I see a lot of these around this SE and others, especially Super User, in which there will be answers to questions, sometimes upwards of 5 of more (see here), but the author has not selected an answer as they see fit.
I suppose my question is multi-tiered:
Could an answer be selected by the community at large? For example, the highest number of votes is chosen as the main answer after a set amount of time.
Could the user be notified of outstanding questions to which they have not selected an answer?
Can the bounty system be used to incentivize the user to choose an answer?
I assume that many new users don't understand the concept of choosing an answer as their solution, but this is an integral part of SE and how it's ranking system works. On Superuser, for example, I have answered plenty of questions, but the user simply comments "thanks" or something along those lines, and doesn't do anything more. This breaks the progression of a user, and stops them from being recognized as a more productive or trustworthy member. Again, the issue is not as prominent on Arqade, but I do notice it from time to time.