when to make an answer community

Question

I've just asked a question, and someone made two comments which in fact answered my question; since the answer was in the comments, I wrote an answer and made it community wiki.

Now the commenter has deleted his comments; another person edited the answer, in fact providing another solution, not an answer to my question; and a third person provided another solution, which I promptly upvoted, because it taught me something new.

Now I'd like to provide credit to the person who in fact answered my question, and upvote the edit which provided another solution, but as a proper, alternative answer. I guess I did something weird by answering my own question and making it community wiki right away, messing the whole thing up. Thus the question I'm making in the title.

Answer 1

I think that Answers-in-comments are not a good use-case for a community-wiki Answer. I would give the commenter an opportunity to answer on their own, perhaps by asking them directly to answer; if they decline or don't respond within a reasonable period of time (24 hours?), then please feel free to create your own Answer. Take the feeling of goodwill and pay it forward by voting on other Questions and Answers. If the commenter had wanted "credit" (reputation), they would-have should-have posted a proper Answer.

Answer 2

I use a Community Wiki when someone has answered their own question but not created an answer.

Sometimes the original asker treats StackExchange like a forum and updates their question to provide their answer, and despite prompts for them to create their own answer and not leave the answer in the question, nothing is forthcoming.

Occasionally it's a throwaway comment, and I've got nothing of value to add to the solution proposed. However, seeing as an answer in comments is not an answer, this is really fair game for anyone to take and create as their own answer. If you've taken the time to write up a comment as a full answer then take the credit for it (referencing the original comment as your source of inspiration).

Remember that all contributions are cc-by-sa so reuse is acceptable with a reference