<p>Here are a couple quick thoughts:  </p>

<ol>
<li>I used to read down the 'recent badges' along the right side of the main page every day.  I would click through to all the <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/help/badges/40/tumbleweed">tumbleweeds</a> and see if they could be answered, edited (&amp; bumped), clarified through comments, or submitted for closure.  I haven't done this much since the recent badges were moved to a new tab in place of 'hot questions' from other SE sites and empty space.  (As you can tell, <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/209906/eeeek-hot-network-questions-killed-recent-tags-and-recent-badges#comment673101_209906">I don't care for this change</a>.)  Nonetheless, people can go to the <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/help/badges">badges tab</a> and look through the recent tumbleweeds as a service to the site, and a way to help address this issue.  </li>
<li>It is also easy to search the site for recent unanswered questions by clicking on the <code>UNANSWERED</code> tab and sorting by the <code>newest</code> subtab.  Also <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/search?q=answers%3A0+created%3A2014-11..">searching the site</a> with the syntax, say, <code>answers:0 created:2014-11..</code> will yield the unanswered questions that were asked on or after November 1st, 2014.  (I am surprised to see the number is 1,216 between then and today--December 1st, 2014.)  </li>
</ol>

<hr>

<ol start="3">
<li><p>Regarding the issue of answers in comments, I think people should feel free (after a suitable time) to answer the question, even if it is essentially the same as what already exists in the comments.  There are a couple of possibilities:  </p>

<ul>
<li>You can add a comment to the comment-answerer to convert their comment to an answer; </li>
<li>You can add your own answer with similar material if you feel comfortable (e.g., you knew that was the answer on reading the question and before seeing the comment); </li>
<li>Or, if you don't feel comfortable doing that, you can copy the comment into the answer, with a brief note explaining what you are doing, and make the answer CW.  An example where I personally have done the latter is here: <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/a/109917/7290">How to interpret regression coefficients in a log-log model?</a></li>
</ul></li>
</ol>
