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I understand that comments are "temporary post-it notes" but why are they being deleted so aggressively?

Whoever is doing that should consult with the community before implementing a culture with which the community might not agree. Out of the 10 questions on PLDI.Meta that arise when I search "comments is:question", the only relevant one is this one: Should we have a "comments are not for chat" rule?, in which no consensus was reached about anything.

One user in particular has already complained about it within the last hour (for the record, I felt that this user's prior comments, which are now deleted, were perfectly reasonable and no different form other people's comments, but I noticed that many of them got erased):

enter image description here

I got notifications for several comments, with previews of what was being asked in them, and when I clicked on those notifications to reply to the comments, I was redirected to the main page, which was very confusing.

Some people put a lot of effort into comments, and it can be devastating for people to see them deleted without any warning.

  • On many sites, people are given a warning such as "your comments will be deleted tomorrow" so that people have a chance to save them.

  • On some sites, there's a chat room with a bot that copies all comments to the chat room, so that information is preserved and people's work is not lost.

  • On some sites, diamond moderators have agreed not to delete any comments that do not violate the Code of Conduct.

These behaviors might seem strange to you, but this is not StackOverflow and we can have our own culture here: one that is more friendly and welcoming. On this network I have developed a habit of taking a screenshot of all of my comments immediately after writing them, and on all comments on my own questions and answers or other posts that are of interest to me, because you never know when a diamond moderator is going to delete them uni-laterally with no community consultation, and once that happens, they're gone to a far away place where not even the highest-rep users can "vote to un-delete" them, and flagging for a moderator to un-delete them is extremely inconvenient when the specific comments are no longer there to flag. I am a bit tired of having to screenshot all my comments though, and most users don't even know to do that. The screenshot above indicates that a user ("Stef" in particular) is having a bad experience here, and as a new site, I think we can do much better at being welcoming.

I also understand that SO has its own culture of "almost all comments are noise and only the best ones should be kept", and if this community wants to adopt that culture, that's totally okay, but I think it should be discussed fairly and openly and all sides should be given consideration.

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    $\begingroup$ This seems like a perfectly reasonable question to discuss, even we eventually determine that we should keep that current state. I've often felt conflicted on whether or not I should comment as a result of the usual StackExchange comment policies. I do know that the polices exist for a reason which does mostly make sense. It also seems like there's often this awkward grey area where there is a useful discussion we could have, but I'm not sure whether it's worth starting a room for it and that it feels weird to do so. Also, I really only know how to do that after I get the automated message. $\endgroup$
    – David Young
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 19:45
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    $\begingroup$ Of course it's reasonable to discuss (though I won't bother writing an answer, since evidently the OP doesn't think I would write one in good faith). Downvotes on meta are often used to indicate disagreement, in this case I disagree with the premise of the question. I have not seen anything to indicate that mods are "aggressively" deleting comments, and the question seems to impugn their motives by suggesting they are targeting specific users for comment deletion, rather than moderating based on the content. $\endgroup$
    – kaya3
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 19:47
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    $\begingroup$ The ultimate answer is probably that you should just use the chat thing when in doubt, because the comment system really isn't designed for long discussions. But even knowing that, sometimes it still feels weird to me to start a room for it (and, like I said, at the moment I don't actually know how without the automated response) $\endgroup$
    – David Young
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 19:47
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    $\begingroup$ For what it's worth, I apologise if any of my comments (in this thread or elsewhere) have come across as unfriendly, particularly if you got the impression I was targeting you individually. I can be a bit brash when writing quickly. I hope you get the discussion you were looking for. My opinion is that I haven't noticed any deletion of comments that wasn't warranted, and I am happy for PLDI to keep the "comments are temporary and should be used for requesting clarification or proposing improvements" policy which is fairly common among SE sites as far as I know. $\endgroup$
    – kaya3
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 20:13
  • $\begingroup$ @kaya3 I stand corrected about the 26 seconds part. The timestamp must not have been updated. I think for a post this long, 2 minutes isn't enough to read it thoroughly (even after posting it, my first proof-reading of the published product took longer than 2 minutes, which is somewhat indicated by the time of the first edit), but at least you've admitted that you usually vote without much time to evaluate the post. I am not trying to accuse mods of having any personal vendetta here, I just noticed that Stef was the one whose comments were deleted on two separate occasions. I'll edit! $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 20:13
  • $\begingroup$ @kaya3 I have removed the phrase "singled out" in Revision 3 here. I had just noticed this user's comments having been deleted on more than one occasion, and didn't notice other people's comments getting deleted, but it could very well have been a coincidence, and I wouldn't jump to the conclusion that it's a personal vendetta based on just one day's observations. I didn't mean to make it look worse. Thanks also for your most recent comment here: I too have been trying to write too quickly in my comments today (and in the question). $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 20:27

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An automatic flag is raised on a post when there is a large number of comments (I’m not sure of the exact threshold offhand) and there were also manual flags raised about comments on that question. Because it’s a popular post and has hit HNQ there are a lot of them.

Comments are primarily for improving a post and comments flagged as no longer needed will generally be deleted if they seem to have been addressed. Your edits to the question clarified points brought up in some comments from several users, so those comments were successfully no longer needed. I don’t think any particular user’s comments were targeted there. Some comments became answers or were completed third-party discussions and so were also obsolete, but probably would have been left alone were there not other comment cleanup happening already of the many comments on that post. Generally, comment flags that seem accurate are just actioned.

Comments on that question have now been moved to chat and people will be able to continue side discussions there if they want. If people want to leave a more permanent statement somewhere, either chat or an answer, or a (proposed) edit to the question is the best place for it.

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    $\begingroup$ A couple of things I've wondered for a long time: (1) How do I start a room for a comment section before the threshold is reached? (2) Is it bad if I wait for the threshold to be reached before doing that? Is that considered rude (towards the mods, for example)? Sometimes I'm not sure how extensive the discussion will be ahead of time (or generally how soon it will end, from some point in the discussion) $\endgroup$
    – David Young
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 20:24
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    $\begingroup$ @DavidYoung I don’t think you get the automatic option until ten comments or so in, but you can create new chat rooms at will and link them in a comment manually. I don’t think it’s rude to use the option when it’s presented to you, that’s what it’s there for. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Homer Mod
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 20:27
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    $\begingroup$ @DavidYoung , and Michael, I don't think the system message about moving to chat has anything to do with being around 10 comments, because I've certainly seen comment chains with dozens of comments and no chat prompt. One thing I know (which took years to figure out), is that if two users get into a 2-way discussion with something like 3 comments from each of them within 3 hours, with no 3rd person writing a comment in between, then they will be recommended to be moved to chat. $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 20:32
  • $\begingroup$ Michael, thanks for the explanations! I got notifications about comments, and sometimes I only got a partial preview of the comment, but didn't get to read the rest of it, because by the time I clicked, the comment was gone. The user that I mentioned in the question said that they had a comment deleted within 15 seconds: If so, that seems a bit quick right? I really appreciate your explanations in this answer, though my opinion is that comments can stay a bit longer without being deleted. Once the "smoke has settled" and people have had a chance to read them, it's different. Also, $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 20:36
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    $\begingroup$ moving to chat before deleting the comments would be very helpful to a lot of people in a lot of ways. No one would develop the anxiety that their comment was "lost", and at the same time, people that don't like excessive comments, don't have to worry anymore because they are now all moved to a chat room. Another thing I like which is mentioned in the question, are (1) warning messages, and (2) bots that save comments to chat rooms (Meta.SE has this or had this). Finally I think a discussion about what this community wants in terms of comments kept vs deleted, is warranted :) $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 20:38
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    $\begingroup$ The claim that a comment was deleted within 15 seconds is simply false. I believe any comment you might not have seen would be people having separate conversations with each other in your inbox. $\endgroup$
    – Michael Homer Mod
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 20:49
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    $\begingroup$ Thanks. That claim about 15 seconds just comes from the user in my question's screenshot. I think I sympathized with the user because I also panic when I see comments get deleted (especially when I want to respond to them, or haven't had the chance to read them yet). Maybe we can discuss on Meta what a reasonable amount of time to keep comments is, and the procedure for removing them. $\endgroup$
    – Nike Dattani
    Commented Nov 13, 2023 at 20:52
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    $\begingroup$ Re creating chat rooms preemptively: proper support has been requested forever and the company sits on it. See meta.stackexchange.com/questions/100967 ; I asked about it many years later meta.stackexchange.com/questions/355334 . $\endgroup$
    – Karl Knechtel
    Commented Nov 26, 2023 at 20:44

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