See also, from other sites: Please don't write answers in comments, Should answers be left in the comments?, Please put your answers in the answers section, even if they're short.

This comes up every now and then. Whilst answers in comments are discouraged here we generally don’t mind them. In some cases it’s even not a problem: not enough time to make a comment into an answer, just use the comment and let someone else make it an answer. Think you know a story I’d but can’t match it completely: comment, may or may not be correct and can help others. We’re just more lenient on them here.

@TheLethalCarrot Can you post a link to meta post that came to the conclusion that "here we generally don’t mind them [answers in comments]"? Because it's written in black and white in the rules of SE that answering in comments really isn't OK, for a good number of reasons too long to list in a single comment

@Mithrandir24601 I’ll ask have a look around when I’m on my PC but it’s clear from the examples in this post that different stacks have different attitudes towards them. Most discussions I’ve had on this have been in chat and comments too related metas though I believe.

@TheLethalCarrot the stacks have different rigidity stances, but overall: "It is not OK".

@Trish exactly and here The is not okay boils down to discouraging them really, not much more.

@TheLethalCarrot - not really? It means "flag and delete this, because they don't work with the way the system works (and the system was designed for them not to work)". SE is meant to be a repository of useful questions and answers, not a collection of questions, half-answers, and full answers.

@Mithrandir24601 I'm not sure if we've ever had a clear meta consensus that answers in comments are less discouraged here; it's just the unspoken community culture.

Firstly, comments do not game the reputation system. They "game" the quality control system (if they have to game a system). A comment doesn't give you any rep, and therefore is no benefit if you actually intend to earn some rep. While it also means you can't be downvoted and lose rep, it requires 5 downvotes to each upvote, something quite easy to overcome if you were intending to game the system...

Now while they may "game" the quality control system. It's very rare on site, to see a question have 0 net score but double digit votes going each way. Most comments under 10 upvotes are usually ignored, and in long comment chains low voted comments are hidden. This therefore really doesn't game the quality control system. Furthermore, the though that one can provide an "excellent" answer in under 560 characters is outrageous, I could hardly frame my comment in three times as many, we strive for the best content and a comment never provides such.

Finally, "But they could provide an answer?", is a ridiculous sentiment to presume someone always has time to answer. Some people have real life taking them away and what to help the fellow users on the site get to the answer as quickly as possible for the Original Asker. By posting a comment with an answer/partial answer, they can be the stepping stone for someone else to post an excellent answer. Are you now going to claim that they're gaming someone else's reputation?

That example is terrible. Although it might be the jumping-off-point for a decent answer, without referencing and a main thesis, I'd downvote it to Hades. On the flipside, it makes a good point and someone who wants to answer properly would be well minded to pick it up and run with it.

@Valorum that IS the point of the example: as an answer, it would get flogged to hell by some. It games the system by not allowing the downvotes.

@Trish - Well, the alternative is that they don't say anything and then their useful stub of an idea is lost.

@Trish I'd rather some useful insight information can be said as a comment for a starting point for someone else than miss out on that information altogether. Also starting point with no evidence is not an answer, it's some relevant information to help the OP and answerers

I also dislike the whole "fight" analogy. We're trying to be nicer to people at the moment, not make them feel crappy because they did wrong.

@Trish Are you targeting every Stack or just SFF in particular right now? Could you offer some more explanation as to why you chose to post this on SFF? Also, your last paragraph seems very unwelcoming and unfriendly.

@Edlothiad You should post your comments as an answer! ;)

@Skooba Not sure how that's relevant, but from the user's activity it's pretty clear she became a member recently and after 3 months chose to adress a problem she observed as quite prevalent, in contrast to the many other site's she's used to. There is no need to bring this up on many other sites simply because the problem doesn't run as rampant over there (or is at least recognized as a problem).

@TARS Is that 3 months isn't really enough time observe a site's culture? Trish's posts are still being labeled as a "new contributor" at this point. . Not that new users observations are not welcome, but this post is trying to set/enforce site policy which a new user may be unfamiliar with. I think it is a reasonable expectation to understand why SFF is the target of a post like this one. I can simply counter the point that many of the sites I frequent on SE post "answers" in comments.

@Skooba Trish's posts are still being labeled as a "new contributor" at this point. Only on Meta.

@Skooba SF&F is the only stack I am active on that breaks from the rule that comments are not for answers.

@WebHead it is not, I elaborated.

@Skooba Only because I joined the Meta late.

@Valorum threw you a better one. The one that actually made me grumble and observe the problem for months.

@TheLethalCarrot A reminder. A reminder that this behavior is rampant.

A remainder back, SFF does not mind them. So whilst this behaviour is "rampant" it isn't a problem

@Trish As others have said, users on this site typically "answer in comments" when they feel they can hint at the answer but don't have enough information to provide a proper answer. This can help other users provide a proper answer and such comments are thus useful. Such comments are generally discouraged across the network because they can introduce problems, but how much of a problem they are depends on the community.

I think your exhortation would be received better if you could point to an actual problem that these comments are creating (e.g. no answers are actually posted because there's already an "answer" in the comments).

In your examples there are upvoted and accepted answers so the only issue with the "answers in comments" seems to be that they are obsolete.

@Null I don't feel that is appropriate.

@Null obsolete since ages and creating useless space between the question and the answers.

@Trish Exactly what do you feel is not appropriate?

@Trish Which is why I deleted them.

@WebHead no, I am complaining about the habbit, not the obsolete ones. To be exact: the comments came in before the answer

@Trish whatever you do, don't go to ELU then.....

@Null To me, answering in comments is showing disrespect for the querrant as they are not worth a proper answer and other answerers as your comment always stands above them.

You are thinking way too much about this, no one writes a comment because they want to "stand above someone else"

@Trish Those would be better examples than the ones you posted in your meta question. You could possibly make a case that it would be better for users to post their suggestions as answers rather than comments on story-identification questions even if they aren't sure of it. But is this really a problem for the rest of the tags on the site?

n a different matter: it is not a duplicate as it isn'T asking in any way why it is done.

@Trish is comment preventing you from upvoting an answer?

@Trish That's a different interpretation than most users in the community (and probably the whole network) have for answers in comments.

@Skooba no, but it is stopping me early. It does not allow to comment on the worth or unworth of an answer.

@Trish Why?

That's not to say answers in comments are necessarily or generally a good thing, just that they aren't (intended) to be disrespectful to either the asker or answerers.

@Trish stopping you early from what? reading the answers? what is wrong with just scrolling past comments if you don't like them. A question have several legitimate comments on it as well, does that affect the worth of an answer?

@Skooba I read a page top to bottom, all comments expanded. A wall of comments, some of them claiming answers, doesn't sit well at all with me.

@Null My point is, that they are a bad thing. A bad habbit that breaks in.

@TheLethalCarrot you can comment on an answer specifically. commenting on one exact comment is nearly impossible if there are more than one from the same commentor.

@Trish They can be a bad thing, but they can also have useful qualities (as I and others have pointed out). If their negatives outweigh their positives then, yes, we should delete them. But if their positives outweigh their negatives it is better to keep them. So can you show us that their negatives outweigh their positives?

@Trish If you click the timestamp on a comment it permalinks to it. You could also quote part of a comment when replying to a user.

@TheLethalCarrot that doesn't make it an answer.

@Null in stroy ID, I feel like they do. They throw up all those "might" books, but nobody ever bothers to write an answer in some cases.

as a result, these questions become abandonnedand.

@WebHead Is that a rhetoric question?

@WebHead I won't force it upon people, but people certainly should at least skim the comments to see if there are clarifications that hadn't been added.

@Trish You can probably make a case using the examples from your earlier chat message that story ID questions should be answered rather than commented on even if the user isn't particularly sure that it's the right book. In general, though, I don't see much harm in comments that hint at the answer on this site.

@Skooba That...wasn't your question, rather than why above all SciFi.SE, which had quite a smell to it. If your point is that she's not experienced enough on SciFi to have the audacity to adress this observed inconsistency on meta, then make that point.