-13

This answer right here:

enter image description here

had the solution to a problem I had. However, I would not be able to enact the solution without reading the comment on the bottom. Here is what I ended up doing:

  • Read this comment, and tried the solution:

enter image description here

  • Did not make sense, so I kept reading:

enter image description here

  • Did not work. Puzzled, I searched around for other questions on SO. Eventually came back, read this:

enter image description here

  • Finally worked.

    An option like this would have probably saved me twenty minutes:

enter image description here

Improve this question
9
  • 5
    What problem would sorting comments in this manner solve? I mean - that comment should be an answer, after all.
    – Oded
    Aug 6, 2017 at 9:21
  • 1
    @Oded It would have put the comment in this select case, at the top of the list, and would have been the first one I read, thus giving me the solution I needed.
    – Anon
    Aug 6, 2017 at 9:24
  • 1
    Which ruins the actual comment thread. And, as I said, answering in a comment was the wrong thing to do by the comment OP - that should have either been an answer, or rolled into the existing one.
    – Oded
    Aug 6, 2017 at 9:25
  • 1
    @Oded Doesnt ruin the thread if you can just resort by chronology as is default. Reddit has this functionality; you can sort comments in many ways.
    – Anon
    Aug 6, 2017 at 9:27
  • 2
    And there's a reason we choose not to. We don't want discussions in comments. We don't want answers in comments. We want to focus on... questions and answers. Not comments. We don't want to make them more comfortable to use (because then they will be mis-used). Sure, they do get misused - but that doesn't mean we should build tools to aid with this misuse.
    – Oded
    Aug 6, 2017 at 9:32
  • 1
    @Oded It is not obvious to me why "Sort Comments by Votes" aid the misuse of comments. Could I not argue that they "Aid the proper use of comments" by allowing one to sort through the misused riff raff? What reasoning would go through the head of a comment misuser that this option encourages him to misuse the comment system more than he already does?
    – Anon
    Aug 6, 2017 at 9:40
  • 1
    @Akiva What appropriate use of comments is aided by this proposal? You've demonstrated how it aids in abusing comments, but not how it aids in their proper usage.
    – Servy
    Aug 7, 2017 at 13:43
  • @Servy At this point with -6, why should I even bother?
    – Anon
    Aug 7, 2017 at 17:44
  • 1
    @Akiva If you're able to provide a convincing argument for why this would be a very beneficial feature for appropriate usages of the site, that can be quickly turned around.
    – Servy
    Aug 7, 2017 at 17:50

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
8

I'm not sure this is a good idea. Comments aren't meant to have answers to your problem in them; according to the help center:

When should I comment?

You should submit a comment if you want to:

  • Request clarification from the author;
  • Leave constructive criticism that guides the author in improving the post;
  • Add relevant but minor or transient information to a post (e.g. a link to a related question, or an alert to the author that the question has been updated).

It's true that most users (even I) don't always stick to these guidelines, but given the purpose of comments, the only sort option which makes sense is sorting by time of posting.

If a comment really provides permanent value, edit it into a relevant answer (if that doesn't change the intention of that answer), or post it as a separate (Community Wiki) answer, with proper attribution to the author of that comment. Make sure the new answer actually answers the question itself; if not, it might eve be worth trying to turn it into a self-answered Q&A.

Improve this answer
3
  • Did any of the comments in my example not abide by one of those three principles?
    – Anon
    Aug 6, 2017 at 9:25
  • @Akiva these comments are fine, but the post has been edited and they are No Longer Needed. I think the comments with 7 and 9 upvotes could be edited into the answer, unless that is 'general advice' which applies in much more cases than just this one. Then, it's just a 'trick' that you need to know.
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Aug 6, 2017 at 9:28
  • I eventually figured out that they did end up in producing an edit, but not after trying to subclass directly from QObject. Not much I can do about those comments. Kind of the reason why I requested this feature. The answer with 9 upvotes is only relevant to a person using the QtCreator IDE... It might not qualify as relevant given that it is niche.
    – Anon
    Aug 6, 2017 at 9:32

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .