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This is related to this post on questions answered in comments, but different in that the site won't let me.

The question in.. question is this. The answer is fairly simple in that 'Parameter' is an apt, canonical, general term for the type of term that my question exhibited. I would like to add this as an answer and link to the comment that made the suggestion.

The problem is that the simple answer automatically gets delegated to a comment for being too simple.

The question therefore is, what is the protocol for answering this type of question? Should it be closed? Does the answerer need to flag a moderator as seemingly implied here?

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  • $\begingroup$ Maybe I misunderstood, but I thought that your problem is that your answer is automatically converted to a comment. I posted an answer with exactly the text you suggested. And it was not converted. (See below.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    May 25, 2016 at 16:32

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My approach (which is related to this question even though I have enough rep to self-answer) has been to comment on the post, tagging the user who gave the answer in a comment, and asking them to 'upgrade' their comment to an answer. See here and here. My reason for doing this is that I want to attribute the rep to the person who gave me the answer. If they fail to respond to my request then I will later on post an answer, reference the comment and user, mark it as a Community Wiki, and accept it (CW in these cases because the ideas were not originally mine).

This answer relates more to the community who have sufficient rep, and this issue probably won't be a problem for you in the future once you pass that threshold of reputation points, but the solution I have given is still a good one IMO. Perhaps you can remember these questions for when you have sufficient rep in the future, and then come back to them to answer them accordingly.

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Parameter is an apt, canonical, general term for the type of term that my question exhibited.

Thanks to Leo Mosher for suggesting this word in his comment.

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  • $\begingroup$ If I understood correctly, your problem was that you posted an answer and it was automatically converted to a comment. This is just to test whether adding a few words and link to the comment is sufficient to prevent the conversion. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    May 25, 2016 at 16:23
  • $\begingroup$ Indeed, that was the problem, though it was on the main math stackexchange, not the meta one. I'm not sure if they have different rules for that, or potentially if it is caused by my low reputation. $\endgroup$
    – Nate Diamond
    May 25, 2016 at 17:00
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    $\begingroup$ @NateDiamond It's not the reputation. Two factors come together, a) it's a very short answer, and b) it links to math.se. Together, that triggers the heuristics for the automatic conversion of trivial answers to comments. If you add some more text, or leave out the link, you should be able to post it as an answer. I think that if you first post it without the link, and then edit in the link after posting, it should not be converted to a comment. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel Fischer
    May 25, 2016 at 17:57
  • $\begingroup$ @DanielFischer Awesome, will do that. Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – Nate Diamond
    May 25, 2016 at 19:34
  • $\begingroup$ @DanielFischer It seems that your comment solved the OP's problem. Maybe you could post it as an answer. (And then I can delete both my answers, which were intended merely as a test.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    May 26, 2016 at 6:23
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Parameter is an apt, canonical, general term for the type of term that my question exhibited.

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  • $\begingroup$ This was just a test whether this will be automatically converted to a comment. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    May 25, 2016 at 16:24

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