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I recently answered a question and it was added to the post as a comment (even though I cannot write them because I have reputation under 50) because it said something like "Answer considered trivial".

The OP is commented on their post and tagged me asking me to clarify a doubt about my "comment". The problem is that I can't reply to them by leaving a comment so if I wanted to answer their doubt, the only thing I could do was to write an "answer" to the post itself (even though it wouldn't be an actual answer).

I know it may sound a little confusing but I have no idea about what I should do.

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    $\begingroup$ I've posted a comment on the post in question explaining your situation and I've included a link to this meta post there. $\endgroup$
    – JRN
    May 19, 2017 at 0:50
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    $\begingroup$ I think your options are 1) earn the 50 points, so you can leave comments, or 2) leave comments as answers, and trust the moderators to turn them into comments for you (but this may get on the moderators' nerves). I'm not sure whether people need points to participate in chatrooms, that could be another workaround. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    May 19, 2017 at 4:37
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    $\begingroup$ @GerryMyerson I don't think that option 2 should be recommended. I don't think that the reason for the 50 point limit is to challenge the user's creativity to find a workaround, $\endgroup$
    – miracle173
    May 20, 2017 at 0:00
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    $\begingroup$ @miracle173 So true. Quite a few questions on meta these days are explaining: "Here is rule R of the site that prevents me to perform task T; how can I circumvent R and perform T anyway?" And some users are calmly answering: "Well, you could use trick T1, or maybe you would prefer trick T2..." Don't get it. $\endgroup$
    – Did
    May 20, 2017 at 8:57
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    $\begingroup$ @miracle173 that's true but not quite to the point. To the best of my knowledge, for the restriction the main reason is spam-protection, which is clearly inapplicable in the current case; another reason is preventing comment-noise which is inapplicable too in that case. That is, in the current case none of the reasons for the restrictions actually apply; it is the (unavoidable) coarseness of the system that prevents OP from making a meaningful contribution. Therefore, it is reasonable to try to find a workaround for this corner case. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    May 20, 2017 at 14:09
  • $\begingroup$ @quid I thought it was the lack of so called reputation of the OP "that prevent(ed) (them) from making a meaningful contribution" (in your terms). In this context, what is preventing them to first perform the (very) small amount of menial tasks helpful to the site that is sufficient to get them enough reputation points to "open" to them the right whose lack they are trying to circumvent? $\endgroup$
    – Did
    May 20, 2017 at 14:34
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    $\begingroup$ @Did My comment started "that's true but not quite to the point." To take the points as a proxy is simple-minded. That's was my point. That OP is prevented from making that particular comment is an unintended side-effect of a generally meaningful but simple-minded restrictions. I'd think in a "perfect world" there would a special case that allows follow up comments in a thread where there already is a comment by a user, just like there is a special case that allows users to comment on their own posts and answer-posts to their questions. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    May 20, 2017 at 14:55
  • $\begingroup$ I am all for following and enforcing rules and restrictions. However, this should better be done according to the spirit and the idea behind the rules, and not blindly according to the letter or the technical restriction, especially giving the simple-minded and ad hoc nature of the "legal system" of the site this is important. $\endgroup$
    – quid Mod
    May 20, 2017 at 15:01

2 Answers 2

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It is not wanted that a user with less than 50 rep points writes comments. It is also not wanted that answers are created that are not real answers but comments or anything else. It is intended that you gain 50 points of reputation before you write comments and so you should try to gain them and not try to outsmart the system.

You will gain

  • 5 points for an upvote of one of your questions
  • 10 points for an upvote of one of your answers
  • 2 points improve a post and this edit was accepted
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    $\begingroup$ Just to clarify, I never tried outsmarting the system. As I explained in my post, I wrote an actual answer to the question and it was added automatically as a comment, claiming my answer was trivial. My intentions were never to write a comments on that post. After that, I was asked a question about my "comment" but I had no way of answering. I was asking what was the best way to answer that question. $\endgroup$
    – BB3C
    May 20, 2017 at 9:50
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I'm guessing the Question and Comment at issue can be found here.

The "answer" posted by BBC3 was in the nature of pointing out a duplicate, something that in itself is a worthwhile contribution. The OP had difficulty seeing how the duplicate fully answered their Question, but the gap was explained by another user's Comment.

Overall the system worked. The pointing out of a duplicate was not "an actual answer" in the framework of Math.SE, but a useful observation that deserved to be copied over as a Comment on the Question.

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