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While looking through the list of unanswered questions I found some similar to this one, where the comments provide some well thought insights into the code as well as suggestions for improvement. In my eyes, some of these are reasonable candidates for an answer.

Of course bumping those commenters to write a proper answer would be the first step.

If they however show no interest in doing so, would it be a possible approach to collect their ideas into a community wiki answer? How would attribution (if any) be handled in such cases?

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    \$\begingroup\$ In the past when I've done this or someone's done this to me they normally say something like: "The implementation can be streamlined further by using a for loop, [...], as recommended in the comments by @Peilonrayz:" Not an exact example, but I know its happened from comments to answers and answers to answers. \$\endgroup\$
    – Peilonrayz Mod
    Mar 29, 2019 at 23:32
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Peilonrayz: +1 for answering in a comment on a question asking about what to do when people answer in the comments. Someone should write this up into an actual answer. \$\endgroup\$
    – Graipher
    Apr 1, 2019 at 11:15
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Graipher - feel free to incorporate the comment in to a new answer ;-) then flag these comments as no-longer-needed ;0 \$\endgroup\$
    – rolfl
    Apr 1, 2019 at 15:58

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There is no need to approach the commenters to add their comments to an answer. Just do it.

Comments are not intended to have long-term value. They are intended to make suggestions for improvements, seek clarification on issues, etc. Ideally, all comments should result in edits to posts (if they are good suggestions or clarifications), and then deleted when the value has been incorporated in to actual posts.

Further, people who choose to provide advice or reviews in comments are choosing to not post them in an answer. If you want to collect, reformat, or extend comments in a new answer, then feel free. Answers (Posts) are 1st-class contributions in Code Review (and Stack Exchange in general), and comments are much lower in standing.

If your answer incorporates the details from a comment, you're welcome (but don't have) to credit the commenter, but I would suggest that you flag the comment and mark it as redundant and no-longer-needed.

Having said the above, sometimes comments are used to get some clarification in a conversational way.... if it seems that there's still an ongoing discussion between the question asker, and someone who may be in the process of writing an answer, then give it some time (perhaps a day is suitable?) for the person to get their answer together before pulling their suggestions in to a new answer of your own.

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    \$\begingroup\$ "Further, people who choose to provide advice or reviews in comments are choosing to not post them in an answer." Exactly. Should they want attribution for their work, they should've written an answer themselves. Answering in the comments is actually frowned upon, so by using their comments as base for your own answer (which really should contain more than just their answer copied verbatim IMO), you're doing the site a service by putting the content where it belongs. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mast Mod
    Mar 30, 2019 at 14:41
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    \$\begingroup\$ This seems like a good time to add that sometimes I have seen comments flagged with a custom reason "This should be an answer, not a comment". I decline such flags because as a moderator there is nothing I can do about it, and it is better to have it in a comment than nowhere at all, but please follow rolfl's suggestions here and post your own answer, then you can flag the comment (as no longer needed) \$\endgroup\$
    – Simon Forsberg
    Mar 31, 2019 at 13:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ "If your answer incorporates the details from a comment, you're welcome (but don't have) to credit the commenter," Don't be this person. Honest, professional, competent people give credit where it's due and they don't need a rule to tell them to do it. \$\endgroup\$
    – Oh My Goodness
    Apr 7, 2019 at 23:26

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