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I asked this question and immediately self-answered it. The intent of the self-answer was to explain the socio-cultural reasons why I believe the ukulele has garnered its reputation. In explaining this, I brought up an anecdote from my own personal experience. In order to suggest that advanced education for the instrument was hard to come by, I mentioned that I could not find any good resources for learning it, and in doing so I had to claim to be at a relatively high skill level at the instrument. You can read this yourself linked below, but that's what my intent was when bringing up my own experience.

The answer in question (hehe)

I found myself facing some criticism, though, from some who suggested that this question was insincere and that I was simply using the question and self-answer for the purpose of bragging about my skill.

Personally, I don't think that was my intent at all, and I believe that there's a deep question and discussion behind my post. After all, I was establishing my own credibility, surely a time-honored practice on SE that I would say is completely necessary in many circumstances. I feel as though this has to be an extremely common tactic here to write high-quality answers here, no?

But I want to get the community's input on this. Was I in the wrong here? Does the post truly come off as vain? Is there anything I should change about my answer?

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    My read: it sounds like you have an axe to grind (or a ukelele, as the case may be). Both question and answer have a tone of "my viewpoint is an elevated one; what's wrong with society that more people aren't likeminded?" The underlying question of why ukelele isn't better known as a virtuoso instrument -- or how it's come to be so popular among amateurs -- is a good one, but it needs to be asked and answered without value judgements (or with concrete evidence to support them). – Aaron Dec 24 '20 at 4:45
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    @Aaron I don't disagree with any of your thoughts expressed here, but in my view these considerations are not strictly relevant. I think the territory or scope, ie. cultural analysis is prone to opinion. But the answer demonstrates facts to back it up, so IMO saves the question rather than harming it. – luser droog Dec 24 '20 at 6:05
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    I saw the "why don't people respect the ukulele" post just as a typical geek rant. ;) Kids get that in their teens, when they first encounter cultural myths and misconceptions, and then they start their war against windmills. Stupid parents or teachers or the general public or something. Or maybe they don't show it to anyone but they just silently think "people are stupid, but I know better". Things like, "people think this is new but it was invented by ... already in ..." or "people think that In the Army Now is Status Quo's original or that it's pro-military, but the ORIGINAL is ... " etc. – piiperi Reinstate Monica Dec 25 '20 at 13:15
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I think it was just a joke rather than a serious criticism. Answering your own question is perfectly fine and encouraged on the platform, though of course individuals will vote or comment according to their own choices.

I think you're approaching the situation with the right attitude, but there's nothing to worry about here. Point, no foul.

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I remember stumbling on that question. I don't know whether or not I was the only one to perceive it this way, but this is how things were going in my head:

"A question about ukulele? Let's see what it says... 'Why Does the Ukulele Have a Reputation as an Easy Instrument'? It does? Where does this premise come from? I never heard about it before. Did the asker made it up? Not sure, but since I don't know anything about ukulele nor music in general, I'm going to avoid assuming that their intent is to defile that instrument."

So, I did not perceive it as bragging, but I had this false impression that the question might have been oriented toward a point of view from the get go (I'm not saying that it does, but I have the bad habit of reading too much into the lines, the "unsaid stuffs").

Then again, I admit I would have a lot of trouble to phrase it differently while keeping the meaning of the question.

Ultimately, I did not read the answer on that day (I was just browsing the website). But I'm thinking that if I did, I would have started out on bad ground, because I would have implied your intent, even though it probably was wrong. Maybe that's why I avoided reading it.

TL;DR: There's nothing wrong about it beside my bad habit.

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Self-answered questions do seem to attract downvotes, regardless of the topic.

I notice that a self-answered question often is the longest answer, and tends to discuss the point more than answering it directly. IE, they're fairly waffly answers that may not get to the point. See example https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/72204

I've done this a bit in the past. Now, when asking a question where I have an answer in mind, then I wait a day before posting. That gives others a chance to answer the question, and to improve/clarify it through comments.

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