# Answers of the form "I don't have enough reputation to comment, but"

New users often want to make a comment about a question or answer that they have read on this site, but they lack the $50$ reputation necessary to leave a comment. To circumvent this, they post their question as an answer.

Sometimes the user is unaware that they should not post a question or comment as an answer; in this case I would flag the post as 'not an answer'. However, sometimes the user is well aware of this fact and they preface their question with something similar to "I don't have enough reputation to comment, but". I believe that these answers should still be flagged, but I feel a bit silly flagging it as 'not an answer' because the following text is automatically posted as a comment (from me):

This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post - you can always comment on your own posts, and once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post.

Clearly the user is already aware of this fact.

What is the appropriate course of action in this situation?

• If you feel strongly about it, you can simply delete the auto-Comment. As you point out, it gets posted as-if by oneself automatically with the flagging. Aug 10 '14 at 22:27
• Just to mention it: Occasionally, the thing to do is flag as "other" and write "This should be converted to a comment, because ...". Aug 11 '14 at 10:07
• You wrote: they should not post a question or comment as an answer. I am not sure whether everyone agrees with this. This thread is also related: meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/9203/… Aug 11 '14 at 13:38
• Incidentally, one of my most upvoted answers (math.stackexchange.com/questions/14282/…) starts out essentially like this (I wonder if I should get that removed at some point). Aug 11 '14 at 18:39

• Your recent example $\not\exists$ Aug 16 '14 at 9:44