I would add the advice:
Do not randomly accept or upvote an answer after only a few hours (sometimes a few minutes) just because the writer is particularly eloquent or has a high reputation. Leave the question open 1 day or more.
I've seen a lot of accepted or upvoted answers being either completely wrong or lacking a lot of details (1 or two sentences) as if the answerer did a 1 minute google search, picked up something that would fit as a quick answer and just posted his guess to be the first to get upvotes like it is a popularity contest. (oh and I've seen downvoted quality answers as well...)