Following the "no"-meta thread, I'd like to propose a new feature. I've no idea whether this feature could ever make it to SE or not (or maybe it's already been discussed).
Allow a Research answer. This would be an answer type that is subject to voting but is not eligible to be marked as an answer, nor would a positive vote remove the question from the unanswered list.
The purpose of this type of answer is to allow a researcher to do a brain-dump of all the things they found but could not conclude that their research was definitive. I've researched some questions and decided that I can't definitively say that it's an answer, so end up writing nothing at all (or a minor comment). The researcher would still get rep for doing useful research but not get downvoted for it not being a definitive answer, nor would their time have necessarily been wasted. Also the research might be useful for someone else to finish off and produce the answer.
