I answer questions almost everyday on SO. The only time I leave an answer as a comment is if I'm not really sure if it'll work and it's a shot in the dark. I'll also do it if I'm not sure of the experience level of the OP or what they have tried.
For example I would leave the comment "Have you tried some_method()?" if I think that might solve the problem if it hasn't been tried and it's not immediately clear if it has been tried or not. If it works I'll post it as answer if it doesn't I'll use that info to further debug.
There are also times I leave the answer as a comment when I shouldn't. If it's a dupe or I'm going to close it based on it being a typo or missing closing bracket or some other on sense typo. I'll point out their mistake and vote to close.
Comments
I answer questions almost everyday on SO. The only time I leave an answer as a comment is if I'm not really sure if it'll work and it's a shot in the dark. I'll also do it if I'm not sure of the experience level of the OP or what they have tried.
For example I would leave the comment "Have you tried some_method()?" if I think that might solve the problem if it hasn't been tried and it's not immediately clear if it has been tried or not. If it works I'll post it as answer if it doesn't I'll use that info to further debug.
There are also times I leave the answer as a comment when I shouldn't. If it's a dupe or I'm going to close it based on it being a typo or missing closing bracket or some other on sense typo. I'll point out their mistake and vote to close.