Is it discouraged to answer off-topic questions in comments?

Question

Today I came across this question. It is asking for someone to identify a piece from a picture of the sheet music. This is obviously off-topic so I flagged it and it also got closed about a minute after that.

However, I knew which piece it was so I just left a comment under the question which basically answered the OP's question. Another user confirmed that I was right and posted a link to the piece on IMSLP (He tagged me in his comment, so I got a notification).

A couple of minutes ago - while browsing another SE site - I realized that the notification was gone, so I came back to the question to see if the question was maybe deleted altogether. The question is still there but both mine and the other user's comments were deleted (I'm guessing by a moderator).

So my question is: Was I wrong about commenting and answering the OP's question just because it's off-topic? Is it because providing an answer makes it seem like it's okay to continue asking these types of questions here?

Answer 1

If a question is clearly off-topic, the first thing to do is (in a friendly way) direct the asker to the https://music.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic page to explain why it's off-topic, as this isn't something that SE currently does very well.

Beyond that, If a helpful response can also be given briefly in a comment, it's generally fine to do this - I and others here frequently do. It doesn't have to be a full answer - another helpful thing is to direct the user to a better-suited site, which actually happened in this case.

There is a possible drawback, which is that it could encourage further such questions, but there is also a benefit in being generally welcoming and friendly, and coming across as a site that puts humanity before bureaucracy.

Answer 2

No. This question probably should have been transferred to Music Fans, where it would be right at home with an answer ready to apply. Even if it hadn't been, the rules had already been well applied when the answer was put on hold - either way, question and comments would have disappeared from this site with time, and, as topo morto has noted, the OP had been directed to the appropriate site for future questions of this sort. I'm not even sure that this was a valid application of the rules: comments are meant to add things that can't be used as answers.

Rules in an organisation like this, in other institutions, and in society in general can be applied in either a fashion that is genuinely helpful to the members of the community in question, or they can be used as a cudgel to beat the "non-compliant". This case has a feel of the latter, as someone went out of his/her way to delete those comments. (My declaration of interest in this: mine was the other comment.)

I think we tend to forget that we learn in this field (or any other) because others went out of their way to help us with acts of kindness - I know I surely gained whatever knowledge I have through many, many kind acts of others. In this particular case, I hadn't been aware of the author or piece until you mentioned it, and my knowledge of pre-Revolution and Soviet Russian music is better than most, so I don't think this particular act of kindness was misplaced.

To put it bluntly, if we want this community to succeed in its stated purpose, we need to be Menschen ourselves. If members of the community can help others, let them. If the nature of the help is off-topic, it will disappear when the question does (I am not proposing that we stop putting off-topic questions on hold - I've voted for a number of holds myself), but it will establish that this is a community that is genuinely helpful.

Answer 3

Was I wrong about commenting and answering the OP's question just because it's off-topic?

In a word, Maybe.

You weren't very wrong, and your comment was from good intentions, and we all understand that. You'll notice that I really wanted to answer the question and I held back and instead gave some ideas for how the asker could discover the answer for themselves, so I personally identify greatly with the desire to help everyone who comes along.

I have been chastised by members of other Stacks in the past for answering questions in comments.

On the other hand: General policies on answering closed questions in the comments?

Is it because providing an answer makes it seem like it's okay to continue asking these types of questions here?

I'd rather someone more mod-like put their voice in here, but as I like to help people answer their questions, and this is a question that is not wrong to answer, I'm going to give it a shot.

One thing that is of great concern on Stack Exchange sites is the nature of the content. We want the best content with the least amount of content that isn't the best, since non-best content makes it harder to find the best content.

No matter how we provide an answer to off-topic questions, either in comments or in answers, providing an answer at all flies in the face of the notion that it is not content that we want here. It encourages more off-topic questions of the same type. It gives a voice to anyone who might come to the meta and write, "See! That question got an answer, so mine should too!" It also might attract people who are doing web searches for similar information and encourage them to post more about the topic.

All of that decreases our "signal to noise ratio", if you will. It adds to and encourages the not-best content that we actually want to discourage.

Answer 4

I have held off on posting as I do worry that when a mod posts an opinion on a mod action it can have one of two effects:

• putting a halt to further posts
• being seen as just "defending one of their own"

And I really don't want either of those to happen.

• First off, yes we are one of the slightly special case sites - our topic is far more subjective than the majority of SE sites, so we know that not only do we get a lot of questions that are on the edge of "opinion based", we get a lot that are beyond it. And even the threshold for opinion based is quite broad compared to some of the IT sites. This does mean we do need to work with soft guidance on how the community flags, and how we respond to flags. Most of the community flags are responded to quickly, as in the past unhandled flags here have led to rapid escalations.

• Secondly, when migrating there are quite strict rules to adhere to. So if there is some doubt that the question meets topic requirements, our guidance is usually not to migrate.

• Thirdly, answering in a comment is explicitly dissuaded. If a question is off topic, we should be closing or migrating. If it is on topic, answer in an answer post.

This example, however, shows an intent to be helpful sort of getting stuck in between these rules. I think this was an exception, and it did get a resolution after a while, so I'm not 100% sure whether there is a specific learning point we can take forwards for other examples as they happen in future other than to come to meta early to discuss possible outcomes, and perhaps to leave a comment to say, "please do not use comments for answers."