I have been answering questions from users with reputation 1, knowing fully well that chances for reward in points from up-votes, or acceptance of the answer, are low. In great part it is simply that a number of these questions tend to be less specialized and more amenable to my amateur condition; also it is a good exercise, and a community service. So no complaints.
However, it is not uncommon to see the user vanish into thin air, because they unregister, find the answer elsewhere, lose interest, take up spelunking instead feeling that it is a less slippery sport than statistics; or perhaps they are intimidated or overwhelmed by the predictable comments regarding the need for a self-study tag, or insinuations that they are simply dumping their homework on the site. I don't know the full spectrum of patterns, yet.
The question I want to raise, though, is whether it would be fair for the moderators or four-star general users to have the latitude or privilege to accept the answer by proxy after a certain period of time if they happen to run into the post, and consider that the question has been properly addressed.
If this has been addressed before, just drop a quick comment (always preferable to the cold downvote :-) ), and I'll happily erase the post, as I typically do with all my bad ideas.