I asked a question at superuser, and a bunch of comments ensued trying to help me. Then a suggestion popped up to move the discussion to chat. That sounds fine, so I clicked it. But now I have to log in comment. The FAQ says if I'm logged in in superuser, then I'm logged in in chat. But no. The FAQ also says I need 20 reputation points to contribute, but I only have 13. When I try to log in using Google (which is how I originally logged in) it tries to create a new account. Is the lack of sufficient reputation the reason why it won't let me log in?

This is chrome. I also tried IE. It surprised me that I was already logged in there. But the same thing happened when I moved to chat.

It seems impolite to move a conversation to chat when the OP can no longer contribute to the chat.

  • Comments are not designed to have discussions. So the discussion will just have happens later when you have enough reputation. – Ramhound Jul 21 '15 at 22:28
  • So is a back-and-forth using comments, suggesting solutions and reporting results a discussion? Or is this a permitted use of comments? How do I communicate with a helpful person to try to solve my problem? – rich Jul 22 '15 at 2:33
  • the real problem here seems to be the login; if that had worked, I strongly suspect you would have been able to talk on that thread; is there anything more you can say about what didn't work re the login? – Marc Gravell Jul 22 '15 at 11:32
  • Details: I'm viewing question while logged in. 1. Click on Let us continue this discussion in chat. – rich 17 hours ago 2. Comment at bottom of page says You must be logged in to talk. See the faq for more information. 3. I click on logged in 4. I click on Google. 5. I see This login is new to Stack Exchange: and it offers to create a new account. And by the way, my rep is magically up to 23 now, so I should be able to chat. – rich Jul 22 '15 at 15:32

I'm in the same situation. At work, I can hit the site, but for some reason, I can't access the chat rooms. One of my conversations was moved to chat - game over!

As a WORK AROUND, I simply inform the poster this is the case and request they delete their comments every so often. This keeps the posts clutter free yet, allows me to continue helping.


For reference, comments are not meant for extended conversations; they are for asking clarifying questions to the OP about the question, and to encourage editing to add extra information. This is why the feature to move a discussion to chat happens - Chat is where you can have extended discussions.

If people are suggesting to try things, they should be putting it in as an answer - this helps the community by bumping the question, showing there are people willing to answer, and showing what other people are voting as the correct answer. Yes, posting as an answer can lower your rep if you get down voted, but you can always delete a crappy answer if better ones come up (which you should do anyways, in a perfect world). But you can also gain a lot of rep by answering correctly!

As the OP, even if you have 1 reputation point, you can still make comments on any post in your question - whether it's your question, or an answer. This is where the discussion can start, and you can simply say "Yes, this worked because of...." or "No, this didn't work. I suspect it's because of ....". Either way, if comments are longer than about 5 or so comments, it's turning into a conversation, not a way of helping the question.

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    I disagree with your 2nd paragraph, 1st sentence. If it is a solution you believe works, it should go in an answer. If it is speculative suggestions of stuff to try, or diagnostic things to provide further information, it should be in a comment. Troubleshooting and overly broad questions get into conversations. Chat is the appropriate way to get a question refined so that it fits the Q&A format and can be properly answered. A suggestion can be moved from a comment to an answer if it turns out to be a solution. – fixer1234 Jul 22 '15 at 20:43
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    @fixer I disagree with your response, as I believe it's just a cheap shot at reputation without risk, and prevents people from actually using the answer box for an actual answer. You can't see that a question has a new comment from the question list. You can see a new answer posted though. – Canadian Luke Jul 22 '15 at 20:48
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    Not sure I follow; there's no rep associated with comments, and I don't understand how that prevents anyone from using the answer box. I agree answers should be posted as answers (even if they could use improvement). Maybe it's a difference in semantics. If you have a solution you think will work, post it as an answer. If the question could be caused by a hundred different problems, tossing out a bunch of things to try (there's a chance one might work, but it's perhaps more to eliminate things and narrow the question), would be more appropriate as a comment. Closer? – fixer1234 Jul 22 '15 at 21:08
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    Yes, because you're asking clarifying questions in comments in an effort to help the post itself – Canadian Luke Jul 22 '15 at 21:09

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