Encoded comments

Question

Is that a new mode to write your comments in some encoding? For example, on this question I noticed that there are encoded comments on both answers, both in Rot13(which the commenters state before the comment).

I haven't been on Puzzling for a while, so maybe I missed some new rule about commenting to spoilers or something, but that seems both:

1. Annoying that I have to copy(and overwrite whatever was in the memory) that text, and then paste it in another tab with a decoder
2. Useless, as anyone can decode it anyway, just takes a few extra seconds and clicks.

Answer 1

The point of encoded comments is to avoid spoilering the answer for someone who, say, accidentally scrolls down while looking at a puzzle. It's the same reason that we use spoiler markup in answers.
Unfortunately, there's no built-in way to have spoilers in comments, so people have been finding ways to create their own. For a while, people were using link descriptions as a way to hide messages in the comments. Rot13 is apparently the new thing, and, as you say, it's pretty easy to decode - but does require an extra step, so as to avoid spoilers for people who don't want to see them.

Is it required? No, not really - there's no policy that states that comments must absolutely be spoilered. However, it is the accepted etiquette, and comments have been removed in the past for people spoilers. It's sort of a soft policy, I guess?

Yes, it can be a little annoying at times. That's the price we pay in order to avoid spoilers in comments.

If you like, @Alconja wrote a userscript that will help you automatically decode rot13 in comments. I've never actually used it myself, though.