Why and how was my comment not constructive

Question

it hurts my pride, but I'll have to admit that my comment really was more fit as an answer then a comment. Sorry for the fuss, and here is a fitting question if anyone else gets in my situation in the future.

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I'm still relatively new to music.stackexchange.com, so I guess I must get the ropes right before anything, but I have a feeling that I've been target of abusive moderator activity.

I commented on that answer about the fact that practicing for the sake of practicing was not very useful on the long run (not exactly those words)

a few minutes later, without so much as a message in inbox which disappeared quickly enough for me not to be able to read it, my comment was gone. Feeling the op, who also happens to be a moderator, had done it I took the time to actually ask him, and it turns he probably deleted it himself, from what he says in comments. He claims the comment was not constructive, I think he disliked it because it contradicted his answer.

Now, he claims that Comments are for clarity, and are temporary. Where in that statement does it say that moderator can delete comments on their own question without so much as a justification? moreover, he is clearly missing some points on comments:

Comments are often used to ask for clarification on, suggest corrections to and provide meta-information about posts.

my comment provided meta-information about the fact of practicing for the sake of practicing, which is on-topic when commented on an answer which suggest practicing for the sake of practicing.

I can't see the comment anymore, but it did provide factual, arguable information. There was no insult in it. It did not deserved being deleted, it deserved being answered to if someone disagreed.

It would be less of a problem if that moderator actually had real experience in technical violin playing

he claims having played fiddle violin some years ago. Technical difficulty when playing fiddle violin versus classical repertoire is absolutely not the same. My rep may not represent it, but unless he has several years of scholarship in higher education studying the violin, I know advanced violin practice and execution more then he does.

So, can someone with sufficient privileges get that comment here in public and explain to me why/how it was not constructive, as claimed by the moderator who deleted it, if it's possible at all.

Answer 1

Felix - I left you a comment immediately after your comment telling you it should be an answer, and that I would delete the comment.

You then posted the answer.

Job done. I am not sure why you didn't read my response - and assumed you had as you wrote your answer right afterwards. And I'm sorry that I need to correct your assumption - I am more than happy with posts that disagree with me, as long as they are constructive and useful. Your post is useful as an answer.

I am not sure why you seem to think that there is any adverse reaction, and I'm really unsure why Yo wants to weigh in without any of the facts.

As a comment, your post was of little value other than saying "your post is wrong" but as an answer it is perfectly valid and can be voted on. It was not "meta information" - it was another viewpoint.

Answers are also considered relatively permanent on SE, whereas comments really are not - see any of the explanatory posts by SE staff!

Much better solution all round.

Update - this was the comment I deleted, so you can see why I thought it would make a good answer:

While practising is, indeed, a great way to become better, most people will attain a max level of skills by keeping practice in mind. Pactising eight hours a day is worth close to nothing if you don't think hard of what you are doing at each and every moment. You should never let small errors go as they will come back to haunt you when you're stressed out (likely when it's important, like playing in front of people). Awareness while practising should be the moto. If you find yourself thinking about your day at work or your girlfriend, put down your violin and come back later.

Answer 2

music.se is not stackoverflow. I think the way comments are managed over there is not the same as over here.

On stack overflow, we comment on content to help people tell wether it's right or wrong. Comments saying that something is wrong (rightly so) will be upvoted to signify it's of importance. We may have a higher level of tolerance over what is a nice way to express one's opinion and what is not, so I think I may be responsible for a part of the response to my content.

It seems over here I should rather post an answer instead of commenting on an other answer, which is slowly getting into my head.

I think deleted comments are lost forever, so we can't come back on my original comment to see if it was really constructive or not, but I will get into rank and do it this way.

I'd like to thank @DrMayhem for putting up gracefully with my heat here.

Answer 3

I can't know what the exact things that happen were, but taking "comments are temporarily" literally is an abuse.

If the comment points out what exactly makes one disagree with the answer, then the comment is valuable after 10 years in exactly the same way as it is after 10 minutes. Unless, of course, it gets incorporated into the answer, which, however, doesn't seem to be the case here.

People often feel that votes evaluate the quality. No, it's not true. Votes only express the (subjective) opinion of the people on the quality. And if you don't let people see the arguments against the quality of the post made by other -- maybe more experienced -- users, the judgement is going to be even less objective. True dialog can get us close to the best answers getting the most votes.