Hi Steven,
As a newbie to G2G I am reluctant to use 'answer' as, even though I have experience, I'm new to this community. Also, as a newbie, the comment/answer system is a little confusing (and I'm very familiar with discussion boards).
To be honest, I don't like the comments vs answers thing as the discussion can be very difficult to follow. And, there are a lot of times when no answer is the best answer (or a fulsome answer) and I'm a firm believer that you can always add something to a discussion. This, of course, doesn't apply to queries such as 'I would like Granny Smith's 1851 census return please, can you provide me with details'.
Also, given the (for a newbie) somewhat disturbing comments regarding popularity contests and negative voting (all sounds a bit Hunger Games if you ask me and at odds with the ethos of WikiTree), may it be a good time to review this system?
Perhaps removing the voting system and threading G2G with the opportunity of closing a post might be a 'kinder' way of doing things.
Just my 2c as someone who has spent, I don't know, five minutes here!
In Peace.
**Edit** Argh! As I hit 'reply' to directly reply to your post this has come up as a comment and not an answer! So, perhaps it's a systems issue that needs a little fine tuning. Those who only occasionally post (which is also me at the moment as I'm new) may run up against this too and may be unintentionally commenting as opposed to answering.
And, to add, I can't seem to fix it. Can't change it to an answer, can't delete this and re-post as an answer... or, am I missing something?
I guess the 'good news' is that my post has inadvertently highlighted some of the issues around commenting/answering itself... since I've stuffed it up!! :)