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I just created an SO account to offer some feedback to this answer to this question. Although I can apparently post a whole answer, or even edit others' answers (okay, it's moderated, but still), I can't post feedback to the one answer on that page I wanted to.

I don't have anything to add further to the other answers already posted, but I wanted to post a likely explanation as to why the poster of the linked answer didn't get a flush. (The calls to flush and close lack parens, so all you get is a reference to the function, not an invocation of it.)

The tips popup for the answers makes it clear that answers should answer the OP, not address other answers. I don't want to edit the answer at hand (even if it would be accepted), because it's not my post. Can I do anything, or should I wait until I've built up enough reputation?

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    Just wait till you get 50 rep. In the meantime avoid those posts and answer something that is stand-alone.
    – Mysticial
    Commented Nov 16, 2012 at 18:37
  • It's unfortunate, but the rep requirement for commenting is what prevents SO from getting flooded with spam. As such, there's no way around it. You'll earn 50 rep in no time if you answer a couple of questions.
    – Dennis
    Commented Nov 16, 2012 at 18:43
  • You can suggest an edit. Then the reviewers will decide. But note, it should be an improvement of the answer, trying to answer in the edit is a reason to reject it.
    – peterh
    Commented Jan 11, 2021 at 0:07

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I do agree with the OP. There shouldn't be a barrier to posting comments.

It's easy to say "well just answer some questions and get 50 rep" but when you're faced with a question that you need to ask for clarification about, or if you want to post a helpful but not complete-answer comment, you can't just poof 50 rep into existence on demand.

You have to find multiple questions you're capable of answering, and hope you get enough up-votes from them, and by that time, you might have forgot about the comment you wanted to make.

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    So what do you suggest be done to keep spam comments off of the site? If there's no barrier then it would be easy enough to create spambots to post their links. At a bare, bare minimum there should be a rep requirement that's more than 1.
    – Servy
    Commented Nov 16, 2012 at 19:19
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    @Servy captcha for low rep users can help
    – Sam I am says Reinstate Monica
    Commented Nov 16, 2012 at 19:20
  • In either case, this is a support question, not a feature-request. And if it were, it would be a duplicate. This isn't the appropriate place to have such a discussion.
    – Servy
    Commented Nov 16, 2012 at 19:23
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If what you have to say could be useful, go ahead and post an answer. The community will up- or down- vote it, but give the community the opportunity to rate the answer.

There should be a barrier to posting comments. Each of SO's rep-driven privileges (not rights, mind you) exist to allow those whom the community trusts to interact with the community. Users who haven't earned that trust yet need to have patience, or move along.

If a new user needs clarification, they should ask a question. Yes, it's a lot harder to write a good question than a comment, but a good question will earn rep.

If a comment was forgettable enough to the user, perhaps the SO community doesn't need to read it.

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  • Katie, I've just been through that exact same process (can't make a comment, edit got rejected, post a new answer). The answer was deleted without reason. Now I'm not scathing to the moderator who deleted it (they have a lot of work on their hands) but you must appreciate it's a real barrier to getting involved more. I've just gasped over the line of having 50 rep during this whole sorry ordeal, but only after I posted a similar question to this one here on meta and someone was kind enough to upvote some of my earlier posts. There's got to be a better solution out there!
    – Daniel Scott
    Commented Sep 12, 2015 at 1:17

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