3

I've noticed many times, that when reading a sequence of comments, some of them don't make any sense. It happens if someone delete his comment, and replies to it become meaningless. The recommended approach is to manually flag the dependent comments for deletion by moderator. However, people are not aware about this process (or don't bother to do so).

It will be good to have a reminder for this.

If user deletes the comment that is not the last in the list for question/answer, a popup should appear:

"There are more recent comments, that may depend on your deleted comment, and will be meaningless after the deletion. You can flag individual "broken" comments for review and possible deletion by moderator. Or, if you see it applicable, flag all comments created after deleted one . Do you want to flag all newer comments to be considered for "cascade delete"?"

(suggestions for different wording are welcome)
If the user answers "yes", the chain of subsequent comments will be flagged as "possibly obsolete".

Update: how it can be implemented.
I've got comments, that it will be hard to implement. I think that experienced jQuery developer can do it within a day.

// If a user clicked "delete a comment" icon,
// Check is it the last comment
// If not the last, show the prompt.
// If the use select "flag all newer comments", submit requests to moderator 
//  for each newer comment  with reason "obsolete"
// ( or some new reason, e.g. "Cascade delete")

As an example, how similar task works with a list of comments , see Reply to comment user script

The issue concerned different people, see related suggestions::

Improve this question
4
  • I don't think comment flags are reviewed by mods. Mods agree or don't based on your flag and the comment. What kind of flag would the mod get? Obsolete? The same one you raised on that single comment? If every comment can be removed I flag the post instead of each comment and explain why all comments can be removed. When that is not the case I cherry-pick, choosing the most appropriate reason, or a custom reason if a moderator needs context to judge.
    – rene Mod
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 11:57
  • 6
    In my opinion, too much work (for developing the feature) for too little gain.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jul 25, 2016 at 12:26
  • @ShadowWizard: I updated the suggestion to show that it's not too much work. A few similar questions show that broken conversations in comments concern many people.
    – Michael Freidgeim
    Commented Jul 27, 2016 at 14:27
  • Note: If this were combined with this feature request (notify commentor when flagging their comment as NLN), it would be much like this feature request (notify reply-er when deleting the comment they reply to).
    – starball
    Commented Nov 4, 2022 at 17:42

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

I don't feel much for showing such comment. We don't want to encourage users to just go ahead and flag those comments without knowing what they are doing. You don't need much reputation in order to flag and it would be a pity if a relatively new user gets a bad feeling about this site just because they flagged quite some comments in good faith.

That said, I feel much for a section like the Tour where users are helped to understand their newly gained privilege. Maybe when someone gets a new privilege we should show it to them so they understand how they can use their new tools.

Improve this answer
1
  • Most people do not read or remember something, that they do not need at the moment, so tour has limited usefulness(I don't mind if it will exist). When they do a particular action(i.e.deleting comment), it's good to show, what the consequences are(i.e. that newer comments may have no sense and they should flag those individually or in bulk for moderation review)
    – Michael Freidgeim
    Commented Jul 27, 2016 at 14:23

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .