Q:

Why are users saying my answer isn’t an answer?

I posted on a thread, but users downvoted and replied saying it
wasn’t an answer. What do they mean?
What does it mean for an answer
to be too forum-like?
Someone told me not to comment in an answer.
What is that?
What should answers be used for?

This Q&A is an agglomeration of guidance often given to new users based on this suggestion. Please also see the tour for an initial introduction and the help center on answering.

A:

To understand why we require what we do of answers, there's an important aspect we need to clear first:
RPG.SE is a Q&A site, not a traditional forum
A traditional forum is a place for a conversation. RPG.SE, as a Q&A site, is specialized to creating a repository of questions which have received high quality, expertise based answers.
This influences much of the site's design, including what different parts of the site should be used for. For answers, this means answers should only be used for giving high-quality, expertise-based answers which solve (or attempt to solve) the problem faced in the question.

Saying "thanks" or "me too" in an answer doesn't go towards that
goal. To show that an answer was helpful, press the upvote button on
it. If you are the asker of a question, you can also mark one answer
as accepted using the checkmark below the vote buttons. You can
change the accepted answer later if better answers come in.
While we appreciate new questions, posting one as an answer doesn't
give a space for it to properly answered and doesn't let it be
cataloged so future readers can readily find it.
On RPG.SE, we use comments for requesting clarifications, suggesting
improvements, and similar things which are part of the process.
Answers are not for these things; they're for answering the question.
If an answer contains comment-y sections, those parts may be edited
out, and if it only contains comment-y material. it may be deleted
altogether.†
A part of the Q&A model is that answers are sorted by their votes.
This means a newer answer may be displayed above an older one if
votes change. In addition, answers may be deleted (say by their
authors). Therefore, answers should answer the whole question and
independently (i.e. without leaning on or replying to other answers).
The best such answer should be upvoted to the top.

For more guidance on how to write good answers, see the help center article on it and the following highlights from our FAQ:

How do we ask and answer subjective questions?
What are the citation expectations of answers on RPG Stack Exchange?
Is homebrew an acceptable answer to a question?
Should I be requesting people answer the question independently?
How do we handle a desire to challenge the frame of a question?
What's a frame challenge?

† Diamond moderators have the option to convert an answer into a comment, but do so sparingly and generally not by request.

