Convert link only answers into comment instead of deleting them

Question

While reviewing "Low Quality Posts", often I used to see answers in 2 categories

1. Answers referring to a 3rd party site or other questions in Stack Exchange.
2. Answers referring some sort of suggestions or clarification.

_{[Sometimes these answers escapes from Answer appears automatically converted as a comment]}

So I used to go for "Recommended Deletion" options marking these answers as

1. This is commentary on another post, not an answer
2. This is link-only answer(not a spam)

Though they're not welcomed, Sometimes these links and suggestions are helpful in solving problems.

Therefore I have a suggestion, instead of deleting these 2 types answers can we convert them into comments for the question itself?

Here is an image for good understanding of my thoughts,

_{I'm completely aware that users with 10K+ reputations can see these answers and users with less than 50 reputations can't comment to other's question. But somehow we should try to implement this feature}

Answer 1

No, please no.

Here are all the link-only answers from my first page of recent flags;

• Map route asp.net mvc
• get first parent div in jquery
• wait for an ajax call to complete with Selenium 2 web driver
• Have you ever effectively used lexer/parser in real world application?
• Angularjs ng-animate + css transition for sliding effect
• Fixing the Radial Axis on MATLAB Polar Plots
• Get month from DATETIME in sqlite
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22690548/php-sort-array-by-property-of-value/22690671#22690671
• Duplicate records and loss of primary key on MS Access table in multi-user database
• retrieve POST data from FLASH to ASP.Net
• Ruby form submission
• How to decompile an APK or DEX file on Android platform?
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22315722/delete-a-row-data-in-jquery-datatables/22315991#22315991
• How can I get ConfigurationManager to load application settings from multiple files?
• How do I add the Java API documentation to Eclipse?

My problem is that if we converted all of these answers to a comment, they would be forever pinned above all the other (better, non-link-only) answers on the question, below the question.

Every question shown above has other answers to the question; we don't lose a solution to a question by removing link-only answers 9 times out of 10. By persisting the link as a comment however, we do introduce noise, in the worst possible place on the screen.

The only situation I'd consider converting the link-only answer to a comment is where the link-only answer is the only answer to a question, however:

1. Deleting the only-answer would add the question to the /unanswered page again, and give it the exposure of getting answered by someone else (properly)
2. Whilst the question would lose a solution in getting deleted, chances are, Stack Overflow would have another question with a solution on it (don't we love duplicates!)
3. The Internet will have a solution; that link had to go somewhere.

... and all of this taken into account, it takes a really good (?) link-only answer in a unique situation for me to want to see it converted to a comment, rather than simply deleted.

Answer 2

I've been thinking about this.

I would like to see this implemented, but only for link-only answers, and not for answers that should be a comment on someone's post.

Reasoning behind this:

• Often link-only answers are a solution to the problem. Deleting those answers in-review deprives the question of a possible solution, and means losing information. That's not good. Currently, that's what happens when answers are deleted in-review.
• Currently the post gets deleted. There's no situation worse than that one as the information is lost (anyway for everyone not registered or with less than 10K reputation). Converting the post to a comment solves that problem. Matt has raised a point about answers converted to comments cluttering the comments section, but there are two possibilities: the link-only answer does address the question or the link-only answer does not address the question.
  • If the link-only answer does address the question, I wouldn't define converting it to a comment as "cluttering the comments section", as I wouldn't really define a link that addresses the question as junk.
  • If the link-only answer does not address the question, then you're choosing the wrong reason for the deletion, and you should rather be choosing "not an answer". When you're voting to delete an answer because it's a link-only answer you should be implicitly stating that that is an answer, although it only contains a link. If you're not implicitly stating that, then the post falls out of the definition of "link-only answer": it should be deleted as "not an answer".
• Another point that Matt raised is that the question wouldn't show up again as unanswered. I'm not sure why that would be the case, as the proposal is to make the option still delete the answer along with posting a comment. That is, plainly as it is right now, simply additionally adding a comment containing the content of the answer under the question. The question would show up again as unanswered, as the only answer would be deleted: the only difference being that then someone more diligent could pick up the comment and make a proper answer out of it.
• On why not implementing this for answers that should be a comment on someone's post: I agree that sometimes it could be useful to convert those answers to comments as well, however doing that properly faces way more complications: under whose post should the NaA be converted as a comment? What if two reviewers vote differently, should there be a voting system like the duplicate system to decide under whose post the NaA should be converted as a comment? That just looks too complicated. IMO we should pass on that, at least for now.