Should my comment on this question be an answer?

Question

An off-topic question requesting Where to get feedback on homebrews was just asked. I left this comment below:

Welcome to rpg.se! Take the [tour] and visit the [help center] to learn how things work around here. This question will likely get closed as a shopping question, which are off-topic here. We have a [list of forums on meta]. You might also be interested in [How can I ask a good homebrew review question] for getting reviews here on the stack.

As I was writing it, it felt more like an answer. However I don't think we should be answering off-topic questions. What is the correct approach here?

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I also posted it as a community wiki answer. I wondering if this is the best way to handle it. I didn't want to earn rep from answering an off-topic question.

Answer 1

Yeah, that's fine as a comment.

You're not posting an answer to their question. You're directing them to some resources which will help resolve their question. It's like those Related: links we leave in comments.

But, also, we leave a little bit more leniency to comments on questions that are doomed. Like in theory, still don't answer in comments, but in practice, our sympathy toward someone who has a valid question we can't handle because it's patently off topic means it's going to be a little more okay to give them pointers.

Answer 2

This was always going to be a weird situation, because the close vote reason contained the answer to the question anyway. That being the case, all you did was provide that same information in a friendlier format.