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I made 2 simple, technical comments, to a follow up to an answer for one of my questions here last night

How to load common javascript files in development and on web server not using relative path?

When I look today, these 2 comments are gone? Were they removed by someone, and if so, why?

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    Depends on what the comments were. Might have been flagged by users, deleted by moderators, part of a larger cleanup...
    – Bart
    May 22, 2013 at 19:28
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    Could have been flagged as a) obsolete, b) too chatty, c) unconstructive, d) offensive e) something else and then deleted by a moderator. Could have been an entire comment thread was deleted as too chatty... Comments are ephemeral anyway, so don't expect them to last under all circumstances. May 22, 2013 at 19:29
  • They were useful comments, explaining the reason why the answer did not work for me. The person asked me why his answer did not work, and I replied saying why. This is terrible that any one can delete anything anyone write. I did not even get a copy of my deleted replies so it is lost.
    – Steve H
    May 22, 2013 at 19:32
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    With some exceptions, @Servy. I believe six offensive flags will kill a comment, and there are a few "blacklist" terms that need only a single flag to delete. May 22, 2013 at 19:34
  • @MichaelPetrotta Right, forgot about that.
    – Servy
    May 22, 2013 at 19:35
  • In my opinion from reading the surviving comments you delved into a discussion with other user. That's not the purpose of comments. While it happens a lot and I do it as well sometimes, it's totally understandable why such "discussions" are removed, to keep the place clean. May 22, 2013 at 19:38
  • @Michael Petrotta: That's three comment flags at max, not six. May 22, 2013 at 19:40

3 Answers 3

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I deleted those comments because they were flagged, and it seemed to me they were not heading in a constructive direction. It was not only your comments deleted, though.

This isn't really about 'censorship', though; It's all about keeping the signal:noise ratio high.

Here are the removed comments:

Ok, I installed XAMPP and changed things accordingly. The only problem I see now is that I have to use a local web server to look at my web pages. I have to have apache running on the PC and then in the browser I have to do localhost/index.htm for things to load OK. If however I just double click on an index.htm file as I used to do before, then it will fail, since it is trying to load scripts from "/scripts" now, which only works when pages are served by webserver. This is really annoying. This means I can't just look at my web pages on the PC without having a webserver server running first. - Steve H

I am afraid this solution does not work for me. I need a solution that I can use without having to run a local web server. Using a local web server is nice for testing. And I will keep it. But I want to also be able to access my pages and navigate them using a browser on the PC without having a web server running. Using "/scripts/...." solution only works when pages are served by web server. I tried moving the tree to "c:/" but it still did not work. Windows does not think "/" is same as "c:/". I need a solution that works on PC without having to have a web server installed as prerequisite. - Steve H

@SteveH What's wrong with a web server? - Joseph the Dreamer

The problem is simple. I want to be able to go to the beach and browse my pages locally on my old laptop, and I do not want to install apache just to look at my pages, many times, I make an index.htm for local use on the PC only, and so I do not need to install and start apache each time. The problem with this solution is additional prerequisites needed to view a simple web page on a pc before uploading it to the server. The use of a web server just to browse local pages on a PC is a problem. There should be a way to do this without all this complicated setup... - Steve H

and many times I double click on an index.htm file anywhere in my tree directly from the file explorer to bring up a firefox to view it. I can't do this any more with this set, since I have to go though web server each time and navigate to the file, which means I have to do localhost/../../../index.htm instead of simply clicking on an html file directly. (also have to start apache each time if it is not running) - Steve H

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  • "This has nothing to do with 'censorship'", well, technically that is censorship. We just don't consider that a bad thing. Users don't have the right to post whatever they want without it being deleted.
    – Servy
    May 22, 2013 at 19:32
  • @servy Good point, actually. Worded poorly! May 22, 2013 at 19:33
  • Moderating from mobile? Good thing you don't have fat fingers! ;) May 22, 2013 at 19:53
  • Gee, it seems like those comments would have been best served by being edited into the question by the OP. May 22, 2013 at 19:55
  • @shawizdoward You should hear the cursing when I'm trying to type a longish message! May 22, 2013 at 19:56
  • @tinsoldiersandnixonscomin My head a'splode! May 22, 2013 at 19:58
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You should assume, when posting comments, that they can be deleted at any time for any reason.

They are designed to be supplementary, and not a primary means of conveying information. If what you have to contribute is truly valuable then it should have been incorporated into a question or answer.

Moderators are the only people who can delete any comment alone (other than the comment author). They can delete comments for a number of reasons including:

enter image description here

If there are enough flags on a comment it can also be deleted without moderator intervention, and comments containing certain blacklisted terms will be deleted if there is even a single flag on the post.

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    This answer is the important part missing from mine, and is a much more useful, generalized answer! May 22, 2013 at 19:35
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    @AndrewBarber Because no answer is complete without red freehand circles...
    – Servy
    May 22, 2013 at 19:38
  • Well, yes. That's what I was referring to. Of course. May 22, 2013 at 19:39
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From the comment privilege documentation

What are comments?

Comments are temporary "Post-It" notes left on a question or answer. They can be up-voted (but not down-voted) and flagged, but do not generate reputation. There's no revision history, and when they are deleted they're gone for good.

Please note that you can always comment on your own posts, and any part of your questions. However, commenting on other people's posts is a privilege.

Notice that comments are temporary.

It is possible that your comments were deleted sooner than they should have been.

For future reference, I suggest that anything you want to be permanent should be in a question or answer.

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