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On the DIY form who & when can one leave a comment?

I suggested someone use the comment link instead of leaving a comment in the place for answers.

oldturkey03said: I believe that one has to have a certain amount of feedback points, before one can leave a comment. Check with ifixit staff on that.

Is this true? If so why would you do that?

I'd like to know because at one time I was encouraged to "gently correct" users. If that's no longer the case I'd like to know.

I don't like looking like a fool.

Thanks.

Answer this question I have this problem too

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If comments posing/posted as Answers are not corrected or turned into comments what will happen to them? Will they be left as/where they are or deleted as "not an Answer"? What will leaving them have on the Answer format?

Taking "tips" from another forum is great - except when it's not germane to the situation.

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I just wanted to say thank you for the detailed information and pictures concerning an oil change for a 1998 honda prelude.. I looked all day for information that was for beginners and after 10 hours I found your info. Thank you for not assuming we all know where stuff is under the hood. Dianne in LR, AR

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Good point! The way the system currently functions, 20 reputation is required to comment.

We borrow a lot of our techniques for handling situations like these from Stack Overflow. They've run into this same situation, and we think their community handled it pretty well.

From their founder:

"You can always comment on your questions and answers, and any answers to questions you've asked, even with 1 rep."

I also particularly agree with this user's stance on comments:

"Just to clarify my stance on this: comments are bordering on useless compared to questions or answers. There's no revision history, no direct links, offer no contribution to your reputation, and they can and do disappear without leaving a trace... Comments are the post-it notes of SO: useful for quick and dirty little exchanges, but pointless long-term."

Always allowing users to comment on their own questions and answers, and to answers to their questions seems like a great strategy, and we think it would solve these issues if we adopted it.

What do you think?

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I agree with most of this, except "comments are bordering on useless compared to questions or answers." What I see on here is that comments are used to clarify certain aspects of the original question.

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I agree - there's a prohibition against asking Questions for clarification as part of an Answer. If that's no longer going to be the case comments might become a thing of the past. . . Is that prohibition it going to change? Yes? or No?

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I don't think we're changing the definition of an answer - they should still be, well, answers. Comments are comments, and if you have a new, but related, question, it should be its own question, with a link back to the original.

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originalmachead will be eternally grateful.