In heaven complaining about hell

Question

Dear Michael Hampton,

Let me point out my opinion on your action.

It is OK for you to delete something that is not an answer, if you really think it did not help to solve the in the first place you should delete it, although without my first post, I wouldn't be able to get as much info as I needed to help the user, which I'm certain that I could. Isn't this the purpose of this website?

Everyone seemed to be more interested in saying that my post should be a comment rather than help the user. Do I earn something for posting instead of commenting? Do you think I care about rep points or badges? Please reset them or even disable them, but put my post back. Be useful yourself.

Now I know that I can comment before I type an answer, but if I don't have 50 reputation to be able to comment, how exactly am I supposed to comment? I just posted to be able to get more info from the user, and I did, which in fact, helped me to provide the user with a valid answer. Was my first post completely in vain that it deserved to be deleted? What about the second one with an answer? ... oh wait..., I was having a 'conversation' with the user.

And you are now accusing me of having conversations in my posts? Sir, If I want to have conversations, I'll use Skype or mIRC, logically I won't use your «question and answer site for professional system and network administrators» for this purpose. I have more to do that to just "chat around".

At least I was trying to help someone, while you are just stopping me from doing so.

Man, I feel really bad for being held in helping someone, and even worse for the poor guy trying to get an answer, and the most frustrating part is that, unfortunately, I can not do anything about it. Everybody makes mistakes sometime, but Its just that I totally disagree with the fact that you deleted my post.

--- EDIT 2 ---

I am just wasting my time and I realised that. I'm in heaven complaining about hell. This is going nowhere.

Answer 1

Instead of beeing harsh,

(much as I joke, I do agree with the others. This is not a place to have a conversation, stick with the answering. If you don't have enough rep to comment, get some).

Answer 2

It is Ok for you to delete something that is not an answer, if you really think it did not help to solve the in the first place you should delete it, although without my first post, I wouldn't be able to get as much info as I needed to help the user, which I'm certain that I could. Isn't this the purpose of this website?

Answer must actually and completely answer the Question here. Server Fault is not a Forum. This is standard operating procedure, and I would have deleted your "Answers" too.

Everyone seemed to be more interested in saying that my post should be a comment rather than help the user.

Everyone is contributing what they know. They know your "Answers" should have been Comments. So that's what they contribute. If they knew the answer to the Question they probably would have posted that.

Do I earn something for posting instead of commenting?

No.

Do you think I care about rep points or badjes?

No, honestly not many people actually care about fake Internet points.

Please reset them or even disable them, but put my post back. Be useful yourself.

See above.

Now I know that I can comment before I type an answer, but if I don't have 50 reputation to be able to comment, how exactly am I supposed to comment?

Find questions to which you know the Answer and post there. You'll be surprised how easy this actually is.

Was my first post completely in vain that it diserved to be deleted? What about the second one with an answer?

See above.

And you are now acusing me of having conversations in my posts?

You are way too wrapped up in this... Sorry, we're lawnmowers when it comes to this issue.

At least I was trying to help someone, while you are just stopping me from doing so.

I have no doubt you were well intentioned, but we have a few rules here (detailed in the help center) that we expect everyone to follow. We appreciate your effort and look forward to any contributions you choose to make in the future!

Answer 3

Nice that you have an opinion and everything, but you're wrong.

Also, for what it's worth, I flagged that post, and if it miraculously gets undeleted, I'll throw a delete vote on it, as will at least two other users with >=20,000 reputation, so it'll be deleted anyway.

This is a Q&A site, not a forum. Questions are supposed to be posted as questions, answers as answers, and comments as comments. If you don't have the reputation required to comment, you have two options:

1. Get the reputation by contributing.
2. Post comments as answers, and eventually get answer-banned.

If you don't like it, tough. That's the way it is, because StackExchange is about providing information without the irrelevant BS of a forum. We keep it that way (as much as possible) exactly by restricting the answers portion to actual answers and deleting non-answers like yours.

Maybe you should read about what StackExchange is actually about before getting all bent out of shape about having a non-answer deleted for being a non-answer.

Answer 4

Your first answer isn't an answer and should have been a comment as all you were doing is ask for additional information rather than answering the question - this is the definition of a comment. I almost flagged your first answer myself earlier but I got distracted and forgot.

Your second answer doesn't actually answer the question either. We generally expect that answers are just that erm answers to the question posed see When is an answer not an answer.

Answer 5

Now I know that I can comment before I type an answer, but if I don't have 50 reputation to be able to comment, how exactly am I supposed to comment?

In theory, if you are using the answer field for a comment because you don't have the ability to comment, the delete of that answer should come with someone pasting your text into a comment for you.