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I already know that enough people posted their comments as answers to the question for the option "not an answer":

This was posted as an answer, but it does not answer the question. It should possibly be an edit, a comment, another question, or deleted altogether.

But what about the other way around? I've seen several instances where a (usually simple) question is answered in a comment rather than an answer. What should be done with these comments, since the Flag button doesn't give a "not a comment" option...

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possible duplicate of meta.stackexchange.com/questions/54762/… –  BoltClock's a Unicorn Mar 25 '12 at 13:42
    
@BoltClock I don't think this is quite the same. That feature request is asking for a way of "promoting" comments to answers. –  lunboks Mar 25 '12 at 14:34
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Yeah, a flag "Not a comment: This comment should be an answer." This has come up on several occasions, but usually only from a very select circle of users. –  Kerrek SB Mar 25 '12 at 15:07
    
Not a dupe; this question is asking about using an existing flag type while the other one suggests creating a new "Should Be An Answer" flag. –  Pops Jul 30 '12 at 15:37
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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Adding to what said by lunboks, if you see the user didn't post an answer (even if somebody commented suggesting to write an answer), you can write yourself an answer, after you gave enough time to that user to write one. If you write the answer yourself, the answer is normally made a Community Wiki, and you give credit to the user who wrote the comment.

screenshot

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No. There's really no point in doing this.

Comment flags are only visible to moderators, and they can't do anything about comments that should have been an answer. There's no "convert to answer" option.

Of course they could ask the comment author to post it as an answer, but you can just do that yourself with 50+ rep.

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It's worth knowing what to do, though, even if "do nothing" is the answer. For obvious reasons, I have no idea what options moderators do and do not have. –  Niet the Dark Absol Mar 25 '12 at 13:37
    
@Kolink Yeah, I wasn't questioning the validity of the question. I'm telling you that their options regarding these comments are the same ones available to you. –  lunboks Mar 25 '12 at 14:08
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