What is the value to the user of having "open" and "closed" status for questions on a Forum?

Question

I am creating a Question and Answer forum for a client and am thinking twice about including an "open", "answered" or "closed" status to questions...as opposed to having these conversations just pan out and have them all be open forever.

Originally, I would think the Open / Answered / Closed status is the first thing responders use as an indicator to decide which questions to answer first. I.e. Give first priority to unanswered questions.

But on the other hand, I have a voting mechanism (like SE's) that should sort out the best answers from the worst at any point in time. And I have a notification system that notifies all the community whenever a question has been posted...so everybody hast a list of pending questions

And I have a colleague that claims that having the different question status would add too much complexity to the forum interaction ("how does the asker thank the responder?" With an upvote or saying the answer is correct?).

I know this might sound like an obvious question. But I am trying to figure out if there are any additional benefits for the open / answered / closed status for questions. thanks!

Answer 1

I'd suggest Answered and Closed are the same, so you're only adding the possibility for 1 additional status.

The Answered/Closed status indicates that a satisfactory answer has been given. The benefit of that is primarily to users who find the thread when looking for an answer to the same question - it indicates that it's worth investing the time to look at the post.

A secondary (?) benefit is the satisfaction of the one who's answer is accepted by the OP. As a user of a number of SE sites, I can personally say that getting your answer accepted does a lot to encourage a return visit ;)