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There are a lot of questions which have (often enough) complex and good answers in comments, which should really be posted as answers.

A good example is here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/assembly?sort=unanswered&pageSize=50. Virtually all of the questions in "assembly" listed when using "unanswered" have answers provided via comments.

Now I was reading Swarmed with comments which should be answers and notice this comment:

More than that... in case you ask them to post as answer and they don't do that within a day or so, just post your own answer and mark accepted. Case solved. :) – Sha Wiz Dow Ard

And I'm unsure if this was just a joke or meant seriously.

On the one hand, SO should provide answers, and it would be helpful, if the answer is provided in comments, if it were summarized in a real answer. On the other hand, I would feel a bit like a rip off (is this the proper term?) if I would do this from somebody else's comments and possibly even get the rep for it.

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  • 14
    You're entirely free to do so. If the other user would feel bad about the rep you're getting, they should have taken the time to post it as an answer. If you have a problem with it, make the answer CW.
    – Bart
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 11:59
  • @Bart, CW? What is that?
    – Devolus
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 12:00
  • @Devolus Community Wiki
    – Wouter J
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 12:01
  • 2
    You should acknowledge the comments in your answer (at least for good form, might even be considered plagiarism if you don't), but when you do it's fine to base an answer on comments.
    – CodesInChaos
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 13:08
  • @ben, true, unfortunately the timing required to pull this out left little room for duplicate search :) That said, the dupe goes further by piping the original comment through another answer, which is arguably better.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 13:24
  • I'm not sure dupe was the one I was thinking of @Frédéric; I seem to remember someone stealing a comment to answer this question before... oh well; it'll have to do.
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 13:28
  • This happened to me the other day, nearly word for word, I wasn't that bothered, just a bit surprised!
    – JMK
    Commented Dec 9, 2013 at 14:04

1 Answer 1

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You're entirely free to do so.

If the other user would feel bad about the rep you're getting, they should have taken the time to post it as an answer. If you have a problem with it, make the answer Community Wiki.

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    Flagged. I can't believe you did that. It's a terrible thing to take my comments and turn them into an answer.
    – Bart
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 12:01
  • OK, I got it. ;)
    – Devolus
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 12:01
  • 2
    @Bart, indeed I had a problem with it, so I made the answer CW.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 12:01
  • 9
    Bart, you should have taken the time to post it as an answer!
    – Emil Vikström
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 12:03
  • 3
    Gosh we are a hilarious bunch. :D
    – Bart
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 12:10
  • 1
    @Bart, this site is not called Meta for nothing :)
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 12:11
  • Did you two Frédéric and @Bart planned this all along? ;-)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 12:15
  • 5
    @Sha, I see you're trying to spread the blame around. Let's not forget this all began with one of your comments ;)
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 12:16
  • 1
    I'm absolutely certain someone has done this before to the same question...
    – ben is uǝq backwards
    Commented Dec 8, 2013 at 13:19

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