@ColleenV Perhaps so, but without any kind of explanation, how are people meant to know if there was something wrong with their comment (which is why there's usually an explanation)

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ I'm not entirely sure as I can't see them. I think at least a few of them may have had something that added value to the question, but I can't remember what everyone commented now so it's hard to know.

(not just talking about my comments here by the way - I've seen a few questions with whole swathes of comments just disappearing)

@Smock it simply does not scale.

Moderators were never required to explain their actions. They just will do if questioned.

That'd be like if the police issued a press release every time they arrested someone.

ok well if it happens again and I think valuable information is lost, then I will come and ask in here about the specifics of things that are removed

Is that what I should do?

@Smock It's what you can do, yes. But bear in mind that comments are said to be ephemeral in nature. Unlike other places, simply wanting to express oneself is not a valid justification for keeping them around. Valuable comments should sooner or later be incorporated into the post.

Not sure how they can be incorporated when they're deleted within a minute, but ok I'll bear that in mind

The main focus is the question, and the useful answer(s). Think of it like this: No matter how invaluable, is the info what someone is looking for when they land on the page from a search engine?

So useful information that's not where it supposed to be is just as bad "hullo good day how you doing". Maybe worse.

@Smock well, the community has elected the moderators. We trust them to make the right call.

Of course anyone can challenge any decision on meta, but very likely they see what we can't and have more experience on how to handle stuff.

I can see that as time progresses the Question and Answer become a matter for record / posterity (especially once an answer has been accepted or passed a day or two). But initially, you have someone posing a Question that needs information. Surely they need at least a small amount of time to look at the answers & comments to see if they have any bearing on their question/answer (and if they want to change or incorporate them)? Otherwise you may as well just disable comments.

(I have no problem with clearly irrelevant stuff just being removed though)

@Smock Critiques and requests for clarification, if those are what you're hinting at, are the very thing comments are for. Some SE sites that get off-topic comments quite often sometimes become so strict that they remove any comment that's not doing any of those two. I guess now this boils down to a judgment call.

I can definitely recall instances where a commenter used the question as an excuse to give a speech or vent though.

So you agree that critiques and requests for clarification should be there then?

(at least until resolved)

@Smock Yes, sure.

Oh yeah - a question needs to be a question :)

Luckily in this SE most of them are - although I have seen others (workplace) where there are just rants

I for one crave for stricter moderation here

The indifference of voters is probably a reflection of the huge bazaar-like mess that ELL has been since at least a couple of years ago.

I forget to vote on questions sometimes as I can sometimes be focused on the answer

I forget to visit the main.

At least until I can put some effort into trying to polish some things into shape.

@Smock The featured meta discussion offers an in-depth explanation

Also just to be clear, I am not the only moderator that removes comments and we aren’t doing it without support from the community.

All that makes perfect sense, and I agree with the policy as it seems to be represented there. What I can't understand is comments being deleted within 2 minutes on a question that's only 15 minutes old...

(unless of course, it's been answered really well and accepted within that time)

"Once a clarification has been made, an edit added to the post to include new information, or the issue in the comment is otherwise resolved, it is subject to deletion"

Also - I'm not objecting to the removal of comments per se.

@Smock We’re being less tolerant of them because people are taking advantage of that tolerance. Now I delete them when I see them

Good evening, littermates!

@CowperKettle Aloha!

@ColleenV you delete all comments when you see them ?

@Smock No.

I guess me not understanding this is just my problem then :-/

and I'll just have to suck it up and accept it

@Smock Have you read the two most recently active meta discussions on comments yet? It’s best if everyone voices their concerns so we can be sure we aren’t working from old information about what the community is concerned about.

It is against SE policy to moderate content solely based on something other than the content itself, so I don’t automatically delete anything- I always look at it. I may just skim it and make a mistake occasionally, but those mistakes can be corrected if they’re pointed out.

if I have an additional sub-concern based on this Q (ell.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4800/…)

I'm not sure about to put it in a comment to the question or to an answer

I'm getting confused now :-/

meta is quite new to me

My 'concern' for want of a better word, is that it seemed that on a very new question (i can't remember the specifics now unfortunately), comments seem to have been deleted very quickly (within minutes), without a chance for the Asker to even see them and decide whether to clarify the question or incorporate the info into the question.

where would I put that?

@Smock It’s fine if you want to comment on my answer, but you could always start a new discussion about the timing of the deletions.

Be forewarned though that if it seems like you’re complaining about censorship that tends not to be well-received. If you focus your discussion on what is good for the community and the site it tends to go over a bit better. We try to fix sincere discussions that get off on the wrong foot, but sometimes it’s hard to get people to change their impression.