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I wanted to answer a question, after I did my answer was automatically transformed to a comment. Why? I see another question here about this but they respond to the asker that this only happens when the answer is a link. My answer was not and it fully answered the question

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  • $\begingroup$ Since this is an action by moderator, I suggest you ask here or flag your comment. $\endgroup$
    – user99914
    Aug 21, 2016 at 18:50
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    $\begingroup$ Not providing a link to the Question or Comment/Answer at issue makes it something of a puzzle to find. Sometimes (but not recently) when I see a post that seems either not intended as an Answer but as a Comment, or fails as an Answer and would work better as a Comment having some beneficial content, I will flag it for Moderator special attention and recommend that it be transferred to a Comment on the Question. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Aug 21, 2016 at 22:27

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The answer was not transformed automatically, instead it was done manually by a moderator. A moderator can do this for any answer (if it is longer than a comment it would get cut off).

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  • $\begingroup$ Was it that bad? $\endgroup$
    – user290300
    Aug 21, 2016 at 18:48
  • $\begingroup$ I did not look into the content so far. I took your question as a technical one on the site mechanics. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Aug 21, 2016 at 18:49
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    $\begingroup$ On the content in specific case: First, that it was transformed to a cmnt also sends the message that you did contribute something useful (otherwise it would have been just deleted, not preserved as a comment). So the feedback is not as negative as you might think it is. Would it also work as an answer? Likely, yes. But also note that such decisions might be taken based on the answer in isolation and the style of your answer is comment-like. Would you have written instead, say: "Define your candidate for a norm functions as $d(x,0)$. Verify it is a norm." it's more clear it's an answer. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Aug 21, 2016 at 19:04
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    $\begingroup$ To make more clear the importance of style, let me give a still more risky example regarding style: sometimes a user answers in the style of a rhetorical question. This can be fine in principle, but when you review that in isolation and there you have the button: "This is a question posted as an answer." it is so easy to get tripped up. Because you are shown just the answer-post which is technically a question. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    Aug 21, 2016 at 19:12

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