Should bits of relevant information that are not full answers be allowed in question comments?

Question

Per the recent question Should Aviation.SE allow answers posted in comments? and general SE policy, answers to the question are not supposed to be answered in comments.

However, sometimes users drop bits of relevant information that might be useful starting points for a full answer or which might otherwise aid the construction of a full answer, but are not full answers of themselves. Sometimes this is because the user posting that information might not know the full answer to the question, while other times it could just be a matter of the user not having time to write up a full answer.

Should we allow these comments with relevant information that are not full answers to remain on the question or should they be deleted as answers in comments?

If they should be allowed, where should we draw the line between these and answers in comments?

Answer 1

Yes, relevant bits of information in comments should be allowed, and if I might say, encouraged.

I have not spent much time on SE in recent months, but this behavior is one which I sometimes do: I glanced a question, know the answer, but did not want to write up a full answer because either I don't have time or I'm lazy or I'm on my phone or whatever. So I write a comment, essentially the key point of the answer, then leave.

Other times it is the other way around, I see a question, someone has left a comment which essentially is the key point of the answer, but there are no answers yet. It has been a while, so it is unlikely that the commenter has an answer under construction. I take the idea in the comment, expand it a bit, maybe link to Wikipedia or add some pictures, and post an answer.

I don't see anything wrong with this approach, really. One member of the community leaves a note, another member comes along and picks up what is left. Overall the community functions well: we provided an answer to the OP.

Let's us for a moment, consider the opposite. A user posts a question. A number of members pass by, they know the answer, but because they do not have time to write up a full answer post, nothing happens on the question. It just sits there. The OP sits there, waiting for someone to come along. At least someone can provide a hint or direction, at least? Nope. It is either full, complete answer or nothing. What will the site become?

Answer 2

Post answers as an answer. Post it (or expand it) later if you're on the phone and need to post/produce graphs and similar

TomMcW asked me the same question over the weekend in chat, so I'll repeat my answer here, and expand a bit on the reasoning.

TomMcW posed the following scenario:

When you have a possible line of reasoning, but you don't know if it's correct or you can't find a source, but somebody else might know of one

to which I replied:

I think I would keep it as a comment, but at the condition that it is not even a partial answer.
Example
Q: What is the regulation for X?
Ok comment: I don't know, but I have searched here with these keywords. Partial answer: It is somewhere in PartYY.

That is, for me we should accept comments that help find the answer, but not comments that (however broadly) contain the answer (or attempt to, as in "I think that ...").

This does not mean that partial answers should not be posted. It is still an answer! You can explicitly mention that is only a partial answer, but it is much better than posting it as a comment: it is more readable, anyone can edit it and expand it, plus, it can be properly (up)voted. Plus, you can always come back later and expand it with all the information you think is needed.

Another case posed by kevin in the comments to his answer is

for that particular question you want to use diagrams or quote past incidents or quote regulations. I am on my phone so I can do neither of those. E.g. the comment might be "Do X and Y". The full answer might be "According to the B737 Manual, we do W followed by X. If X does not work, do Y and Z"

In this case, as said here, it is no problem if you decide to post the answer a bit later. I guess you don't have only your phone to visit this site, so if you wait until you can post an answer with diagrams, or quoting past incidents or regulations, it is not a terrible thing.

If you think you won't be able to do it for a long time (say, weeks), and you really want to give this information, we go back to the previous case: post it as an answer. It is much better than a comment.

Answer 3

Given that:

• Partial answers are allowed
• Wiki answers are allowed

No "bits" have a place in comments—unless turning SE into a message board is the goal.