Ask HN: "I See Dead Comments."

2 pointssebscholl5 comments

Sorry for appealing to your Sixth Sense on this one...

What exactly are [dead] comments on HN? I see that I have a setting to turn them on/off, but I don't understand what they are in the first place. Thanks!

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you can turn the dead on or off as youve noticed. with higher karma you can vouch comments that you are sure are not spam, or contribute in a meaningfull ["substantial"] manner.

[dead] comments are typically from banned/shadowbanned users. Articles/comments with both [flagged] and [dead] were flagkilled.

Thanks! So it's a moderator action as opposed to self-delete?

Right, deleted comments are still hidden even with showdead turned on.

BTW self delete is not good to do on HN. likely has to do with keeping people accountable. potentially someone could post nasty stuff wait until the target reads it and delete said nastiness before it gets locked in thus avoiding accountability.

edit your comments dont delete them., and if you get the "your posting too fast thing" email one of the mods and have a chat with them to find out what triggered it and how to move on from there.

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