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Should I question users with a comment or answer?

(I feel like this post doesn’t make the most sense, sorry :/)

If I need to ask a user to elaborate more and a question, such as if it is a vague or difficult to answer question, should i reply to the post with a comment or and answer.

I feel like simply asking someone to elaborate more in the form of an answer doesn’t seem right, but if I comment and they reply, I seldom see it because most users don’t know that they need to @me on comments for me to see it. If I write an answer however, they comment on it and I’m notified immediately. What do y’all do?

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Just to confuse things even more, your question includes the answer that you are seeking :>)

If you are simply asking for more clarification or details, then comment on the OP’s question. If you are doing a diagnosis, then it can be a bit more gray IMHO. If questions you ask can lead to the OP going “aha!”, then it can be an answer also. If you are just asking, for example “did the phone come into contact with water?” then to me that’s a comment. If you ask something like “did the phone come into contact with water because that can cause this type of issue blah blah blah…? then that can be an answer.

I’ll usually flag questions disguised as answers but sometimes the initial question, as simplistic as it may be, leads to a long conversation which ultimately leads to an answer of sorts, I’ll leave those be.

I’m curious to see what the mods think.

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Hm, this is quite helpful. As I said though, I seldom know when they reply without going back and manually checking on OP's post. Should I just mention that they should @ me in their reply?

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@reedcrosby04 I would have to agree with @refectio :)

You can also click the Subscribe to discussion button which should alert you when someone replies and or comments on the thread.

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@blakeklein Thanks, that's good to know! :-)

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If the question is vague then I often ask a pointed question within the comment of the initial question.

If I’m trying of offer up additional info like product info (a common need in MacBooks) Then I add it in as a comment as a URL link to the details of the device/s involved. That way others looking at the question get a better grasp on the device/s being discussed.

I jump about when posting a diagnostic step sometimes it's a comment other times it maybe in an answer as it may have something else added to it.

Its always a challenge to decide what makes the most sense!

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@reedcrosby I wholeheartedly agree with @refectio and do moderate to that. If it has a sliver of a possible answer, I leave it. You'll find that some comments left as answers contain a lot of blah, blah, blah psychobabble and do not offer any answer, those go into comments. If it only shows a request for clarification I moderate it to a comment. Best is to subscribe to the discussion as suggested by @blakeklein

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Thanks! I'll take this into account.

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Reed Crosby will be eternally grateful.