Just a quick observation. I am not one of the 16 people who have already downvoted Trish's "Question" on Meta. But if I did downvote it, it wouldn't be just because I was trying to register sharp disagreement with what she said. It would only be because, as near as I can tell, her lengthy post didn't even bother to ask me a "Question" at all! Instead, I felt it was only preaching a sermon at me; telling me how Trish felt, and urging me to join her crusade.

@Lorendiac Meta questions don't always need to be an explicit question, FWIW - the rules are slightly different on meta.

True, but there's still the tone issue.

Right.

What Rand said, they don't have to ask a question but it was the way the post was put forth that is likely to get people's backs up... and seems to have done so

@Randal'Thor So, the vast majority of my time on SFF (which isn't a huge amount to start with) is spent on a couple of specific tags, so it's very possible that the issue being complained about isn't what I think it is, but anyway, I don't see how a 'signpost to an answer' is an answer

And @TheLethalCarrot - if you're interested, that WB comment had issues other than attempting to answer the question

@Mithrandir24601 "anyway, I don't see how a 'signpost to an answer' is an answer" and that's exactly the point a lot of us are arguing

...

To explain further: A lot of these comments that are being labelled as Answers in comments are actually just "signposts to answers" or "information related to the question" etc not actual answers

Well then, while I very strongly believe that answers shouldn't be left as comments, 'signposts' are more complicated things, depending on what exactly a 'signpost' is

@JSACTMMusic Hi? (You invited me into the living room) Can I help you with something?