Timeline for Why are answers being posted in the comments on the question?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Nov 2, 2021 at 12:58 | comment | added | AncientSwordRage | "Generally one has to correct those before addressing the information that's actually needed" - can that not go at the start of an answer? "Q: What kind of verb is Banana; A: Banana isn't a verb, it's a noun. The type of noun is what is called a 'common noun'" | |
| Dec 10, 2016 at 22:14 | comment | added | Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ | "so I put down something in a brief comment, hoping someone else will pick up the ball and run with it." But would it not seen seen as bad form to co-opt somebody else´s comment? I have seen people complain about this. | |
| Feb 27, 2015 at 16:10 | history | edited | John Lawler | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 1 character in body
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| Sep 6, 2013 at 17:50 | comment | added | John Lawler | Unfortunately, as I said, there are facts about language, but people prefer to make up their own. This wouldn't work in computing, where such answers can be tested, and mythology is not welcome. Here, however, all sorts of contradictory theories are given equal opportunity to bewilder questioners, and there's no way to test them. So chaos reigns, pretty much. Trying to find a definitive answer to anything is impossible, so pointing to "duplicate" questions doesn't solve anything and starts arguments instead. Bad match. | |
| Sep 6, 2013 at 17:17 | comment | added | awe | If everything is just true and false we only need one answer per question. This site fits good with multiple possible answers where good answers are voted up, and less good answers don't get that many votes. Directly wrong answers are voted down. It's a perfect model for English language where there might be several answers that can be correct. Accepted answer does not necessarily mean the only right answer. It means that it is the most helpful answer for the OP. Quality of the other answers is shown very clearly by number of votes. | |
| Sep 5, 2013 at 14:25 | comment | added | John Lawler | That's because English grammar and usage is not a matter of facts for the most part, but of opinion. The software and its Q/A format were designed originally for computer-related topics, where it's a good fit. But for grammar it's not. There are facts, but they're mostly avoided as "too hard", and mythology is preferred; this is a peculiarly Anglophone cultural attitude about language. | |
| Sep 5, 2013 at 10:42 | comment | added | awe | In those cases there are correct to ask back as a comment to ask the OP of more detail on what he asks, but the issue here is the comments that are really a direct answer to the question, which I have seen very frequently on this site, in much more degree than other SE sites. | |
| May 18, 2012 at 18:58 | history | answered | John Lawler | CC BY-SA 3.0 |