Recently, I decided to clean up some old comments that should not be needed. I decided to go for low hanging fruits first, and went for comments starting with "welcome" which either did not offer any more information other than the greeting, or they did ask for some information but the post was updated. I flagged a total of 32 over a couple of days.
To my surprise what I thought was a clear cut case, only 3 of the flags were marked helpful and 29 were declined.
These are comments from about the dawn of the site: 2014 and 2015. I sorted for oldest first before I went down the list to flag them.
I have included a full list of my recent comment flags at the end of the post.
As far as I was aware, at the time I was casting the "No longer needed" flags, I was doing it according to the guidance guidance that comments are not permanent, thus can and should be deleted when they do not offer any more use:
When should comments be deleted?
Comments are temporary "Post-It" notes left on a question or answer. You should not expect them to be around forever. 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 can be deleted. Additionally, any comment that violates the comment guidelines listed above or the Code of Conduct is subject to deletion.
In reality, on most sites, many since-obsolete or guideline-violating comments don't end up being deleted due to the high volume of comments posted, but this does not mean that they can't or shouldn't be deleted in the future.
If you encounter a comment that has since become obsolete or that violates the commenting guidelines above or the Code of Conduct, you can flag it for deletion.
Comments are second-class citizens, so they may be deleted without any explanation and any reason and no-one will care.
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.
If my flags were indeed wrong, then there should be a written guidance for what can and cannot be flagged. This should be added up as part of the FAQ.
Declined
Welcome to Worldbuilding and StackExchange in general :-) We look forward to seeing you around the site
Comment from: 2014-10-02 15:09:36Z
Link
Welcome to worldbuilding, good answer :)
Comment from: 2014-10-03 13:16:45Z
Link
Welcome to Worldbuilding! This is a good overview of how life forms, but I don't think it properly addresses the question. Can you expand it to better cover the criteria?
Comment from: 2014-10-20 23:44:17Z
Link
Additional information: the last edit to the post is from 2014-10-21 10:24:31Z. I felt the edit expanded the answer in satisfactory manner.
Welcome to Worldbuilding! This is a good, commonsense post; I like it.
Comment from: 2014-10-22 01:36:19Z
Link
Welcome to Stack Exchange!
Comment from: 2014-12-13 03:17:11Z
I'm hardly new to stack exchange. I've been frustrated by the low-reputation trap on several different stack exchange sites for a few years. Apparently I have a much easier time thinking of small improvements to existing answers than of whole new answers (or questions).
Comment from: 2014-12-13 03:32:02Z
Eventually you get enough rep that they give you a +100 boost when you join a new SE site. Not that that helps you right now :(
Comment from: 2014-12-13 03:43:30Z
.. and by coincidence I hit that threshold today, thanks to some upvotes to an answer on SuperUser. About a year after I started trying.
Comment from: 2014-12-13 07:11:32Z
Link to post with this comment chain
Additional information: conversation between two people. Seems entirely useless mere hours after it ended. The second comment mentions the association bonus and the last comment is from about four hours later, and indicates the post author received the association bonus. That all happened 8.5 years ago.
Welcome to the site. Excellent first post.
Comment from: 2015-01-07 18:40:41Z
Link
Welcome to Worldbuilding :-)
Comment from: 2015-01-23 08:58:25Z
Link
Welcome to the site orkoden
Comment from: 2015-02-16 19:25:31Z
Link
Welcome to the site WeRelic
Comment from: 2015-02-16 19:53:28Z
Link
Welcome to the site Inquisitive
Comment from: 2015-02-16 19:54:07Z
Link
Welcome to the site! For future reference, you should include the "why" and the "how" in your answers. Your answer might be correct, but it is very rarely constructive without further description.
Comment from: 2015-02-23 17:06:40Z
Link
Additional information: the last edit to the post is from 2015-02-23 18:30:19Z. I felt the edit added the "why" and "how" in a satisfactory manner.
Welcome to the site Shion. This is an excellently detailed question. I look forward to seeing what kind of answers you get.
Comment from: 2015-03-05 18:52:37Z
Link
Welcome to worldbuilding, nice answer. :)
Comment from: 2015-03-05 21:55:17Z
Link
Welcome to the site. You may want to take that last question out and go ask it over on the Earth Sciences SE.
Comment from: 2015-03-06 03:29:29Z
@James I will, filler
Comment from: 2015-03-06 03:29:57Z
Link to post with this comment chain
Welcome to Worldbuilding.se! Can you add a link which points to a source for Steven Pinker's and Michael Shermer's opinions? Also, as many individuals in this site may not know who these people are, can you say why their opinions are important?
Comment from: 2015-02-22 04:41:32Z
Answer edited pursuant to request.
Comment from: 2015-02-22 04:53:11Z
Link to post with this comment chain
Additional information: the last edit to the post is from 2015-02-22 04:52:47Z. I felt the edit added the required information to a satisfactory manner.
Welcome to the site! Please check the tour and the help center to get a better idea about what this specific SE site is about.
Comment from 2015-03-17 18:29:13Z
Link
Welcome to the site Paolo.
Comment from: 2015-03-18 16:06:07Z
Link
Welcome to the worldbuilding stack exchange! To improve this answer (and get more rep!), I suggest going into specific building materials and how Forevertown will replicate its buildings and infrastructure. We do like specifics here. :)
Comment from: 2015-03-20 22:44:45Z
Link
Additional information: the last edit to the post is from 2015-03-20 23:05:05Z. I felt the edit expanded the answer in satisfactory manner.
Welcome to the worldbuilding stack exchange!
Comment from: 2015-03-20 22:39:25Z
@PipperChip Thank you for using the short version and not the usual 'this is how you should be doing things' greeting that most people do.
Comment from: 2015-08-07 02:19:42Z
Link to post with this comment chain
Welcome to Worldbuilding!
Comment from: 2015-03-31 12:25:43Z
Link
Welcome to the site Malandy.
Comment from: 2015-04-13 15:31:25Z
Link
Welcome to the site kuhl. Interesting answer.
Comment from: 2015-04-14 16:22:46Z
Link
Welcome to the site! Please consider expanding on your answer. As it currently stands it is a link-only answer and as such is not a good fit for this site.
Comment from: 2015-04-15 17:07:58Z
Link
Additional information: the last edit to the post is from 2015-04-16 06:51:37Z. I felt the edit successfully the answer not link-only.
Helpful
- 2 on this post
- Of these, 1 still remains:
Welcome to Worldbuilding! This is a good overview of how life forms, but I don't think it properly addresses the question. Can you expand it to better cover the criteria?
- Of these, 1 still remains:
- 1 on this post
