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I had an issue with an R gis-related package recently and posted it on gis.stackexchange. I was very pleased when the developer themself commented on my post and led me to fix the error. But never answered my comment/question in response to their comment to validate the reason behind the error message nor gave an official answer.

In the interest of making the question/solution useful for other users, I would like to close the question. If it was any other user, I would post an answer with solution I found based on the comment with community wiki as author. But I hesitate in this situation because the developer clearly know their code better than I do and they are better placed to answer or at least can confirm I am right. Then again, a developer is probably busy.

Is there a way to remind a user to answer a question? (do they even get a notification when there is a response to comment?) Is there an acceptable delay to allow a user to post their own answer and then just assule they won't and take care of it myself?

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    What question are you referring to?
    – Midavalo Mod
    Commented Oct 18, 2017 at 14:41

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Self-answers are quite acceptable and encouraged on Stack Exchange. You don't need to wait for the developer to answer, you are free to answer it yourself. If they return to answer it they are free to add an additional answer, which you can then mark as the answer if you think it answers your question.

Q&As are not limited to a single answer, and you can change the accepted answer to whichever you feel answers your question. If, at a later date, another user adds a third answer that you feel is a better answer than the developer's, you are still free to change your accepted answer to that one!

In response to your question

Is there a way to remind a user to answer a question?

Just comment, including their name in the comment like @user3386170, and they will get notified of your comment:

@user3386170 Please would you add your comment as an answer so I can upvote and accept it
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  • Is it fair to tag someone in someone else's post that hasn't received answers? As in: @Midavalo Could you please provide more details on your comment?
    – user3386170
    Commented Oct 18, 2017 at 20:41
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    @user3386170 I don't believe you can tag someone in a Q&A that they have not already been a part of.
    – Midavalo Mod
    Commented Oct 18, 2017 at 20:43
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    But if they have already taken part in that Q&A then you can tag them asking for them to expand or encouraging them to answer instead of comment.
    – Midavalo Mod
    Commented Oct 18, 2017 at 20:44
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If it was any other user, I would post an answer with solution I found based on the comment with community wiki as author.

Who the user is should make no difference to your action because it is the content that we focus on rather than its posters.

If you have volunteered your time to digest the comments, and write an answer, then I see no need for you to make it Community Wiki, although you are free to do so.

I would just start such an answer with something like:

Using advice from a comment by @developer my solution was to ...

This does not ping the developer, but it acknowledges their contribution.

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