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Sometimes I post a "good" answer to a question, but then it turns out I missed something. Someone else comes along and points out my error/omission in a comment, and I change my answer. My answer is now better, freshly active, and I get more upvotes.

However, I kind of feel that I owe that commenter a little bit of the credit (and therefore rep) for having helped support my answer. I can upvote the comment, but there's no rep gain for that.

Is there any way I can give the commenter a portion of the rep I gain from further upvotes to what is now our answer? I don't mind some approved existing solution, or some new totally manual solution, but it seems like it could be automated as well.

A similar question was asked in a comment to an answer here:

https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/1558/174131

and one suggestion (which was not popular) was to find some other questions/answers by the helpful commenter and upvote them. I'm kind of in agreement that each post should gain upvotes of its own accord, and besides, there may not be enough other posts by that user to fully compensate them for their assistance.

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    I think upvoting the comment is usually sufficient. If the suggestion is substantial, I sometimes mention the commenter in my updated answer, as long as it doesn't add too much noise. I often suggest improvements to other people's answers, and I always appreciate the upvote or mention, even if they don't give me any points.
    – hammar
    Dec 20, 2011 at 18:05
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    It may be silly, but I've often wanted to do this and up-vote specific edits to questions or answers.
    – jwiscarson
    Dec 20, 2011 at 18:16
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    Here's a tip for you: don't eat yellow snow.
    – Shog9
    Dec 20, 2011 at 18:41

4 Answers 4

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My suggestion is to edit the answer, upvote the comment, and thank the commenter with a comment of your own. The commenter is not looking for a tip, if the commenter wanted the rep, that person would add an answer of their own including your omission(s), the commenter is just looking to make your answer a better one, which just makes the site a better place for everyone else.

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    I tend to think that answering the same thing with a small change is bad form; technically they did the legwork and I'm just adding a small bit by comparison. However, that's a personal opinion. I understand that I'm not obligated by the system to do anything more than upvote their comment, but sometimes I want to be nice anyhow. :)
    – agent86
    Dec 20, 2011 at 20:06
  • I definitely agree about the bad form part, what I meant to say that if someone was looking for a reward (not really in the spirit of the site) they could do it.
    – Marcelo
    Dec 20, 2011 at 22:25
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What I usually do is click on the commenter's profile and upvote one of their more highly rated answers. Ideally I'll grab a 9-vote answer and score them a "Nice Answer" badge for their troubles.

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This flies in the face of the purpose of comments on SE. They exist to clarify the question or the answer. They are intended to be transient and are often deleted (especially when they have been integrated into an answer/question). Honestly if the person who made the comment really cared they would make or suggest an edit. This is a bit more work, but would be more worth the effort of giving them something.

The best thing you can do is upvote the comment and that will help that person earn a badge. In the long run its meaningless, but they will know someone cared.

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Having the user who provided more details edit your answer (even if a moderator has to commit it) should get them a couple points (+2 I think)... not a whole lot of a tip, but its something.

Otherwise, I think the conventions Hammar and Marcelo offered are about as gentleman as one can be. Upvote their comment, and if possible mention them in your updated answer.

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