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Moderators have had the ability to convert an answer to a comment for some time now. In addition to converting an answer to a comment from the post itself, there's also a button that shows up in the moderator queue when an answer is flagged for certain reasons.

Convert to Comment

This is convenient when we can read the entire answer from the queue and plainly tell that it should have been a comment. The problem is that there are often more comments on the answer that also need to be moved, so I always feel the need to click through to the post and check it to be sure we're not losing any information. (This is often the case when the "answer" is asking for more information and the OP provides it in a comment.)

This button and the corresponding "convert to edit" button would be even more convenient if they only showed up when there were no comments on the post that's flagged. That way moderators would know that it's always safe to click the button from the moderator queue without needing to check the post for follow-up comments that need to be preserved.

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    Alternatively, make expanding the answer also show the comments. Oh wait, you can't expand the answer anymore.
    – mmyers Mod
    Commented Sep 16, 2011 at 15:05
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    @mmyers you can usually expand the answer - see the [> expando-triangle-thing. If you can't expand it, that means you can see it all.
    – Marc Gravell
    Commented Sep 19, 2011 at 9:23
  • @MarcGravell: What? Why wasn't I informed?
    – mmyers Mod
    Commented Sep 19, 2011 at 22:57

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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We've chucked this in for this next build. So that it is obvious, the button is still presented when there are comments, but disabled (with the reason available via the hover).

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  • I've seen this in the wild now. Disabling the button is a lot better than not showing it at all. Thanks.
    – Bill the Lizard Mod
    Commented Sep 20, 2011 at 11:34
  • @Bill the third option would be to enable the button, perhaps with some kind of warning styling/text, and prompt for confirmation. Thoughts?
    – Marc Gravell
    Commented Sep 20, 2011 at 12:05
  • If I you showed me a warning prompt, I'd dismiss it and click through to the page to look at what was there 100% of the time, so it's probably easier to just disable the button.
    – Bill the Lizard Mod
    Commented Sep 20, 2011 at 12:45
  • @Bill I see exactly what you mean - it is teasing you otherwise
    – Marc Gravell
    Commented Sep 20, 2011 at 12:56
  • You could always make it this: youtube.com/watch?v=ie4GN4J9lSQ&feature=related
    – Bill the Lizard Mod
    Commented Sep 20, 2011 at 12:59
  • What about improving this thing so the button is re-enabled when viewing the comments of the answer? That would make this thing way less annoying with all those "this is not an answer but a comment"-comments.
    – ThiefMaster Mod
    Commented Aug 23, 2012 at 1:23

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