamp. Answers posted before the post became CW-owned won't turn to CW, so the one you elected will get +15. $\endgroup$
    – chl
    Apr 5, 2012 at 16:30
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I'll make a value judgement (which the other posters seem to be reluctant to do): in my opinion, this is probably a misfeature or undesirable consequence of the way CW works. The site sometimes feels a bit too aggressive in turning something to CW, and that has unexpected consequences that create weird incentives, as you outlined.

In the grand scope of things, it is a minor problem, so the answer is to just live with it; it's only two points, and we don't want people to get too obsessed over points anyway. But I just wanted you to know that I hear you. I think your confusion and puzzlement over why you lost reputation is entirely valid and understandable. I think the current behavior is probably less than ideal, though I do understand it is a tradeoff between many factors. In any case, I'd guess it's probably not going to get changed, given that it has a relatively small effect.

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  • $\begingroup$ I agree with you! Either way I opted for the best answer and not the 2 reputation points, so its all good :) $\endgroup$
    – Oeufcoque Penteano
    Apr 10, 2012 at 21:31

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