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It happened to me that I found a solution to an older question. This question was commented by many people with comments like "very interesting, important, ..." such that I thought that my answer has also some value. My answer was the only one. It was upvoted and accepted by the asker. However, I assume, that very few of the "commentators" saw my answer, because the system does not inform automatically about new answers.

I think it would have been helpful for me and the commentators when they would get informed. I could achieve this by adding my own comment to their comments, because this triggers a system message. My question is: would this action be considered admissible or not? Are there some other possibilities?

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If they were that interested in the question they would have "favorited" it in which case they would have received a notification that a new answer (yours) was posted - but they would have to go looking for changes to their favourite posts - sorted by recent activity - http://stackoverflow.com/users/[yourid]/[yourname]?tab=favorites#fpage_1-fsort_recent. This will show the most recently changed questions first.

Having seen the answer then were then free to vote or not on it.

There's nothing else that the system can do.

Don't forget by answering the question you will also have made it appear (however briefly) on the home page again.

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  • When I add a question to my Favorites, I am NOT getting notified when a new answer is posted to that question (Stackoverflow). Well, perhaps I need also to leave a comment with that question (as it would apply to my question above).
    – Jiri Kriz
    Aug 9, 2011 at 15:53
  • @Jiri - odd. I thought you were. It's been the case for me.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Aug 9, 2011 at 16:09
  • I don't get any notifications, either. I have to look at my favorites page to see them.
    – Paŭlo Ebermann
    Aug 9, 2011 at 16:28
  • @Paŭlo - I updated the answer to indicate that. The notifications for favourited questions have changed several times & I hadn't kept up.
    – ChrisF Mod
    Aug 9, 2011 at 16:32
  • @ChrisF: Thank you for the clarification in your updated answer. I am using the Favorites page. However, this page shows only the current status of my favorite questions. I cannot find out e.g. if a question got a new answer (I would need to remember all the previous counts).
    – Jiri Kriz
    Aug 9, 2011 at 16:33
  • @Jiri - updated again
    – ChrisF Mod
    Aug 9, 2011 at 16:35
  • @Jiri If you check your profile, the Favorites tab will have a star on it, indicating someone has answered/updated/etc. the question. I believe the counts on the dropdown from your username update as well.
    – jonsca
    Aug 9, 2011 at 19:18
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I was very happy when someone commented on one of the questions I liked a couple of weeks ago (I was not a member then and saw it on my friend's account, this is one of the reason I joined).

I personally think it's acceptable, since it's main use is to help the ones that want to know the answer, the other can just ignore your comment.

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