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Motivating example: Someone asked a question about hiding assets in a divorce, which received the following comment:

Sell some of your liquid assets and buy Bitcoin OTC. That is what cryptocurrency is for! You will probably lose your private key at some point, but at least wifey gets zilch.

This is, at the very least, terrible legal advice, and it's probably a crime in most jurisdictions to hide assets in a divorce (at least, lying under oath about your assets would be).

Answers advising people to commit crimes should be downvoted or commented on, but not edited. We don't have the ability to downvote comments, and the ability to reply to them directly is somewhat limited.

Should such comments be flagged for deletion?

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  • 1
    Yes. They're extremely low quality attempts at answering the question, or they're not suggesting improvements to the question. Neither of these is appropriate from even a minimal rule viewpoint, much less a legal, ethical and moral position.
    – user4657
    Commented Feb 22, 2021 at 7:32
  • Generally speaking, shouldn't it be discouraged to give an (attempt at an) answer in the comments?
    – Clockwork
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 13:23

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Yes, please flag.

Comments are temporary notes designed to improve the Q&A. That is, they should help either the author or the answerers with their posts or, say, link to another relevant question.

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  • The following answer provides advice that will result in a crime: law.stackexchange.com/questions/41528/… In California, recording your own audio, since it’s potentially part of the confidential communications, is also a crime to be punished by Pen. Code § 632. The user who answered had bullied me about an answer of mine and when I wanted to see if it’s the pot calling the cattle black, I found the highest voted answer, off the top of my head, to invite criminal activity. Please review the edit history.
    – kisspuska
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 4:21
  • I tried reporting, but apparently another mod, likely not Dale M, found it more important that I had an “ulterior” (very clearly and expressly articulated displeasure about having been bullied) that I was not having it, than the fact that case law specifically addresses what the user speculated based on the “authority” of another answer on the site, and my flags were rejected, the answer was not deleted, or edited. I, despite the user here preaching about legal, moral bla-bla-bla, even reverted the edits that would have fixed his answer invite the commission of a crime.
    – kisspuska
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 4:25
  • Please review the answer’s edit history, and see the specific case law I had been aware and based on which I immediately raised my concerns once I saw that answer (right after being bullied).
    – kisspuska
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 4:25
  • No party can record even their own voice during a confidential call in California (or during a call where at least one of the parties are in California—different case decided the matter):
    – kisspuska
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 4:27
  • [B]ecause it is beyond question that sections 632 and 637.2 are primarily intended to protect the privacy of the communications of California residents, we conclude these statutes must be interpreted broadly to apply to all recordings of such communications—whether one-sided or two-sided. Any contrary interpretation would permit a business to maintain a policy and practice of recording one side of every telephone conversation with its clients without first obtaining the consent of all parties—a significant reduction in the scope of CIPA." (Gruber v. Yelp Inc., (2020) 55 Cal.App.5th 591, 269)
    – kisspuska
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 4:28

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