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I saw the "Does upvoting a comment add to the commenter's reputation" question already, but seriously: this seems like a bug, not a feature.

There are questions to which there is no answer, but there is a comment. When that comment is of seriously informational value (either to readers or to the OP) and many upvotes are given, that should result in increased reputation. I could understand it being a lower amount of reputation (similar to an edit? +2 instead of +10?) but it seems like it encourages value-free "answers" to give rep for answers but none at all for comments.

2 Answers 2

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Besides comments are second class citizens, and get blown away at will, without warning, and on a whim.

If a comment is useful, then it belongs in an answer.

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  • +1, for If a comment is useful, then it belongs in an answer.
    – saji89
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 8:51
  • Also, you can be rewarded for good comments via the Pundit badge.
    – N.N.
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 10:28
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jrg is correct!

If people are posting good information in comments then they're using the site wrong, comments are for prodding information out of people and "meta work". Good content is supposed to be in answers so that it can be peer reviewed and voted on so we can keep making it better, you can't really do that with answers.

If you run into a comment that is useful, take it and make an answer out of it!

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  • 1
    What about when the comment is something along the lines of prodding the OP to provide better info?
    – Jim Salter
    Commented Nov 24, 2012 at 18:00
  • 1
    I usually do that and when the person edits the question I just remove the comment. Or if it's someone else's comment asking for better info you can just mark those as obsolete afterwards.
    – Jorge Castro
    Commented Nov 25, 2012 at 15:55
  • I suppose you wanted to say: "you can't really do that with comments."
    – guntbert
    Commented Mar 3, 2013 at 13:03
  • I don't agree. There are many cases where people put much effort in comments, that finally lead to the solution. But the solution may then be provided by another user and this is frustrating for the people that posted the useful comments. So I see now problem with awarding some reputation for useful comments - even if the comments are later deleted.
    – TmTron
    Commented May 31, 2016 at 7:59

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