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As a typical scenario, assume I ask for examples of some mathematical phenomenon and somebody answers my question and provides 2 families of examples. After several months, I figure a third family of examples which is worth mentioning as an additional answer to my question.

Should I answer my own question in order to make the Q-A more complete and useful for others?

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    $\begingroup$ Yes, of course. $\endgroup$
    – Andrés E. Caicedo
    Commented Aug 28, 2013 at 5:54

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Yes, Indeed you can gain a bronze badge as a self-learner by answering your own question, providing that your answer scores 3 or more. That means MO supports self-learning by principle.

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  • $\begingroup$ does that also cover the case of reference requests, if no satisfactory feedback came? I have the concrete case that I found a solution for something and would like to know if others also did; the formally 'correct' way would be to publish the result elsewhere and then supply a link to my publication as an answer to my MO question - should I instead take the shortcut an 'publish' the result as an answer to my reference request on MO? $\endgroup$
    – Manfred Weis
    Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 10:59
  • $\begingroup$ It seems that as far as self-learning concerns it doesn't matter you publish or "publish" your work. However, I personally prefer to publish my work and only then "publish" it. However, I think it would be a nice question asking about the advantages and disadvantages of the order of publishing and "publishing". Perhaps, you want to post a separate question in that direction. $\endgroup$
    – Amir Asghari
    Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 11:17
  • $\begingroup$ @ManfredWeis: I have already done that in one my questions, see mathoverflow.net/q/133662/23860 $\endgroup$
    – user23860
    Commented Sep 3, 2013 at 14:15

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