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I'm pretty new to this site. I was wondering what the accepted practice was with questions like this where OP has been answered in comments but there are no answers to 'accept'.

What does the expression or slang "Bootstrap" means and which expressions contain it in Australian Slang?

Open since May 13th. Question is about a slang term in AusEng but later is confirmed as BrEng question by OP, though question has not been updated. A commenter links to an urbandictionary definition page and OP says that his question has now been answered even though the quotes given as examples in the question are from that particular page? Regardless, unless the question is closed or something similar, it will remain near the top of 'unanswered'.

Similarly, with questions that have remained 'unanswered' for a while but with comments that basically state the answer, particularly if OP has replied and is satisfied, should someone else write these comments as a new answer?

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    Yes. And yes. This is a known issue in most of the SE sites. The solution is to write an answer and steal the info in comments. So, if you're worried about human rights and stuff, just make it CW. As easy as that. And there goes another question answered in comments. :P
    – M.A.R.
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 16:55
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    I'm leaving now; if no ones comes striking/answering the problem/question, I'll post an answer of my own. This very question is asked on many metas, you might get the answer from them yourself. Highly related: meta.ell.stackexchange.com/questions/709/…
    – M.A.R.
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 17:23
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    In my opinion, the question should be closed for lack of detail/context. It was only answered after a lengthy discussion trying to clarify the question, and then it was answered by a link that should have come up when the asker attempted to find an answer before asking. This is a different situation than the problem with answers being written in comments.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 18:01
  • @ColleenV: I VtCed with essentially the same reasoning before I saw this meta Q. Good to see independent confirmation. ;)
    – Nathan Tuggy
    Commented Jun 26, 2015 at 1:56

1 Answer 1

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If you see a question (a good question, which the example might not be) that has been fully answered in the comments, then it needs to be answered for real with an actual answer. This way the question no longer appears to have no answer from the Questions page, people can vote on the answer, and the answer can be accepted.

I will usually drop a comment to the person who has contributed the most to answering in comments asking them to answer the question. Sometimes they come back and do so. This step isn't necessary, you can just write the answer right off the bat if you like. This is just out of respect for the person who provided the info.

If they don't, then I will try and remember to write an answer myself. I add a note saying that I got most of the information from comments, and might actually include a link to the relevant comment.

Some will suggest making the answer a community wiki. This is fine, but don't feel like you have to. If you went to the effort of digging the answer out of comments and writing it up, then there's no reason you shouldn't get some rep for your efforts, especially if you dinged the person who provided the information and they declined to write one themselves.

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  • Did you mean "pinged" instead of "dinged"?
    – Jasper
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 17:45
  • @Jasper I meant 'dinged', being used in a manner synonymous with 'pinged'
    – DCShannon
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 18:07

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