My question comes from different observations:
This site is still in beta, and the stats on area51 shows that one point which needs to be improved on this site is the answer ratio: At the time of the writing of this question we have an average of 1.8 answer per question when the recommended ratio is 2.5 of more
These same stats shows that 96% of the questions are marked as answered which is pretty good.
I can't find this information but from what I have experienced the community is pretty reactive and good answers generally come pretty quickly (most of the time less than a day).
This is the subjective point of my reflexion but I tend to think that when an answer is marked as accepted users will be less inclined to take the time to add new answers even if there is probably other informations or valuable solutions which could be shared.
This leads to my question: What is the best amount of time to mark an answer as accepted?
When a good answer appears should we accept it quickly or would it be more interesting to let the answer unaccepted for several days in the hope to attract other answers?
If leaving the answer unaccepted is better, how long should it stay unaccepted?