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Possible Duplicate:
Comments incorrectly submitted as an answer instead: what should we do?
What to do about low-rep users requesting more information in answers?
What to do with self-aware rule breaking posts?

What should we do when users who haven't earned the privilege of leaving comments post comment-level content as answers? Should we flag as "not an answer" and let the mods clean things up?

In particular, the cases that interest me are when the users know that they don't have the ability to leave a comment and say "I can't post a comment yet but..." in their "comment-answer".

Should we up-vote to get the posters closer to being able to leave real comments?

My gut says to just flag as NAA, but I am curious about what others think.

Note to the delete voter(s): Since I did't find the other 3 questions linked as duplicates with what I searched on, leaving this undeleted may serve as a useful signpost for future users.

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    Title is confusin dude. Please reword it, Thank You Very Much – Caffeinated Mar 22 '12 at 14:54
  • Sufficiently thorough comments should be auto-pushed to answers. I think – Caffeinated Mar 22 '12 at 14:55
  • @Adel - I tried about 10 times before I posted to make it more clear. I'm open to suggestions on how it can be better. – cdeszaq Mar 22 '12 at 14:55
  • A month ago I was left in the position of wanting to comment, but unable to do so. Perhaps the amount of rep needed to comment should be reduced? – Adjam Mar 22 '12 at 14:56
  • Read it aloud - "left as a comment because the user didn't have the rep to comment?" just one comment yea? – Caffeinated Mar 22 '12 at 14:56
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    Did you mean "What should we do with comments that have been posted as an answer because the user didn't have the rep to comment"? – ben is uǝq backwards Mar 22 '12 at 14:57
  • Heh, thanks folks. Not enough coffee this morning. Title's fixed now. – cdeszaq Mar 22 '12 at 14:58
  • @cdeszaq - Strange thing, I just understood it now but it turns out my original misunderstanding of your title was wrong. I need a coffee too. Thank You Very Much. – Caffeinated Mar 22 '12 at 14:59
  • @ChrisF, it's properly a duplicate of the top-rated duplicate in your duplicate suggestion :-). A meta-duplicate if you will :-). – ben is uǝq backwards Mar 22 '12 at 15:01
  • @Ben - well yes, you can select one of the other duplicate if you wish. – ChrisF♦ Mar 22 '12 at 15:02
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I think that the best thing you can do is just flag them as "not an answer".

Why would somebody want to upvote them ? That makes no sense. I know it does get to the top of answers, but I do not think that affects something

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    Not saying I would want to upvote, but I have seen others that have (and left a comment indicating as such) – cdeszaq Mar 22 '12 at 14:56
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    You are... Should we up-vote to get them closer? – Martin. Mar 22 '12 at 14:57
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    There's a difference between "should we do X?" and "I think we should do X," @cdeszaq. You two are using different definitions for the same words. – Pops Mar 22 '12 at 14:59
  • I normally flag as NAA in the expectation it will be converted, and if it would have made a sensible comment look and see if the poster has anything else worth upvoting to give them the ability to actually comment. – Martin Smith Mar 22 '12 at 14:59
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    Upvoting a non-answer is pointless; the poster loses the rep when the non-answer is deleted. – user102937 Mar 22 '12 at 15:00
  • @RobertHarvey - That was what I thought, which is partly why I included it in my question – cdeszaq Mar 22 '12 at 15:04
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    +1. Such behavior should be discouraged. BTW, if somebody does this, they apparently do not know/care about concepts of SO*. ( = One more good reason not to let them comment anyway.) – Alois Mahdal Mar 22 '12 at 15:04
  • Should newbies be allowed to comment with less effort? Just let admins or 5000+ users "unflag" their mute state. or something – Caffeinated Mar 22 '12 at 15:04
  • @AloisMahdal The rationale for rep requirement on comments is to prevent spammers posting unnoticed spam. If someone makes a useful non spammy contribution but has to do it in the format of an answer as the system doesn't allow them any other way then I don't see it as something to get upset about or indicative that they "do not know/care about concepts of SO*." – Martin Smith Mar 22 '12 at 15:09
  • @MartinSmith "The rationale for rep requirement on comments is to prevent spammers posting unnoticed spam" are you sure? Seems like a captcha--or registration requirement (wait, don't we already have it?) could do it. – Alois Mahdal Mar 22 '12 at 15:37
  • @AloisMahdal - Comments don't bump questions but answers do. At least I thought that was the justification maybe not then. – Martin Smith Mar 22 '12 at 15:41
  • @MartinSmith And yes. It is to be discouraged. The same way you would discourage bugs as comments in BTS or commit messages like "edited abc.conf". Not that you don't trust the user, but that the behavior undermines usability of the system, and you need everybody to understand how to use it correctly. (Silently advising them to stay passive until they can start being useful). – Alois Mahdal Mar 22 '12 at 15:42

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