<p>Like Richard Hardy (above), I think that <strong>attempts to answer the question should be done as "answers"</strong>, not comments. This lets people up- (or down-)vote the proposed solution, provides a place for comments on the proposed solution (vs. the question), and makes the "Unanswered" tab work correctly. Putting answers, even short ones, as comments breaks all of the answer-related infrastructure on the site. </p>

<p><strong>If it answers the question in a self-contained way, I don't think an answer's length particularly matters.</strong> For very short answers, it would be nice if the answerer provided a bit of "bonus" information (background, support for their answer, etc), but I think this extra effort should be more of a social norm than a hard and fast rule. </p>

<p>Sycorax's answer here seems like a bad test-case for several reasons: borderline off-topic question, the link isn't the greatest (it's essentially another question and answer). However, there are a number of other short answers that seem fairly non-controversial and, judging by the votes, useful and these should be encouraged. </p>
