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Comments should not be used for answers. There are two types of situations where this tends to arise: Questions that have been closed where commentors answer in comments to express disagreement with the close. Questions with patently obvious answers. I'm probably guilty on the second which I don't see how to solve. For the first, I can see why people ...

A couple other things worth mentioning: The volume isn't as heavy here as on StackOverflow. There are few cases where you benefit from posting early. The length of answers shouldn't be so long that editing is a big deal. If you get to the main point quickly and cite some references, then that's all there should be to a good answer. Beyond that, your post ...

We should have a policy like Skeptics.SE Properly sourced answers are better-factored for StackExchange. An answer that "shows its work" has greater pedagogical value. It serves as a kind of minimum quality filter, and may help focus discussion around particular thinkers and texts.

I mean you're kind of right that good questions and good answers go together, but if you want to say that good questions are good because of their answers, then that's problematic. It doesn't give space to poor questions with answers better than they deserve (super lazy questions, very basic questions which could've been easily answered had the OP read a ...

Officially we're here to give objective answers, and to keep our own opinions out of it. However, I think we all know none of us do that 100% of the time. So is it possible for there to be a "right" way to be subjective in an answer? These are the standards I've generally arrived at personally: 1) Don't answer a question at all unless you have at least ...

In addition to the two cases virmaior mentioned, I personally will on occasion leave an "answer comment" for something that's an idea for an answer, but isn't fully fleshed out. Not sure if this is a great practice, but it has these advantages: 1) Someone who is looking for something quick or a hint has a place to look that might be helpful 2) Avoids ...

I think this is a real issue in Philosophy SE. For example, in this question the correct answer is given in the comments, which leaves us without the means to upvote and provide feedback on it, that might be useful to other users. It happens all the time. One way to go would be just to copy the correct answer given in a comment into a proper answer, but I ...

Providing sources obviously takes more time, but it requires .. and reflects .. additional rigor. I appreciate it when I see it, and I find I am fairly quickly motivated to return the favor. Maybe the best approach is threefold: prominent FAQ & policy guidance providing positive comments (aka "thank you's") as reinforcement when useful references are ...

It helps to have some familiarity with the literature, but with the resources of the internet at your fingertips, you can often construct a useful, well-supported answer even if you aren't already an expert on the subject.I think the important distinction is that it's not enough to "think" you understand the question, and have the right answer, you need to ...

I would like to distinguish three layers here: The level of personal input, the level of knowledge and the voting/commenting/deleting behaviour how it should be vs. how it is actually (sometimes) handled. personal input vs. depth of knowledge To highlight what I mean, I want to use the example of a first-year undergrad essay compared to a master's thesis. On ...

Regarding the definition of philosophy being used here (the easier question to answer). The second answer in this meta post gives a very good definition of what "philosophy" is according to this site ... understood broadly but generously in line with the academic discipline which traditionally includes metaphysics, epistemology, aesthetics, and ethics ...

I did not down vote your answer, but I want to point out you received two up votes and one down vote as of this writing. So you have a net positive number of votes. It is good to ask oneself how one might improve an answer if one receives a total of 0 or fewer votes. What that means is for whatever reasons the current social mood did not favor the post. ...

For right now, I did just delete the answer in the interest of discouraging future similar answers, but it's a fair question whether downvoting or deleting is the appropriate goal here.

I'd suggest that writing a post is far from writing an essay which takes more planning and work; generally, I try to keep my answers short and to the point, so it's more like the notes that might go into an essay; so your notion of it being an unfinished draft of an essay is apposite.

Good question! If a good percentage of the community referenced questions and answers then it might be easier to suggest users should do so, without driving people away. It does take some work to reference a good answer; especially if it's to a book; which is why I often opt for the SEP. It might be a little easier if there were standard places where one ...

Late to the game (just starting to get involved in this Stack Exchange). From what I've seen so far on this site, I think there are some subjective questions that are someone to look to pick a fight, and there are some subjective questions where someone is looking to understand the arguments. To take an example: Is it moral to steal bread? This ...

Some people can take a hint, others don't; unfortunately, if this happens with a new-comer, there's no track record to go on, to decide which way they might go. The optimum, would be to remind them to cite; possibly together with a down-vote.

As I read other Phil.SE posts, I've seen quite a few cases where learners and students are not comfortable asserting Answers outright, but use comments to provide partial feedback and ideas for consideration .. essentially, floating "test balloons". This seems useful, and doesn't preclude an Answer later. It's also in keeping with comments as a means to ...