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Currently, the only way to delete a comment is to flag it (e.g. "obsolete") and wait for a moderator to handle the flag. Or, if it is my own comment, I can just press the "delete" button.

However, when I try to press the "flag" button, I see this guidance:

Flag this comment for serious problems or moderator attention

This makes me think that I should use this button only when there are serious problems. But most of the comments are not serious problems! I just want to remove that pointless comment that says "OMG LOL", or an obsolete comment.

So, let's add a seemingly more "streamlined" option for deleting comments: just press the "delete" button! It would do the same - open a dialog that asks why I want to delete (not flag) the comment. Just a change of wording - no new functionality, but I think it looks more intuitive this way.

So:

  1. Make the "delete-this-comment" button available for everyone
    • Maybe only for users above a certain reputation threshold? I suggest the same threshold that allows voting down.
  2. Handle this the same as the "flag" button
    • Another option is to declare that moderators are less "obliged" to handle such flags; just delete the comment automatically if it gathers enough of such "votes-to-delete"
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5
  • Why not just change the wording of the guidance you quote? It'd be less hassle and more straight forward. What advantage does going through all this work have? And why show this button to everyone? New users, even users with enough rep to flag normally, will want to delete comments that disagree with them or that they think are wrong, no matter how on topic they are. And really, what you propose is only different from flagging through the button. Everything else looks the same. (Minus the "downvote rep" threshold part. Currently, you only need 15 rep to flag even comments.)
    – Kendra
    Commented Sep 13, 2016 at 18:29
  • What do you expect a flag is supposed to do? Remove something that shouldn't be on the site. A change of wording won't help.
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Commented Sep 13, 2016 at 18:30
  • I don't know that we need another review queue...
    – Joe
    Commented Sep 13, 2016 at 18:48
  • @Kendra As an answer to "Why not just change the wording..." - it should be easy to implement my suggestion, and it makes the site more intuitive. I, as a user, want to press the "x" button, not the "flag" button, when I want to delete something. As an answer to "why show this button to everyone?" - this feature is for clean-up; if more users use this feature, the site becomes cleaner. Also, if people generate noise by voting-to-delete comments they disagree with - this noise can be ignored (see the last part of my question).
    – anatolyg
    Commented Sep 13, 2016 at 18:48
  • 1
    It should be easier to just change the guidance wording. On most sites that I've been on, "flag" means "Hey, this needs looked at and deleted." I don't see why we need another button to do exactly the same thing. People can already group delete a comment by more than one user flagging the comment. (I believe at least 3 flags are required.) I don't see the point to the team coding in another button and making sure it works correctly rather than just changing the guidance wording a bit. And if it's really no new functionality, it would still end up a flag in the mod queue, not ignored.
    – Kendra
    Commented Sep 13, 2016 at 18:59

1 Answer 1

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Maybe it would be better to get a button or a invisible downvote system to remove the comment automatically? I mean, no one except moderators should be allowed to remove comments in questions/answers... It should be a democratic system where a certain amount of downvotes is needed to remote the comment without the proof of a moderator.

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2
  • Certain keywords in comments already make that a couple of rude flags delete the comment, without any mod involved. We really shouldn't care about comments. If they have value they lead to edits in a post. If the comments are useless flag them. A moderator will handle it from there.
    – rene Mod
    Commented Sep 14, 2016 at 13:55
  • Oh ok O_O I thougt the Moderator option is just for some other stuff and not for non-important things. Maybe a option should be included for "Not relevant" or something like this? I saw a few Comments who are just asking how they can get a software in a question like "Why i cant connect do RDP Sessions"
    – CentrixDE
    Commented Sep 14, 2016 at 14:07

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