Question

Despite all the REALY NICE THINGS about SQLA, I am.

Answer 1

I'm not missing them, but I'm biased.

What I do like, is the huge difference between comments and answers in SQLA. In the NNTP newsgroups many threads are all cluttered up with "responses" that are non-answers: requests for more information, "what's the build number?", exhortations that "you shouldn't do it that way in the first place", off-topic thread drift, and the always lovable "Me too! I want to know that too!".

All of those non-answers are PERFECTLY OK, and in SQLA you can put them all in comments.

In the newsgroups (and eventually, here too) busy people will practice "cyberspace triage". They will ONLY READ questions that don't already have answers. That is very common in busy newsgroups, I practice it all the time in the SQL Anywhere newsgroups when I'm busy, or, when I really want to do something else like go swimming.

In the newsgroups, the first person to post ANY response OWNS that question, as far as answering it is concerned, if everyone else who COULD answer the question is practicing cyberspace triage.

What that means (are you still with me here?) that someone who is not 100% sure of the answer will often not post ANY response, just so their non-perfect response doesn't drive away other people who really DO know the answer.

No such problem with SQLA... all the non-perfect responses go in comments. In the newsgroups, you can't tell a response from an answer.

BTW, you can use the @username: notation in comments to direct your comment at some specific previous comment.

Answer 2

I'm with Breck. I love the 'flow' of things on SQLA.

I honestly haven't browsed the newsgroups that much (especially for SQLA), yet I'm here just about every single day.

Answer 3

I see Justin's point, though I generally agree with Breck and his reasons.

And the nested conversations in newsgroups are often difficult to follow (and often get scrumbled in different readers anyway).

Therefore, the distincion between responses and comments seems senseful to me. What I am missing about comments is that they cannot be formatted and edited. - And that by itself is a clear sign that formatting and editing answers and responses is a huge advantage for SQLA over newsgroups.

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I stand corrected with formatting in comments: At least bold and italics seem to work - see below:)

Answer 4

What I like about SE SQLA is: you'll never have to bother about top or bottom posting, and with comments you may add your grain of salt to any existing answer or comment.

In some cases though I found it irritating that answers are not necessarily in chronological order, but by number of upvotes.