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This is based on a single personal experience, but upon research seems to be a pattern. Are the moderators perhaps too quick to delete answers or comments? Might it perhaps be more helpful to note that a question, answer, or comment is not what it should be, and wait a little while (perhaps a week or two) to allow the situation to be corrected?

My experience was that I commented from on the mobile site, but felt I needed more time to properly articulate an answer. When I found the time, the comment (perhaps better worded than my answer) had been deleted, and even the OP's response in my inbox was gone, so I had to check the history on another device to find the question.

Perhaps, at the very least, if a moderator is deleting some of my content, I should be informed of that fact with an inbox message.

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    Comments are very different from answer posts and from question posts. Are you asking specifically and only about comments? Or also about posts? (Comments are like this and appear in smaller type than posts.)
    – msh210 Mod
    Jun 20, 2017 at 18:03
  • @msh210 In my case, it was a comment (that was to become an answer). But I refer to posts and answers as well. A question that has (just) been answered may have room for improvement. I don't see the harm in waiting a few days before pruning.
    – Menachem
    Jun 21, 2017 at 4:51
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    @Menachem I don't know what you mean by waiting before pruning questions and answers. We don't often delete questions/answers.
    – Double AA Mod
    Jun 21, 2017 at 13:41

1 Answer 1

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My experience was that I commented from on the mobile site, but felt I needed more time to properly articulate an answer. When I found the time, the comment (perhaps better worded than my answer) had been deleted, and even the OP's response in my inbox was gone, so I had to check the history on another device to find the question.

As the moderator who deleted your comment, allow me to explain.

The stated purposes of comments on Stack Exchange are:

  • Request clarification from the author;
  • Leave constructive criticism that guides the author in improving the post;
  • Add relevant but minor or transient information to a post (e.g. a link to a related question, or an alert to the author that the question has been updated).

That's it. On Mi Yodeya, a fourth purpose is widely in use: to provide a pointer to a possible answer. Moreover, note that in all those cases comments are (quoting from that same page)

temporary "Post-It" notes

— by design, they're ephemeral and can be deleted at any time. I'd go so far as to say that the burden of proof, so to speak, is on those who want to keep a comment (to demonstrate that it should be kept) rather than on those who want to delete it (to demonstrate that it should be deleted).

In this case, the comment met the fourth purpose I mentioned above: it pointed to a possible answer without fleshing it out. It provided a citation to some commentaries and a synopsis of what they said, that helps to answer the question. That's wonderful: it provided the asker with a pointer to where he can get an answer, and it provided potential answer-post authors material to flesh out. Thanks for leaving the comment. But once I saw that an answerer had taken that citation and run with it, posting a full answer that includes the same material, there was no need for the comment any longer, so I deleted it.

Perhaps, at the very least, if a moderator is deleting some of my content, I should be informed of that fact with an inbox message.

Perhaps so. Someone requested that, and I encourage you to upvote the request if you agree with it. See also a related feature request.

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  • @msh10 My complaint in this case was twofold: First, the (accepted) answer did not take those sources, but quoted others. The commencement then became more appropriate to the answer than to the question, but not obsolete. (Deleting the comment meant I could not copy/move it. Whereas I'm proposing that you should have encouraged me to do just that.) Second (admittedly personal bias), the credit for the answer could/should have been mine, and I would have liked the attribution, if not the points.
    – Menachem
    Jun 21, 2017 at 18:09
  • Ah, because the answer said the same thing in another source's name only, the comment wasn't obsolete? I hear the argument. Like I said, though, comments are meant to be ephemeral, so by default they're to be deleted; if you want a durable record of your thoughts, post an answer. (And then you'd get credit and those oh-so-valuable Internet points.)
    – msh210 Mod
    Jun 21, 2017 at 18:42
  • And if you want a copy of the comment under discussion, let me know, and I'll post it here.
    – msh210 Mod
    Jun 21, 2017 at 18:44
  • @Menachem See judaism.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4280/2: Giving credit to the commentor for the information is a very good thing to do. DoubleAA adds: And not doing so can sometimes make the commentor really upset (we've had complaints about this a few times). So please please do so. ...
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Jun 21, 2017 at 20:10
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    ... If you think you're due credit for contributing toward an answer, I think it's fair to comment on the answer asking for it, or maybe even to edit the hat-tip into the answer yourself. Ultimately, the permanent location of the credit-giving would be in the answer text, not in a comment on another post.
    – Isaac Moses Mod
    Jun 21, 2017 at 20:11
  • @msh10 I already posted the answer. But my point is that the discussion may still be active, even if the question already has an accepted answer. Comments during this time still add value, even if they are not strictly conforming.
    – Menachem
    Jun 22, 2017 at 0:40
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    In other words, I would suggest that notwithstanding the title, you should not act as a discussion moderator. Clean up after the party is over, as it were, rather than doing the rounds during the party to clean up minor spills. This has been my experience on StackOverflow. (BTW, I broke my teeth on comp.lang.c, so I've seen my share of pendants.)
    – Menachem
    Jun 22, 2017 at 0:48

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