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Recently we have had some questions that could be trivially answered in the comments. Even though it is frowned upon on larger sites, it seems to be a part of Chemistry SE (I am guilty of doing this on multiple occasions as well). Now, once the OP understands the answer, I currently place a comment stating:

If you feel you've gotten an answer to your question, feel free to self-answer. they are encouraged and gives people who see this question an answer as well.

I normally do so when I don't have time or the resources to answer a question but have an idea on what the answer might be.

However, is this the correct approach?

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    $\begingroup$ Well, it depends. Just like this comment is a comment and not an answer, I generally believe that hardly ever there is a good enough answer within the constraints of the character limit of a comment. And then there is the question whether the question is too trivial if it can be answered in the comments. So whether or not this is a good approach is probably up for debate. It's an operable approach to get users to spend more time on the site, which can be good after all things considered. You should spell check the comment though. $\endgroup$
    – Martin - マーチン Mod
    May 3, 2021 at 16:15
  • $\begingroup$ I think it's usually a bad idea, but can be done if you have good reason to think OP knows how to make a proper answer. $\endgroup$
    – Mithoron
    May 3, 2021 at 17:21
  • $\begingroup$ @Mithoron So what should I ask them to do otherwise? close the Question or something else? $\endgroup$
    – Safdar Faisal
    May 4, 2021 at 9:16
  • $\begingroup$ I have done that in some occasions(left a comment asking OP to write the answer) and OP sometimes delivers. If the answer looks sub-par(2-3 lines), then I ask OP to expand your answer with some proper reference. But, OP doesn't bother to do that since they feel like "yeah, I got my answer; what more do you want?". In that case, we need to tell OPs that it is a community-driven site and if you can ask good question, you can also write good answers and it will also help future readers. Everyone is here to contribute (but if you write a bunch of gibberish/copy abstracts, then that's a no-no). $\endgroup$
    – Nilay Ghosh
    May 5, 2021 at 4:35
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    $\begingroup$ You all must think before taking a decision that future reader are not always community members who put effort to maintain site , they may also be persons directly searching everything on Google and coming here getting excellent answers. If comment is well enough that someone himself can get ans. by some effort I think it's sufficient because we don't have control on future readers. $\endgroup$
    – Jay
    May 6, 2021 at 5:21

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