Inform new users about the option to edit their own post when adding a comment

Question

When reviewing close votes, I regularly encounter questions with the following history:

• New users ask a question which is unclear because it is lacking relevant information.
• People add comments, asking for the missing information.
• The OP adds one or multiple comments, so that it in the end becomes clear what she wanted.
• The question gets answered.

Now the problem is that the question as such is still unclear - IMHO reading the comments should not be required to understand the question. I obviously have the option to edit the question myself, or add a moderation comment. This works to a certain extend, but it would be better if the system helped to guide new users in this situation.

So, when a new users clicks on "add comment" on their own post, the system should show a notification informing about the option to edit their own post instead.

Answer 1

There's a few ways that we can go about this, so we're going to have to play with some ideas to see what works best.

The first way is a wall that they have to acknowledge in order to comment. E.g.:

If you're responding to someone asking for clarification of your question, there's a very good chance that you want to be editing your question to include this information instead. Are you sure you want to comment, or would you rather edit?

That might work for some, but people are sometimes .. flaky ... when it comes to reading stuff that you put right in front of them. Another thing to add to this might be giving anyone logged in with the ability to edit or suggest edits the ability to one-click convert a comment to an edit on the post, even if it just sticks it at the end of the question with a system note that it's additional information that was left as a comment. Moderators routinely convert answers that folks leave as clarification to edits.

Gonna think on this a bit. Users do see help in the text box for comments when they go to add comments to their own questions:

.. possibly a bit too subtle.

In any event, this will be implemented in some form in the near future.

Answer 2

I can only think of two reasons why authors comment beneath their own questions:

1. Clarifying or dismissing another comment

2. Providing information requested by a comment

So I propose that when the question author presses the add a comment link for the question, a pop-up dialog appears:

Add a comment to your own question

New information should be edited into your question, not added as a comment. Do you really need to add a comment to your question?

• No – take me to the edit question screen
• Yes – I need to clarify or dismiss a comment

I think it's important to make the user choose between two options. Simply showing a notification above the comment window might not be enough.

I've noticed the comment window already says:

Use comments to reply to other users or notify them of changes. If you are adding new information, edit your post instead of commenting

Despite this, there are tons of violations. This is what leads me to believe a simple pop-up is not enough.

Answer 3

I'm in favor of this, but for the love of all that is holy (which is to say, not importing horrible habits people have been forced into by webforums), can we do this in a way that does not inspire to add their edits with the tag EDIT? Like this...

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Proin dignissim in lorem a cursus. Sed rutrum, turpis at faucibus hendrerit, est dui maximus ipsum, a sodales leo tortor eu diam. Nunc in facilisis dolor. Nulla quis auctor tortor?

Edit Cras dignissim, nulla a volutpat congue, ligula tellus vulputate dolor, at elementum neque orci semper metus.

Edit 2 Nunc non suscipit purus. Duis ultrices justo mauris, vel ornare ante bibendum vel. Donec aliquet sollicitudin orci, id lobortis mauris semper sit amet?

Edit 3 Aliquam sit amet dui urna. Aliquam commodo nisl erat, et fringilla erat dictum sed!

This isn't really any better than a series of comments, and requires just as much cleanup (with, I guess, the advantage that it at least doesn't take moderator intervention to remove).