Should I stop answering my own questions?

Question

The website is new and I tend to ask questions and answer on my own question so that it helps the questions getting indexed as the site is in Beta stage, so will help getting good traffic from Google.

Not just that, if am aware that the software is helpful, I would like to contribute my own experience, as am using it on my cellphone, so is that really bad thing to do so?

I got a comment recently on one of my self answered question where the users says

Are you affiliated with the developers? - Deer Hunter

So what should I do to prove that am not? Should I stop answering my own questions? If it's that so than we should revoke the functionality. If users are contributing to the website than other users think negatively, so what should I do in this particular scenario?

Answer 1

Please do continue to answer your own questions! Only a small minority will bitch around (FYI Browser extension to hide all the activities of a given user on Stack Exchange, also DeerHunter didn't seem to question the self Q&A but some people do), however most people will benefit from it. I had the same issue with Quora, that was my answer:

Here are the main reasons why I sometimes add answers to questions I asked (just like I'm doing right now):

• When crowdsourcing doesn't work I do the research myself
• This allows me to store a Q&A publicly (other people might be interested, or myself in the future)
• Other people can correct/extend/etc. my answer or provide an alternative answer
• Sometimes the question I asked was actually not mine
• Quora is less likely to disappear than a personal blog
• Jeff Atwood (co-founder of Stack Exchange): It’s OK to Ask and Answer Your Own Questions, it is not merely OK to ask and answer your own question, it is explicitly encouraged.

Answer 2

(see also: What are the rules for self-answering your question?).

Personally I have nothing against self-answering - and in many cases it can be very beneficial - but I'll generally set my standard bar a bit higher. Definitely if I see a lot of self-answering by one user I'll look a bit closer to be sure it isn't advertising.

So to answer your specific questions:

• Should I stop answering my own questions?: No you don't need to stop self-answering; the amount and quality that you are using that has been totally fine.
• So what should I do to prove that am not?: Nothing at this time. Any user that looks for more than a second or too can see that your recommendations are from many different authors - so sure you theoretically could have some from you with no disclaimer but as they are generally high quality answers that wouldn't be a big problem and I'd say unlikely given your displayed community involvement. If it got to a point where you were predominately recommending from one author then perhaps you might want to think about it to make sure you were not coming across in a spammy manner (ie make extra sure they are good matches to the question reqs) . As long as your answers are high quality and good matches and you have shown good community ethics overtime (here or in the greater SE arena) proof is very unlikely to be requested and if it is you really don't have to worry about anything more than a clear statement of facts unless it is a mod. If a mod questions you than you might as well explain clearly and ask if they want any details but that is unlikely to happen.