<p>I'm seeing a current trend towards many questions only receiving a single answer, and according the the <a href="http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/82438/3d-printing">Area 51</a> stats, we ought to have an <em>average</em> closer to 2.5. Granted that some questions are really only in need of a single (obvious) answer, I think we're missing something here.</p>

<p>I've seen a few questions with 'answers in the comments', which is understandable if a user wants to make a drive-by quick tip, but we should really be encouraging them to try and come back later to get the points due to them.</p>

<p>Are users put off by an expectation that a wrong answer might lose them rep? Or by an overly high (assumed) expectation for making an answer?</p>

<p>What can we do to raise ApQ, without dropping answer quality significantly?</p>

<p>Some thoughts from IoT meta on why <a href="https://iot.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/291">more answers are good</a>.</p>

Well done for bringing this up. I was looking at those numbers too.
Referring to
this post
, almost all of the stats are improving (albeit) slowly, except for one, the ApQ
Are users put off by an expectation that a wrong answer might lose them rep?
It seems that way. Without wishing to provide a link to the actual comment, I noticed a comment the other day that suggested as much, and a nicely detailed comment was left instead.
To be fair, I feel that way sometimes, and often hesitate (maybe rightly so to save myself from spamming the site) in posting questions on SE.Meta, as there are a number of drive-by downvoters there
1
. Unless you have a definite bug that you are able to document clearly or have a well rounded proposal that can be implemented easily, then your question may end up downvoted. This is probably rightly so, TBH, in most cases, but nevertheless it can be discouraging.
If you don't have much hard-earned rep then you may be less willing to risk it by posting a informative answer, that only answers half the question.  Is that a bad thing? Well, it is a double edged sword. It is a good thing, because that promotes good solid answers, but with the downside that you point out (a lack of multiple answers per question).
What can we do? Probably, not much other than creating a small community by promoting a friendly environment and communicating more clearly... Inviting people to chat in the chatroom, being more welcoming (with Hi and welcome), actually helping people without the old "Did you google this?" immediately.  All of these things help a lot. And which we seem to have developed of late. So we seem to be getting there.
I know that a number of members have already been adding answers to single answer questions as well as tackling the unanswered queue too. The more people that help the better...
1
Don't get me wrong, I looove (justified) downvotes, but I would like to know
why
.