Problem:
A trend of questions being answered purely in the comment field of the question. There is no formal migration of this into the answer format to the question. As a result, questions that appear to be unanswered actually do contain answers. The current voting system does not support any method of distinguishing between helpful comments or comments that could potentially be deemed as answers.
Discussion Material:
- A possible migration path or the ability to pool a certain number of comments that respond to the original question.
- A method of changing a questions status from being unanswered to a more appropriate state depending on the level of the answer.
Possibilities:
- Implement a flag procedure allowing a comment to be upgraded to an answer based on moderator approval
- Commenting asking that it be moved to an answer, or manually post it as an answer awarding credit after a period of time passes.