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I just happened to notice that a comment I left on this question has disappeared.

It was in no way unconstructive or offensive so I think it is unlikely to have been flagged. I forget the exact text but it was something along the lines of.

Shame you are not on 2012 as this is much easier with sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set. Actually I don't think any of the solutions in the possible duplicate will work for you as you are unlikely to have permissions to set up a loop back linked server if adhoc distributed queries are enabled then you can achieve similar using [link to some other answer]

Was this auto deleted when the question was closed as duplicate? If so why? Does it delete all comments that link to other answers? Or all with the phrase "possible duplicate"?

If so that doesn't seem correct behaviour to me. I would expect only comments that link to one of the proposed dupes to be so deleted.

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    I can confirm that your comment was auto-deleted by Community at the same time the question was closed as a duplicate. A dev will probably have to explain why. – Bill the Lizard Feb 14 '13 at 17:05
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    I suspect that it is probably related to your use of the phrase 'possible duplicate' in an effort to automatically remove comments that will become obsolete when the information regarding duplicates is added to the top of the question. – Ren Feb 14 '13 at 17:07
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    @BilltheLizard - Thanks. Guess the auto delete script may be a little too enthusiastic then. Would be good to know the reason why so I am aware of this in the future. – Martin Smith Feb 14 '13 at 17:07
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    The comment thread on this question is contradictory about this. I have seen my own comments survive dupe closing before, as long as they weren't exactly the same. – ben is uǝq backwards Feb 14 '13 at 17:17
  • @Ren Now that we have an obtrusive banner automatically inserted, the automatic comments are redundant anyways. – NullUserException อ_อ Feb 14 '13 at 17:42
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    @NullUserExceptionอ_อ, "the automatic comments are redundant anyways" —see Stop generating “possible duplicate” comments for that, including Jarrod's "the reason the comment was kept was because it provided inbox notifications". – Arjan Feb 14 '13 at 18:18
  • @NullUserExceptionอ_อ I wasn't trying to say that they weren't redundant. I was merely highlighting that Martin's comment may have been digested by the cleanup script :P – Ren Feb 14 '13 at 19:12
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When a question has its first close vote proposing it as a duplicate there is an automatic comment added to the post of the form, "Possible duplicate of [...]", except if there is already a link to that thread in comments. If there is already a link to that thread, the auto comment isn't posted.

If/when the post is actually closed, the comment is deleted. It doesn't just delete the automatically posted comment though, it actually deletes the first comment to link to the duplicate question, in this case, yours.

There have been proposals to fix this behavior and to only delete the comment if it was automatically posted, and not if it was a manual user comment, but such a change has not yet been implemented.

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    Martin was the first close voter, so a comment link was posted on his behalf to Retrieve column definition for stored procedure result set. He later manually posted the comment above with a link to a different question/answer. I'd expect only the first (auto-posted) comment to be deleted, but the issue is that the second one was deleted also. This is on the right track though. – Bill the Lizard Feb 14 '13 at 17:13
  • The algorithm to delete automatically inserted comments seems to be very liberal and it definitely deletes things it shouldn't. I've seen it delete a comment I made even though I didn't cast a close vote at all. – NullUserException อ_อ Feb 14 '13 at 17:36

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