In which questions are comments on answers more important than the answer itself?

Question

Toaster

I have repeatedly heard that comments on answers sometimes play a much greater role than the answer itself. Can you give the most memorable examples for you?
Also, what do you think of these comments? Should I give the author of the answer the ability to attach comments to his answer, making them part of the latter? Should I add likes to comments and take them into account in users' contributions on Tomter too?

Answer 1

The answer may be multi-part. For example, the author indicates that this is an answer and puts a plus sign on the comment below. Which is mirrored up to the answer
. And about the likes ... who the hell knows). Like should be one. For answer!
You would be better engaged in the stability of the resource. And then when the Internet lags and I mechanically click on the first thing that came to hand to check ... the toaster is the worst option!) I have to launch another resource!)

Answer 2

I think it's worth letting the user find their comments. This is impossible, and often you remember a cool discussion and links from it, where you also answered - and you can’t find it, because there is no opportunity to see your comments in the profile (only answers).
Here and now. You are asking for an example. AND HOW TO BRING IT IF THERE IS NOT A TRACE IN THE PROFILE?

Answer 3

Likes for comments are definitely needed.
Comments are more useful than answers when in the answer one experienced person says that Patterns are evil, in the comments another experienced person says that they are not, and a reasoned argument begins with arguments, examples of implementation, etc. you can learn a lot from these.
Specific examples:
When the answer is short
https://toster.ru/answer?answer_id=924513#comments...
When the answer is good and in the comments details
https://toster.ru/answer?answer_id=781851#comments...
https://toster.ru/answer?answer_id=954641#comments...
Or when the answer is not very accurate and someone corrects
https://toster.ru/answer?answer_id=788711#comments...

Answer 4

Of course, likes for comments are cool. I would click sometimes.
A compound like, as Sergey suggested , could also take off. As well as the removal of a branch from the comments in response.
IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS:
Make the edit button for your own question or answer more explicit. Put it instead of "like", for example. All the same after all "to vote for own answer it is impossible".
Hide the answer field for the author of the question itself. Or completely block. Or at least issue a warning. Very often, newcomers to the toaster, instead of completing the question, write anything in the "answer" field.
Change the very non-obvious button icon with three dots to <cоde>or something like that.
Instead of deleting the question with the wording "the answer is easily found by the search engine" - a plate with links to similar questions on the toaster.
pro: These almost identical questions are your organic keywords.
contra: A few extra clicks for the moderator. But it can be partially automated.
In some cases, you can suggest answers even at the time of writing the title of the question. A sort of live search in the style of Google.
Ratings for the questions themselves, and not only in plus, but also in minus. I understand that this is a very controversial topic, but now almost half of all the questions that appear in my feed are formulated in such a way that one can only try to guess what the author of the question really wanted. And some people write such questions in whole series. For example, user hollanditkznhe writes some service for the sale of T-shirts and when he has difficulties, he writes a question to the toaster. At the same time, he seems to firmly believe that everyone is aware of the "content of the previous series", everyone knows what code he wrote there, and what errors pop up in him. It would be cool to downvote most of these questions, for example.
pros:
Less time and attention spent by responders.
Cleaner search results if downvoted questions are dragged at the end.
cons:
Some people will be embarrassed to write questions (but maybe it's for the best?)
There will be an opportunity for "karma wars". Although they seem to have developed a more or less working scheme on Habré, and on stackoverflow too.
UPD:Sometimes, I change the answer to my question by moving something from the comment there. But quite rarely - there is no motivation. If it becomes clear that the author once again does not know what he wants and the question is doomed to remain a dead weight, it is easier to forget about it. Sometimes you understand that even though the answer is accepted, since confessions and additional information were knocked out from the author in the comments, but the answer does not correspond to what is written in the title and body of the question - it's easier to forget about it. You can, of course, try to edit the question itself, but this is already some kind of Wikipedia.
And only when I understand that I myself gave an incomplete or incorrect answer, and at the same time the question itself is written normally - then I can transfer the details from the comments to the answer.
UPD2 : Another rationalization proposal:
Now there are tags in the feed above the title of the question, something like this:
At the same time, there is no way to find out what kind of "+2 more" there are until you open the question itself. It would be cool to show tags at least when hovering with the mouse, so that you can understand what is there about 1C, for example, without opening it.

Answer 5

Comments on answers are sometimes much more important than the answer itself.

I agree, because for example, the answer may not be accurate (due to a number of reasons). And in the comments there is a discussion in more detail and very often leads to the correct answer, or there is a "clear explanation". Examples: poke and poke
I'm not sure what you need ... but you could show the number of likes (total) comments
IMHO: worth it. But take into account ... I don’t know (I can’t answer
upd
about “taking into account likes in comments”: it often happens that they write some kind of joke (I can’t find it right away) and they will naturally start liking it, although in fact it doesn’t answer.

Answer 6

There is a very thin line between a comment on a question and a separate answer.
There is no such line in the comments to the answers.
For these reasons, sometimes you really want to like a comment, but there is no way.

Answer 7

It is necessary not to let the author like answers until he marks one of them as a solution. And issue a warning. For nefig.