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For some posts, the answer might be very short or a single line answer. so sometimes users post them in comments instead of as answer.

For example, Have a look at this Question. Bala left a comment on the post which is the answer for that.

So if I strongly believe that comment is an answer for that, can I elaborate and post that as an answer. So that it would be helpful for future readers.

If I do so, it would looks like I copied answer from comment.

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  • See a comment by Bala under my answer :) – Mołot May 12 '14 at 12:53
  • @Mołot yes molot, I totally agree with you. I guessed the first two situations from your answer but 3rd one is interesting ;) – Krishna Mohan May 12 '14 at 13:00
  • @Mołot BTW, my question was not about that particular post. I just mentioned that as an example.:) – Krishna Mohan May 12 '14 at 13:11
  • That's why answers here are generic, and particular question is discussed in comments. Point of view of an user you put as example seems a worthy supplement and I simply didn't want you to miss it - but as a supplement only. – Mołot May 12 '14 at 13:17
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It's fine if you convert a comment in an answer, but you should first gave that opportunity to the user who wrote the comment. If that user doesn't do it, you could make an answer basing on that comment.
You should also give credit to the user who wrote the comment, but I would say that depends also from the effort you take to write your answer; if you just give the same link he does, and copy-paste the module description, than it is highly suggested to:

  • Make the answer a Community Wiki
  • Give attribution to the user who wrote the comment (i.e. add a link to the comment)
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Personally, I post "answers" in comments in 3 situations:

  1. It's only my guess, I don't know if it will work, it requires more knowledge than I have, or more testing than I'm willing to do, to really make it an answer. In that case I'm perfectly OK if someone writes an answer based on my comment, given he actually have the knowledge to verify my guess, or gave his time to test stuff. I'm glad to upvote it. This was the case with your example question.

  2. I know the answer, but have no time to properly format it, and I'm too reluctant to post low quality answer as an answer. In this case I hope to be able to come back and post full-blown answer in near future. I accept the risk that someone else will post it in the meantime. So be it. But I'm not happy with it... At the same time I refuse to keep my knowledge from OP if I actually think I know what can help him. If I posted something like that and forgot about it, then seeing it posted as Community Wiki answer is perfectly OK for me.

  3. I have some idea only OP can verify. In this case I expect OP to post a self-answer. After all, he was the one who put time and effort in verification, and more often than not, he has less rep than I, so it means more for him. If he can't post what we figured out (new user cooldown for example), then I'll do it, or I hope someone else will post it as CW. If 3rd party posts, in his own name, I see it as kinda stealing rep from OP. Oh, and if I was wrong in the first place, then it should never end up as answer - guesses that turns out to be wrong should end up in "already tried", or "was suggested but is not applicable" section of the question instead.

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    +1 it is my guess so I made only the comment! you explained well the situation in the first point. – Bala May 12 '14 at 12:49

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