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Possible Duplicate:
Answer appears automatically converted as a comment

I would like to post that something is a duplicate. This is the actual answer to the question asked. How can I stop this "feature" of conversion from happening? It is blocking me from closing out a question.

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    Links (to the question) or it didn't happen. Also, what are you trying to post as the answer?
    – Josh Darnell
    Dec 22, 2011 at 21:12
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    Disagree. Links to possible duplicates should be comments, and you should vote to close as duplicate if you have that ability.
    – Charles
    Dec 22, 2011 at 21:14

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Simple, don't post trivial answers. By trivial, I mean an answer that just points to another question in the site with little/no supporting text.

If you want to point out that it is a duplicate, flag it as an exact duplicate of another question. Leave a comment. Or vote to close as an exact duplicate. Answers are for answers to the question, not simple suggestions to look at a different question.

If you can write a decent summary of what the answer is at the duplicate question, then add that summary. Chances are, it will probably not be converted to a comment but will receive downvotes and a possible deletion as it is not being a complete answer. Do so at your own risk.

Otherwise don't complain when it gets converted.

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    I agree with all of this with the exception of the statement "If you can write a decent summary of what the answer is at the duplicate question, then add that summary."; this just adds noise to the system. If the other answer is indeed the answer, then there's no need to summarize it, the link to the duplicate and the accepted answer there is sufficient.
    – casperOne
    Dec 22, 2011 at 21:25
  • Well he did say he didn't want it to be automatically converted so adding that would most likely prevent that. However whether or not it should stay as an answer is another issue.
    – Jeff Mercado
    Dec 22, 2011 at 21:28
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    Wrong. For instance, here I have supplied a correct answer and a link to support my words. Yet, it was converted into comment and we still have one incorrect answer. This is nonsense. Being concise does not mean being trivial. stackoverflow.com/questions/14855835/…
    – Val
    Feb 13, 2013 at 15:00

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