Some of us know that comments are not to be used for answering questions but some of us may not know that.
But, many of us, either knowingly or unknowingly, sometimes do post answers in comments.
My question is what should be done to those comments?
TL;DR:
New users: Educate them to not use comments as answers. Send them here. Then flag for deletion.
Users that already know the rules and still do it anyway: Flag for deletion straightaway.
From here, comments should be used for:
- Requesting clarification from the author;
- Leaving constructive criticism that guides the author in improving the post;
Additionally, you can also notify OP of any edits you made if they are substantial.
However, on this site, a lot of high-rep users including some mods are deliberately engaging in this "post (unsourced) answers as comments" practice. One major drawback of this practice is these answer-type comments are heavily upvoted by other users and they show up as the top comment(s) under the post whereas a question seeking clarification from OP or exposing a flaw in their argument appears somewhere down in the list. Also, what is OP supposed to do when people are posting all these answer-type comments? Should they ignore these or engage in a chat in the comments section and ask for sources?
This strange practice on this site has also been pointed in this feedback answer by @RubelliteYakṣī. She writes:
Users are afraid to give answers here. I have never seen so many answers in comments on another SE. I feel it is better to try and fail than to not try at all. This is why our question to answer ratio is low.
It's up to the mods and users to take this advice to heart and discourage this practice going forward. If we continue with this attitude of bending (or exploiting loopholes in) standard SE rules, there is a good chance this site will remain in beta forever.
For reference, current policy, as of 9/13/18:
Mod is using comments for writing unsourced answers! – sv. Sep 13 at 18:49 declined
User is using comments for writing unsourced answers! – sv. Sep 13 at 18:50 declined
If we look at the purpose of comment feature, comments are not for answering the questions. This is clear from the FAQ:
Comments exist so that users can talk about questions and answers without posting new answers that do not make an attempt to answer the question asked. Comments are often used to ask for clarification on, suggest corrections to, and provide meta-information about posts.
Also have a look at the help center:
When shouldn't I comment?
Answering a question or providing an alternate solution to an existing answer; instead, post an actual answer (or edit to expand an existing one).
So, strickly speaking comment box shouldn't be used for answering questions. However, sometimes comments that provides some information that can be very useful for the investigation (i.e for finding an answer to the question) for OP or visitors usually deemed as worthy to keep.
Mostly users post answers in comments when they are not confidant or lazy to frame into good answer. See Why do some people answer in comments?. Some related posts are also pointed in previous answer having very similar question. So, if you find such a comment answering question, reply commenter to post (or expand it into) an answer instead. If you can expand it into an answer (i.e can post an answer from the comment), do it! It's fine; refer MSE posts suggesting that. What should be done with questions that have been self-resolved as a comment instead of an answer?, also this or this.
If you find the question is already answered with that of comment (e.g commenter added an answer later on or other user posted an answer from comment or question has already an answer), comment is not adding any information. Then flag it for deletion with suitable option "no longer needed".
Good question.
Yes, flag for moderator attention. Let the moderator use his/her discretion to determine if the comment adds value. If they see no value, they can delete it.
I feel we should use the following logic:
But to achieve that voting, we may have to request a feature on Meta Stack Exchange.
In the long term, I don't think it would be right for moderator to take that call to delete a comment as it should be a case-by-case basis. Moderators should be playing the role of human exception handlers. We have to make sure the community is more active and plays a greater role. Moderators should only come in under exceptional cases.
That way we take out any biases and give more power to community.
I'm one of the guilty ones who post answers as comments. I will refrain from doing so from this point, as it's clear that it is not the direction that this site would like to go.
If a user has answers without citations, then better to put such unsourced answers as comments.
