How do we handle answers that pertain solely to other answers?

Question

Most of us are (or should be) familiar with this section of the Help Center Page How do I write a good answer?:

What goes into an answer

Every answer must make at least one insightful observation about the code in the question. ¹

as well as this section of Why and how are some answers deleted?:

Answers that do not fundamentally answer the question may be removed. This includes answers that are:

• commentary on the question or other answers²

which is why I flagged this answer for moderator intervention, stating that it should be converted to a comment on the other answer.

should be converted to a comment on the answer, since this isn't really a review of the OPs code

I didn't comment on the answer until after flagging it. Maybe it wasn't obvious that the answer in question didn't relate to the OPs code.

Was my explanation not sufficient? Should I have left my comment on that answer before flagging it? Or is it acceptable to have an answer that merely comments on another answer?

¹_{https://codereview.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-answer}

²_{https://codereview.stackexchange.com/help/deleted-answers}

Answer 1

The post didn't in itself strike me as a commentary on first read, and seemed to somewhat relate to the OP - it even had a positive score! "the answer" confused me I guess; the flag would likely have been handled differently if it had said "this is a comment that belongs under https://codereview.stackexchange.com/a/187501"... the positive score still would have made me more cautious and reluctant to delete than in other similar situations with a negatively-voted post.

I have indeed mishandled that flag, erring on the side of letting community votes speak. Sorry!

Mod-deletion isn't something that should be done lightly, especially with upvoted answers that look like legit feedback, even if the answer is rather thin: if it's blatantly delete-worthy and doesn't bring any value whatsoever, then sure. Otherwise, best let the votes do their job.

Posts deleted by a moderator cannot be undeleted by the author, nor by community undelete votes: that's why only an unsalvageable obvious non-answer should be mod-deleted; other cases should be handled by community votes (down/delete as appropriate).

Answer 2

I can see myself misunderstanding your flag. The segment "on the answer" is fairly ambiguous.

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Normally I would suggest commenting and then flagging. The comment should explain the steps for the user to take. This comes in handy when flagging as then the moderator can also see what your desired path is, reducing ambiguity.
I personally would flag a couple hours after posting the comment. But the delta is ultimately up to you. This is as the comment allows the user to understand what's happened to the answer, and gives them a chance to resolve the issue. It also means that we don't just delete a users post¹ which can seem rather hostile as a first step.

Now obviously you can suggest the user to comment on the other answer, but they wont be able to. And so my suggestion may seem a bit odd. However you can still write the comment in a way that is friendly, and informs the user of what your desired outcome is whilst acknowledging the lack of privilege.

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Please don't resort to extreme methods without trying to deescalate the issue first. It's rather rude to just delete content¹ however much it breaks the rules.

1. Yes you wouldn't be deleting content, but it would likely look that way to the user.
   (Where's my answer gone?)