I made one of the first comments, and it's almost exactly like what @Thucydides wrote 7 hours later. It was't rude, bigoted, abusive, unfriendly or unkind, and was certainly "needed".
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$\begingroup$ As of now, even @Thucydides' comment has been removed. I didn't see your original comment. This seems to be a case where a brief answer was sufficient for the question. $\endgroup$– a4androidCommented Sep 10, 2018 at 2:49
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2 Answers
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Comments are for asking for clarification or suggesting improvements.
Comments are not for posting answers.
Comments are second-class (or even third-class) citizens on Stack Exchange, and can be deleted at almost any time for almost any reason, with or without diamond moderator involvement.
Just because a later comment hasn't been deleted doesn't make the original deletion inappropriate.
Compare What are the criteria for comment deletion? and stackoverflow comment etiquette and How do comments work? (for the latter, particularly the sections on Who can delete comments? and When should comments be deleted?)
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2$\begingroup$ Some answers only need to be one or two sentences, yet they are quickly flagged VLQ. Unnecessary fluff has to be added to make the moderators happy. $\endgroup$– RonJohnCommented Sep 6, 2018 at 10:46
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$\begingroup$ @RonJohn I am not sure how this comment is relevant to the discussion, can you elaborate? $\endgroup$– James ModCommented Sep 6, 2018 at 14:02
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$\begingroup$ @James it's justification for why I (and L Dutch, who answered this question with a comment, and who was then called on it) answered the question in a comment. $\endgroup$– RonJohnCommented Sep 6, 2018 at 14:07
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2$\begingroup$ @James interestingly, someone deleted all the comments on my question, wiping away history as if it had never happened. Very sad. $\endgroup$– RonJohnCommented Sep 6, 2018 at 14:09
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2$\begingroup$ @RonJohn Suppose someone did delete only the initial comment on your question here, a comment which was an answer disguised as a comment. Now the three follow-up comments would have referred to a nonexistent comment. I didn't delete the comments, but I'd personally find that situation worse, not better, than all of them having been deleted. $\endgroup$– user ModCommented Sep 6, 2018 at 15:27
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3$\begingroup$ @MichaelKjörling The only thing I would add to this post is that comments are intended to be ephemeral. So there is that. $\endgroup$– James ModCommented Sep 6, 2018 at 19:14
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1$\begingroup$ @RonJohn "Some answers only need to be one or two sentences, yet they are quickly flagged VLQ." then address that instead. Short answers don't always mean VLQ as long as it answers the question. Or, well... since the question is closed, then it's better not to provide any answer at all (even in the comment) since it just give negative feedback to the asker that they will get the answer even for off-topic questions... $\endgroup$ Commented Sep 7, 2018 at 6:56
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I'm not certain but I'm pretty sure I flagged the comment in question as being too much of answer to be left as a comment, or in fact to be left as a one liner. It was good material that deserved proper elaboration. My opinion was subsequently upheld at moderation.
