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I see new users adding an answer that is really a question to an established thread. Moderators follow the established procedure and add a note saying they should ask it again as a question and delete it.

We need new users and I think when we delete their question it just becomes abandoned and they go elsewhere.

Could a new feature be added for moderators that automatically converts an answer into a new question? Then new users would get an answer and not have to enter the same text twice.

Edit: this question posed an answer is a case in point. A first time user has no idea of how Stack Exchange is different from a forum. I flagged this "answer" as not an answer. It will be deleted or closed and the probability is high that this user will never return. "They did not help me just deleted my question" is how it will be seen.

I would like to point out that this site is still in beta and averages 1.5 questions a day. As Area 51 indicates "15 questions per day on average is a healthy beta". There is no way we can increase the number of questions by a factor of 10 without bringing in new users who are not members of other Stack Exchange sites and may not understand the format.

@waxeagle You have my deepest respect for taking on the job of moderator. My times as moderator proved to be challenging, it's an under appreciated volunteer job. Nonetheless when you say "To do otherwise really would just encourage behavior that is not in our best interest." I have to ask what is the best interest for this site? More questions from new users that might need to be cleaned up or deleted answers?

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  • Hey, if you're going to reply, don't do it in an edit, I didn't see this til Nial called my attention to it. To answer your question: deleted answer >> garbage questions that never get edited.
    – wax eagle
    Oct 23, 2013 at 12:18
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    To address the second to last 'graph. We're not going to get to 15 q/day, everyone knows that's not a real standard, it'd be great and we'd love it, but most sites that graduate do so in the 4-6 q/day range. That's my target here not a pie in the sky 15. However, if we sacrifice quality to get to some arbitrary q/day number we've failed and will get closed.
    – wax eagle
    Oct 23, 2013 at 12:20

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To be honest, I'm not sold on this being a particularly useful function.

I think it's far better for us to leave a comment and encourage the asker to post their on question. To do otherwise really would just encourage behavior that is not in our best interest.

If the holdup was privileges (like the convert answer to comment feature), I could get behind that, but anyone can ask so there is no real holdup for a new user to post a new question other than just lack of understanding of the system.

In those cases I'd rather we give clear instructions on how to use the system and have the user figure out the rest than make an answer into a question that probably needs a lot of editing to be a satisfactory question.

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