8

Is an answer like the below acceptable?

The question and its answer:

This question is solved according to information placed in comments.

Being a community site I showed my dislike for this answer by down voting and left a comment as respect and received a comment back stating it was acceptable and i should effectively pull my head in.

If the user has gone to lengths of asking questions in the comment and came up with the answer and also gone to the length of writing this answer, why not post the answer and rid the concussion?

Another point is although this may be trivial there may be others that are not and finding the true answer could be lengthy.

In addition this question could be considered as too localised.

I've already flagged the answer to a mod.

Should I pull my head in?

Improve this question
8
  • 2
    I would have flagged it as "not an answer". I have never seen a question marked as solved like this before, is it really common standard?
    – user204841
    Commented Apr 8, 2013 at 22:47
  • 1
    The question looks fine to me, but I've downvoted the accepted answer. Personally, this is the first time, I'm seeing this kind of post, so the guy is really over-generalizing, but even if it wasn't the first time I had seen it, I would still downvote such an answer (or since I have enough rep, I would revise the answer myself if it was a computer language I was actually familiar with).
    – Stephan Branczyk
    Commented Apr 8, 2013 at 22:49
  • 1
    @KatjaChristiansen Unfortunately, it happens not extremely rarely. But it's not an acceptable answer. An answer should stand on its own, and comments are ephemeral.
    – Daniel Fischer
    Commented Apr 8, 2013 at 22:51
  • All your comments make me feel much better! :) Just to add, I've NEVER seen this before also.
    – glh
    Commented Apr 8, 2013 at 23:01
  • Aaaand, it's gone.
    – Daniel Fischer
    Commented Apr 8, 2013 at 23:38
  • Katja is right, that "answer" should be flagged as a Not an Answer. As Daniel commented, that answer does not stand on its own, and obviously, it does not add anything constructive to the topic.
    – Fabrício Matté
    Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 2:24
  • @DanielFischer if that was you then thanks if not, then thanks for all in anycase!
    – glh
    Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 5:09
  • @glh No, it was moderator-deleted. I just thought I'd notify.
    – Daniel Fischer
    Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 10:07

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
4

I take it the response time of the SO mods isn't doing it for you (your flag being cast a mere hour ago).

I'm going to let the flag be processed naturally in the flag queue; this will give the Meta community some time to review it (since you did elect to post a Meta question).

However, preview of coming attractions: the answer is probably going to be deleted. It's not an answer, and it's not even a very good link only answer ("the answer is in here, somewhere, if you look for it").

Improve this answer
1
  • I understand my impatience doesn’t help me but wanted to know irrespective of the outcome what people thought. I appreciate you help and feel much better for asking here on meta.
    – glh
    Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 5:08
6

That was my answer which underlying this @glh question. To excuse myself I could say that I'm still new SO user trying to give as much support to other as possible. And I do really encounter that kind of answers from time to time and I don't find anything wrong with them.

I can admit- time is important for me therefore the shorter answer the better. Moreover, there is usually a kind of discussion in comments which expose additional information. The answer than (placed in comments) could be a kind of 'step-by-step solution', a kind of adjustments made by both sides- one who asked and one who answered. How could I then transfer it to answer?? I will provide some part of solution but setting references to comments could be essential anyway.

After all, lesson learned, I stick to your suggestions as I care about quality and good standards of our community.

Improve this answer
3
  • 1
    I think answers that just point to comments without giving the actual solution are wrong because comments can be removed at any time. Should somebody else with a similar problem come across the question, it wouldn't help him to know that the OPs problem was solved, but how it was solved. So, I don't think that setting references to comments should be essential at all.
    – user204841
    Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 9:24
  • Yes, you right with the ability to delete comments easily. Than we should expect that one who ask will improve his question, too. But people 'come and go' and usually not change the question after they are happy with an answer.
    – Kazimierz Jawor
    Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 9:44
  • 2
    "After all, lesson learned": very good. I'm happy to see that posting a complete answer paid for you rep-wise too :D
    – Daniel Fischer
    Commented Apr 9, 2013 at 10:12

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .