« first day (112 days earlier)      last day (787 days later) » 

kiamlaluno
kiamlaluno
06:21
This doesn't make sense. If John is running away from the lion, it can't appear in front of him anyway. Except by some really weird manoeuvre like jumping over his head as he ran, which frankly I doubt the most athletic lion is capable of doing over the smallest John. — FumbleFingers 4 hours ago
I hope we don't start analyzing questions like that. What about a sentence where the subject is an alien from another planet? Do we comment saying that there is no proof of their existence?
@Cerberus It's not possible for a moderator to convert a comment into an answer, if not writing it, but in that case the answer would be his, not of who wrote the comment.
@snailboat What I have noticed is that many times an answer is given in a comment. That has the effect of stopping others from answering. The risk is always to be said that the answer has been written because the comment, and the answer doesn't make the attribution.
Anonymous
@kiamlaluno I've done that a few times, generally when I didn't want to write a complete enough answer to post
Anonymous
In the future, I'll probably try to be sparing with comments
Anonymous
(though I'm not any more likely to write an answer if I refrain from leaving comments I think might be helpful)
Anonymous
06:37
I don't actually think comments prevent answers, though.
kiamlaluno
kiamlaluno
@snailboat I think the problem is when that comment can be an answer, even if it is not a through-full one.
Anonymous
Well, a bad answer.
kiamlaluno
kiamlaluno
@snailboat It's not necessarily a bad answer. It can be a terse answer.
Anonymous
I have a couple comments I should convert into answers.
Anonymous
I went through yesterday and tried to clean up some of my old comments, since I leave too many
kiamlaluno
kiamlaluno
06:42
Leaving comments is not bad; it is natural to do that, maybe because we are used to other sites.
What I mean is that leaving an answer in a comment, users are increasing the answer level. Somebody who is answering the question should give more details than the comment.
I am thinking to all those non native speakers who can answer a question. Maybe they cannot give a detailed answer as the user with the highest reputation, but they can answer.
Anonymous
Well, in many cases, a terse answer can be a good answer
kiamlaluno
kiamlaluno
The second problem is that when somebody see an answer in a comment, he can think the question should be closed.
At that point, that user could not give an answer.
I think we should keep in mind there are two groups of users who are using the site: native speakers and not native speakers.
@snailboat As long as it is not just yes or no, a terse answer can be a good answer. :)
 
12 hours later…
Anonymous
18:49
Woo hoo, I hit the rep cap!

« first day (112 days earlier)      last day (787 days later) »