If I post a question then someone answers said question as a comment how do I say that’s the right answer, (what button do I click) so that they get the proper recognition? How do I vote a comment as helpful? If these aren't features yet I feel like they should be.
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3 Answers
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If I post a question then someone answers said question as a comment how do I say that’s the right answer, (what button do I click) so that they get the proper recognition?
You cannot mark a comment as the right answer. Nor should you. Answers-in-comments — as in, comments wherein someone attempts directly and succinctly to answer the question partially or wholly — are unacceptable by this site's generally accepted policy, and flagged and deleted on sight. For some reading on that policy:
- Should users refrain from answers (or partial answers) in comments? which explains the issues. (also, yes, do refrain, always.)
- How to deal with answers in comments? (we delete them)
- What's with the policy on deleting answer comments on on-hold questions? (the policy is they get deleted)
Only answers can be marked as the right answer, because only answers should be getting used to post answers. They're the only thing on the site with all the facilities necessary for managing answer quality. For more on that, see the first bullet point.
If you want to mark a comment's content as the accepted answer, ask them to post it as an answer, or just post it as one yourself (especially if they refuse or take longer than a day). You should also flag that comment for deletion. The comment's author won't get the reputation and acknowledgement if they don't post the answer, but they had their chance to follow site policy and didn't — so you get the points for helping us rescue valuable information. Their content was released under our CC Attribution Share-Alike license, so you get to re-use it (and need to attribute them, unless your answer doesn't resemble theirs by the time you're done drafting it).
How do I vote a comment as helpful?
Once you reach 15 reputation you will unlock the vote up privilege, and then you will see an upvotey doodad beside comments. The number to the left of comments shows how many people have clicked this upvotey doodad already. (Comment upvotes confer no reputation to the commenter.)
You may notice there isn't a downvotey doodad. This is one of the (many) problems with answers-in-comments: we have no recourse for expressing when they suck, are wrong, etc; instead we have a flag button we use to get them deleted.
answered Dec 7, 2016 at 21:51
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Normally, yes, put it in an answer and then accept that answer.
However, in this case those comments are trying, with some difficulty, to figure out what the question is asking. The question itself has some issues — but it's hard to tell what the issues are exactly, or why it has issues. The comments were attempting to achieve common ground in order to achieve understanding of the missing parts of the question.
Notice that the question is still not answered (paraphrasing):
Q: Where did I read about dwarven homelands in the 4e PHB?
Not-A: There's no such thing…
The question's problem — where did I read this, and/or what are the types of regional dwarves — doesn't appear to have been solved. (Or has it? It's unclear, because the question has issues.)
Ideally, the comments will prompt a reflection on what the question is asking, and an edit to refine the question to become more understandable to others, and hence more answerable.
answered Dec 7, 2016 at 22:48
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The person posting an answer in a comment is doing things wrong. They’re not supposed to do that, and there are good reasons they’re not supposed to do that, and so they get no “credit” for doing that.
The correct response is to post an answer yourself with the correct information, and accept that. If you are feeling generous, you can mention them in your answer. If you are feeling very generous, you could respond to their comment, suggesting they make it an answer, and wait a little to see if they do so before just answering yourself.
