Is there a way to add a comment after a question is in the "Pick the Best Answer" mode?

Under the best answer is a toolbar that says "Interesting" and "Email" and "Comments" and "Save." You click on the word Comments to leave a comment but you have to wait until the question is no longer in voting. It has to be a resolved question.

Everybody loses 5 points when they ask questions and there's various reasons for the rule.

(1) It's to prevent spammers from getting a new account and then asking questions up to their limit. By limiting the number of questions they can ask as a new member plus deleting points, the spammer is prevented from just spamming the heck out of us.

(2) It's easier to ask questions than to answer well so it encourages you to answer other people's questions in order to have enough points to ask your own.

(3) It encourages people to ask questions that matter to them since it's going to cost them points. If we didn't have to pay for questions, some people would ask a bunch of silly or nonsense questions. (People still do ask silly and nonsense questions but at least they can't ask a ton of them without having to answer some in return.)

(4) Yahoo gives you 3 points back when you choose the "best answer" to your question so this feature will encourage you to actually choose someone and not let the question go into voting. I have often said that if Yahoo charged 50 points to ask a question and gave you back 48 when you chose “best answer” then far fewer questions would be “in voting.”

You can add comments to resolved questions by clicking on the 'comment' button under the askers block. It took me months to figure that one out. :)

You can also click on the person's name to send them a message, although some people, like myself, have their accounts set up to not allow PM's.

As for the losing points when you ask a question, well, that's just the way the program is set up. Some things you get points for, some things you lose points for. Just refer to the points chart if you have questions.