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I'm fairly new to participating here (though I've been referring to Drupal Answers for a while now for Drupal help), so forgive me if the reason is pretty obvious and I just haven't picked up on it yet.

I notice a lot of times someone will comment on a question, and their comment is an answer to the question. Why comment and not respond as an answer?

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  • 3
    I was really hoping someone would answer you in the comment section ;)
    – Sean Bannister
    Jul 5, 2014 at 7:49
  • That would have been funny :P
    – ashlinry
    Jul 6, 2014 at 19:19
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    I covered my reasons under related question, will not re-post here. Linking for anyone interested :)
    – Mołot
    Jul 8, 2014 at 10:56
  • That also means "I'm so badass that I don't need some points with your little tiny question" :-D
    – Djouuuuh
    Jul 8, 2014 at 13:28
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    Another reason is mobile phones...I often don't have the patience to write a full answer with code etc on a phone, so I try to give a quick outline in a comment
    – Clive Mod
    Jul 10, 2014 at 23:12

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Most of the time the reason is that the user doesn't have the time to write a complete answer, and leaves a comment to give an hint to who could answer. Other times, the comment is really a guess, and an invite for the OP to add more details.

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    Often times I'll use a comment that is little more than "have you checked out this module....." type of an answer, too.
    – Jimajamma
    Jul 2, 2014 at 19:39
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+1 on kiamlaluno and to add to this, I think it might be because they are frightened of being down-voted if they believe they have something useful to say but aren't sure if it's a full answer. With comments, one can't be downvoted.

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  • Got it. I have noticed that some of the answers in the comments do seem to be very intelligent and thought out, but perhaps like kiamlaluno said, they don't have time to elaborate as much as the question warrants, so they leave it to someone else.
    – ashlinry
    Jul 2, 2014 at 15:24
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    Compared to StackOverflow, Drupal Answers is rather friendly place with a lot of tolerance (IMO). Kiamlaluno, Molot, Clive and almost everyone are so friendly and optimistic to point out any problems with the answer instead of a ninja downvote. I think fear of downvotes should not stop someone from posting the answer :)
    – AKS
    Jul 4, 2014 at 17:16
  • @AyeshK To be honest, you made me blush a bit ;) But I do downvote if I feel answer is wrong to the point of being dangerous. I just make sure to un-downvote (and sometimes upvote) if concern I raised in comments are addressed.
    – Mołot
    Jul 8, 2014 at 10:52
  • Sorry if I sounded in a bad way. In SO, one could get a -5 answer score with no comment at all. DA is different, at least from what I have seen, that doe votes tend to explain the reasons. I know I did.
    – AKS
    Jul 8, 2014 at 10:56
  • @AyeshK No, nothing to be sorry about on your part! And yes, explaining what is or seems wrong is important part of my good experience here. Once or twice someone got angry, but overall people preferred to know possible downvote reasons and accepted them rather good. That's nice, too.
    – Mołot
    Jul 8, 2014 at 10:59
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Many questions about Drupal don't have a "correct" answer. More often than not when I ask questions of those more experienced than me about an issue with Drupal in person, their answer starts off with, "it depends".

A lot of the questions asked on Drupal Answers require detailed knowledge of the poster's site architecture and substantial background on the problem in order to give a definitive best answer. By comparison, questions on Stack Overflow are typically limited to a far narrower scope.

I feel that many of those who answer in the comments want to assist, but feel more comfortable providing their thoughts in the comments. This allows them to provide direction to the asker while recognizing that their guidance is more of a push in the right direction than a canonical answer.

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I've sometimes will comment an OP's question, because it is not sure that I have the correct answer. So the comment will be 'Have you looked here ...', 'Have you tried this ...' and similar. When then it is clearer that I'm on he right track, I maybe find the time to make a full feldged answer.

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