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Unlike StackOverflow or any other technical Q&A sites where most answers can be described as "this answer works and is correct" or "this answer does not work and is wrong", answers in Japanese SE are more subjective and are hard to decide whether they are correct or not. I'm thinking of accepting the answer that has the best and most thorough explanation, but that by itself is subjective.

For example, for my question of What is the difference between 「はずがない」 and 「わけがない」?, I found both deceze's answer and hasen j's answer are excellent so I can't decide between accepting one of them. deceze's answer gives many examples to emphasize the difference while hasen j's answer is compact yet immediately makes sense.

So, in general, how to choose which answer to accept? Let's just say that the number of upvotes should not be the primary reason to accept an answer. Or should it?

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While it may seem that StackOverflow has more clear-cut answers there are many cases where multiple answers are "correct", but the individual who asked the question must choose one to accept as THE answer.

When you ask a question you own that question, the "answer" will be the answer that you personally feel best addressed the core of the question that you raised. If other users feel that the other answers are "more correct" they can upvote them.

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you could always accept one as the answer and just upvote the other one.

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    I like Mark's idea here. I think I might also consider tagging the answer as being the one from the user with a much lower reputation score. By rewarding and thanking a new user or lurker, they may get the feeling of accomplishment and be more inclined to contribute to the site in the future.
    – rcjsuen
    Jun 1, 2011 at 12:04

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