Just a small point about comments on stack exchange

Question

Why can't new people to the site post comments instead of answers. As a workaround I've posted answers with what I hope is helpful content, but I can't figure out why I have to have a higher reputation to have this privilege. If everyone can comment, we might get more ideas and even better answers. Please consider. I have alot of experience and qualifications and think I may have a lot to offer. But now I could be marked down because I have given an answer looking for clarification where it should really be a comment. See where I am coming from?

Answer 1

Welcome to Stack Exchange. I'm one of our site moderators here, along with our community of higher reputation and experienced Stack Exchange users, to help guide and teach new users about our Q&A platform.

On Stack Exchange, our goal is different than that of a traditional forum. Instead of pages and pages of "me too" posts and back and forth, situations that bury helpful content in the middle amongst a sea of noise, Stack Exchange created a platform to focus only on the helpful content, which is content that answers the question.

We ask those asking questions to include all of the details necessary to properly answer their question. If they don't include it, members of our community use comments to reach out to the asker to seek clarification. Any clarifications are edited into the body of the question.

Since many new users don't understand that comments are intended to seek clarity and not extended discussion, this privilege is limited to only users who have earned at least 50 reputation.

In one post, if you could have commented, you would have actually used the comment feature correctly. You asked a clarifying question, but you asked it in an answer. As a moderator, I converted it to a comment for you: Last day of a sprint in burndown chart in TFS2013

I also edited one of your answers so you're not replying to other users. Since answers are reordered based on voting and randomness, an answer doesn't make sense if it replies directly to another comment or answer.

I recommend that you take the tour, which explains a bit more about how our community works.

Additionally, you should note that if you focus on providing good answers to questions, you're only about 2 or 3 upvotes from achieving the 50 reputation needed to earn the comment privilege. Hope this helps and good luck!