11

Many of you have probably seen this question on the troubleshooting of my friends 1990 Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32). There was a ~15 comment 'thread' under the question that has since been moved to chat. I have no problem with this action, as it keeps the site clean and concise, and many of the comments reiterated what had already been stated in the question. On the other hand, some of the comments involved troubleshooting techniques through which we could ascertain more useful information.

I would say roughly half the comments were bringing up new information, while the other half fell into the category of 'discussion' or information that was already in the question. Others brought up sensors/parts that had been checked but I had to edit into the question as I forgot to list them originally.

My question is, where should extended troubleshooting take place if not in the comments? I don't like the idea of doing it in chat, because some people (me in this case) find it a hassle to redirect to a different page to get the up-to-date information. I see moving the useful information off the main question page as detrimental toward the ultimate goal of solving the problem.

Could we figure out a way to move some comments to chat, or hide certain comments if they are seen as unnecessary? Can we restore the more useful comments back to the main page? Should I edit the useful comments into my question (which seems like a big middle finger to the mods)?

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
9

Should I edit the useful comments into my question (which seems like a big middle finger to the mods)?

This is exactly what you should do and it's not flipping us off at all. It's actually what we want you to do. Comments should be used to clarify the question and ask for any missing information. Use the comments to flesh out the details and then add them to your question or answers so that future visitors see a nice clean precise answer and question that includes all the relevant details. Once you have added the information to the post you can respond to the comment saying @user I have added that info to my post. This will put an alert in their inbox so they know the information has been added. The comments will get cleaned up later and the information is in the post.

3
  • Thanks for the clarification. In this case, for example, paulster suggested we test something, we did, and I commented the results. In the future I'll edit the test procedure and results into my answer and notify @paulster in the comments, but that leaves us in the same position with a big list of comments. Should I also ask paulster to delete his comment since it has been edited in, and once he sees it I can delete my notification comment as well? Since I now have additional questions, should I edit them into my original question, and @ notify you of the change? Thanks again for clarifying c:
    – MooseLucifer
    Commented Jun 20, 2016 at 19:37
  • 3
    @MooseLucifer at some point the comments can be flagged as obsolete. The best thing to do is once the users has seen the update he/she should flag both comments as obsolete. But ultimately even if it doesn't they will eventually be cleaned up.
    – Move More Comments Link To Top Mod
    Commented Jun 21, 2016 at 13:44
  • That makes sense, thank you breaking that down for me, I had forgotten about flagging comments. Turns out those SE creators knew what they were doing after all! Except for the placement of that damn 'more comments' button of course :P
    – MooseLucifer
    Commented Jun 21, 2016 at 16:04

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .