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When an answer is converted into a comment, it is marked as "deleted". This can lead to great confusion as to why the answer was deleted, unless the moderator leaves a comment.

Either of these would prevent any confusion:

  • Instead of writing "deleted" on the answer, write "converted into a comment."
  • Automatically add a comment saying that "Your answer was converted into a comment for this post."
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    I like the 2nd variant, and your proposed text sound good to me.
    – Hendrik Vogt
    Mar 23, 2011 at 13:09
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    I'm more in favor of the second one, probably with some sort of bypass rule like how the "possible duplicate" auto-comment works.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Mar 23, 2011 at 13:11
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    or the first one could say converted to a comment on post 123456 by moderatorX ♦
    – studiohack
    Mar 23, 2011 at 15:02
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    We had a user get confused about this: judaism.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/301/…
    – Isaac Moses
    Jul 27, 2011 at 21:44

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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The convert to comment moderator function will now display the fact that an answer was converted to a comment after the next build.

EDIT: this is how it will appear

enter image description here

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    Will this be retroactive to previously converted comments?
    – ale
    Aug 12, 2011 at 19:38
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    @Al - no it won't apply retroactively because we didn't previously have a post history record for this action
    – Geoff Dalgas
    Aug 12, 2011 at 20:17
  • @Geoff: Ah, ok. Last quick question, is that something that a sub-10k would be able to see? It was my understanding that answers deleted by someone other than the owner will not be visible to them.
    – Jeff Mercado
    Aug 12, 2011 at 20:24
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    @Jeff 10ks have always been able to see all deleted posts, regardless of who deleted them
    – Michael Mrozek
    Aug 12, 2011 at 20:26
  • @Jeff Oh, I completely misread that as 10ks. Ignore me :). So you mean answers deleted by someone other than themselves would not be visible to them
    – Michael Mrozek
    Aug 12, 2011 at 20:29
  • @michael no, that is not true; deleted answers are always visible to users on the question, if they own the answer.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Aug 13, 2011 at 6:00
  • When you convert to a comment, you have to pick a location (the question or another answer). Could you add that information to the message?
    – Borror0
    Aug 13, 2011 at 17:05
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    Is this supposed to be already active? I just converted an answer to a comment on a question on Programmers and it still said it was "deleted".
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Aug 15, 2011 at 12:46
  • @GeoffDalgas Has this been implemented? It still doesn't show up on answers converted to a comment...
    – Lorem Ipsum
    Oct 9, 2011 at 17:28
  • I'm not seeing it either. Is it only shown to the person who posted the answer but not to the moderator who converted it?
    – Rahul
    Jan 13, 2012 at 14:36
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    Geoff, this apparently shows that note only to the poster himself. 10k-ers and mods still just see deleted by *. Can this be extended to all users who can see the deleted post, along with a link to the comment? Should I make a separate feature request?
    – Hod - Monica's Army
    Jul 1, 2012 at 3:03
  • It seems to simply be lying about converted to a comment I search the whole page and there was no such comment.
    – polcott
    Apr 20 at 3:58

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