Are people really being notified of comments in answers, or they just don't want to answer them?

Question

According to the Comment Privilege page, one of the reasons we should comment is "Request clarification from the author". So did I, two days ago, in my first question here. It's been two days since I commented, but they didn't answered me. Apparently, they didn't see it. I have two reasons for that:

1. I checked their profiles several times, and they logged in these two days (Last seen [time]).

2. I took a look at some questions around here, and I realize that people asked something in the comments, and the answerer didn't answer it. In other words, the same case as mine.

Honestly, I would not create this question. Because I thought "well, let's use the chat then", but I don't have enough reputation for that! Argh :(

I don't think the people who answered my question don't care about what I commented there at all, because I was quite coherent and what I was asking is useful to clarify some points that I have felt doubtful.

Thus, even though I said "... or they just don't want to ask them?", I believe the problem is that they aren't being notified. And I would like to join the chat. :(

I'm sorry if I was a little bit rude with my question. I'm new here and I thought that maybe they were not being notified.

Answer 1

Notification may not be 100% reliable, but is probably more than 99% reliable.

I rather think that whoever you contacted simply didn't reply to your comment. This does happen from time to time and there may be several reasons.

I have "ignored" comments before, without bad intentions. For me it's either that

1. I didn't have time to reply at the moment of reading the comment and forgot to come back to the comment later, or

2. I didn't feel competent to give an answer to the comment, and left the discussion open for other users to notice and answer.

Other people may have different reasons. But let's remember that everyone is doing this on their Free Time and everyone is welcome to contribute to the site in whatever form they are comfortable with (observing the usual minimal rules such as our Be Nice policy). In any case, if someone doesn't answer your comment please don't hold it against them.

Answer 2

This community leaves many comments that are critical of answers or request clarification. They mean well to improve the quality of answers on the site so I don't take criticism personally. However, it can be demanding on your time to defend your answers (or explain questions).

It is possible that they are receiving so many notifications that they do not have time to review and answer them all in detail so some may be missed for innocent reasons. Critical comments especially demand more time to address so they may have been ignored if they didn't have time to engage in a longer discussion on the topic or didn't feel they have the expertise to answer in more detail.

Another trend I've noticed is a lot of comments with minor corrections that could have been edits. Perhaps this is to avoid changing the style of the original posts or lack of edit privileges. It's a separate issue but may contribute to active members of the community receiving more notifications than they can respond to.