Can you delete follow-up comments when the original comment is deleted?

January 31, 2005 9:05 PM

When you're pruning the site and deleting comments, do you mind deleting followups that only make sense with the original comment?
posted by null terminated to Etiquette/Policy at 9:05 PM (45 comments total)

Also, what's the basis for deleting my comment and leaving (in the same thread):

> many tsunami victims wished they had Goggles.

> Opps you should be your.

> you're mistake!

> opps, indedd.
posted by null terminated at 9:07 PM on January 31, 2005

There is no sense. Deletions now occur via a random number generator. This is meant to keep you on your toes.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:23 PM on January 31, 2005 [1 favorite]

I preferred arbitrary to random, personally.
posted by xmutex at 9:26 PM on January 31, 2005

It happened in this thread as well. Dagobert made a mistake in his first comment; corrected it in a followup which I saw. On preview of my comment, it was gone, just like that. Like the Dog never existed.
posted by Gyan at 9:31 PM on January 31, 2005

i prefer haphazard to arbitrary.
posted by Igor XA at 9:40 PM on January 31, 2005

I don't, but if I did, I wouldn't.
posted by tellurian at 9:47 PM on January 31, 2005

Man, I just made the funniest, most entertaining - yet simultaneously most thought-provoking and divinely punctuated - comment ever in MeFi history, but it just got randomly deleted.

Honest.
posted by cosmonik at 9:59 PM on January 31, 2005 [1 favorite]

If the follow-up comments are retained, atleast you know that something got deleted.
posted by dhruva at 10:05 PM on January 31, 2005

Can we start a petition for jessamyn to stop deleting all of this stuff?
posted by xmutex at 10:36 PM on January 31, 2005

I already did, xmutex - but she deleted it.
posted by Ryvar at 10:39 PM on January 31, 2005

I don't understand anyone's comments any way.
posted by nthdegx at 10:48 PM on January 31, 2005

All in good fun, but if you fly a lot, please check out the original post. It is a nice idea, says I.
posted by arse_hat at 10:48 PM on January 31, 2005

Well, you can bet your ass it's not going to be cheerios!
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 12:40 AM on February 1, 2005

This is the fucking maniac city, and we are all in it
posted by luckyclone at 12:46 AM on February 1, 2005

[deleted]
posted by dabitch at 3:29 AM on February 1, 2005

The confusion in this MetaTalk thread could have been avoided if the original threads in question were closed rather than deleted.
posted by cosmonik at 3:35 AM on February 1, 2005

The same thing happened to me here - I was responding to something that VP_Admin had said. His comment was deleted, and now mine makes no sense. My comments are nonsensical enough without any outside help, thank you very much.
posted by iconomy at 3:57 AM on February 1, 2005

maybe you shouldn't, you know, reply to posts that are off-topic/trolls or otherwise likely to be deleted?
posted by andrew cooke at 4:10 AM on February 1, 2005

To be honest I just thought that I was more scatterbrainy than usual these past days and tahts why the threads sounded odd, but you guys seem to be seeing a lot of things before they are deleted unlike me.
So that old-ish request that some sort of placeholder for deleted comments is beginning to make more and more sene.. Though, I wonder what could be used. Any char-thingie that we can create (such as "[deleted]") will probably be spoofed by a bunch of members trying to be funny. ;)
I don't however see a problem with people aiming at getting the most deleted comments evah on their commenting history, but maybe one or two here are that nuts.

on preview: andrew cooke makes sense, the best thing for those off-topic comments is to just ignore them anyway.
posted by dabitch at 4:13 AM on February 1, 2005

The thing there is that one has to know what the current paradigm is. Are we to assume that all off-topic remarks are going to be deleted? A lot of times members step in to get the conversation back on track and try to nullify some assishness that has come before.
posted by taz at 4:45 AM on February 1, 2005

Yeah, nullify some assishness. Couldn't have said it better myself.
posted by iconomy at 4:54 AM on February 1, 2005

so much for the grace period: [this is bad]
posted by bonaldi at 6:02 AM on February 1, 2005

andrew cooke: In the thread above I was confused about something, so I commented. More information was give, so I thanked the poster. My original comment was deleted, so now there's a hanging thanks.
posted by null terminated at 6:09 AM on February 1, 2005

"...maybe you shouldn't, you know, reply to posts that are off-topic/trolls or otherwise likely to be deleted?"

Since no one seems to know just exactly what's likely to be deleted any more, that's a bit of a problem.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:47 AM on February 1, 2005

what was the question null terminated ?
posted by dabitch at 7:03 AM on February 1, 2005

Any char-thingie that we can create (such as "[deleted]") will probably be spoofed by a bunch of members trying to be funny. ;)

Since you can't add your own style to your posts, it wouldn't be that hard to make it un-spoofable.
posted by kenko at 7:51 AM on February 1, 2005

amberglow! Holy shit! That's hilarious! Off color, sure, but -- wow!

I cannot believe you had the nerve to say that in a public forum!
posted by chicobangs at 8:01 AM on February 1, 2005

*chuckles out loud while writhing on the floor*
posted by taz at 8:13 AM on February 1, 2005

or something similar that I haven't quite caught on to.
posted by taz at 8:14 AM on February 1, 2005

So that old-ish request that some sort of placeholder for deleted comments is beginning to make more and more sene.. Though, I wonder what could be used. Any char-thingie that we can create (such as "[deleted]") will probably be spoofed by a bunch of members trying to be funny.

That's an interesting point I hadn't considered. If Matt finally comes around to the basic design goodness of a "[comment deleted]" marker, is there a way to make it distinguishable from spoofs by members trying to be funny?

p.s. I [heart] chicobangs, who is truly funny.
posted by mediareport at 8:19 AM on February 1, 2005

what quonsar and mathowie said
posted by bonaldi at 8:30 AM on February 1, 2005

will probably be spoofed by a bunch of members trying to be funny.

god forbid members should try to be funny.

bonaldi, i fell for that hook, line and sinker, and went looking to see what i had already said. ihbt.
posted by quonsar at 9:12 AM on February 1, 2005

wow bonaldi, you're good. ;)
posted by dabitch at 9:17 AM on February 1, 2005

There would certainly be a way to make it un-spoofable. Just like now you can't add your own "this thread was deleted for the following reason:" message in its distinctive color and box.
posted by kenko at 9:31 AM on February 1, 2005

bonaldi, I now officially hate you (and by hate, I mean you are damned good and damned funny) for making me go looking. Nicely done!
posted by fenriq at 10:32 AM on February 1, 2005

chicobangs had me first. oh.. wait.. that didn't come out right.
posted by dabitch at 10:41 AM on February 1, 2005

dabitch, I never knew! Awww.

Actually, I like bonaldi's line better than mine. Subtle, made-you-look worthy, and it'll never ever happen. At least in public.
posted by chicobangs at 11:26 AM on February 1, 2005

This is yet another example of Jessamyn's reign of terror.

Stop with the wholesale deletions. You're hurting Metafilter.
posted by bshort at 11:30 AM on February 1, 2005

Er...hasn't Jessamyn said that she's basically staying away from the blue, and working mainly on the green and a bit of the grey? Correct me if I'm wrong.
posted by Bugbread at 11:37 AM on February 1, 2005

She has indeed said that. The blue is mathowie's domain.

I have to agree, the deletions are not a positive development. Censorship has a chilling effect on a community.
posted by me3dia at 12:02 PM on February 1, 2005

Agreed.
posted by languagehat at 12:08 PM on February 1, 2005

Si.
posted by taz at 12:34 PM on February 1, 2005

Yep.
posted by squidlarkin at 1:06 PM on February 1, 2005

"Jessamyn said that she's basically staying away from the blue, and working mainly on the green and a bit of the grey?"

... and you believed her? heheh
posted by mischief at 2:13 PM on February 1, 2005

She also said that you guys are all fools. And then she deleted that post. On the blue.
posted by graventy at 7:20 PM on February 1, 2005