This is a followup to https://photo.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4655/short-answers-as-comments-please-resist-the-urge?rq=1 and to https://photo.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4768/removed-comment.

It is often the case that we get questions asking for camera shopping advice, or which are otherwise very obviously likely to be closed — perhaps completely off topic, or perhaps just really, really broad.

I think it's accepted convention that _answers_ to these questions should be discouraged, as they just invite more of the same. However, in the interest of being friendly, it's often awfully tempting to comment something like

> _Hey, this question will probably be closed because it's off-topic. But, I just wanted you to know that [some half-answery-thing-here]

I'm pretty convinced on discouraging answers as comments in general,  and likewise on discouraging answers to off-topic questions, but what about this case? Do the two situations cancel each other out?

Are there some situations that are okay (_"We don't do camera recommendations, but check out this superzoom buying guide from dpreview ...\[link\]_") and others that are definitely bad (_"This is off-topic but you should totally buy the Canikon D9000+ it's the best!_")?

Basically, what practice do we want to follow and enforce here?