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note: this is not a dupe of this - that one regards flagging ones comments as offensive because they were in 'a bad mood' when writing them. This request is about flagging my own comments as obsolete.

I'm quite active in a public beta site, and it should be enough to say that when a new mod is added to the team they are warned about 'the serial flagger' - me. I'm quite intrigued by the idea of nuking obsolete comments from orbit - like requests for sources, etc.

Take this example:

enter image description here

Here, I'm asking the author for a source, which was eventually added (yay!). In this case, the comments are obsolete and need nuking. However, I'm unable to flag my own comments, and I don't want to delete them and break the thread.

From what I know of the way comment flags are displayed, they are grouped by the post they are under, with only the flagged ones displayed. We all want to make work easier for our mods (and get helpful flags for ourselves!), so why not let me flag my own comments as obsolete?

I've tried quite a few different ways, and it appears that the ability to flag one's own comments is actually enforced server-side - even my autoflag userscript (which makes direct POST requests) couldn't manage it.

Could we at least allow the flagging of one's own comments server-side? We don't need to show the UI if it's too much trouble, although that would be a plus too.

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    This seems like overkill when you can delete your comments and flag the others. Or just flag the post if there are too many comments.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Dec 10, 2013 at 19:00
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    @AnnaLear Yes, but I'd rather not break the conversation for even a little while. It'd be preferable to have them all nuked at the same time.
    – Undo
    Dec 10, 2013 at 19:01
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    Why not? The broken conversation just reinforces the obsolete nature of the remaining comments. Doesn't it make it that much more likely that the remaining comments will be acted upon in the desired manner (i.e., deleted)?
    – Rob Kennedy
    Dec 10, 2013 at 19:04
  • @AnnaLear is right in this manner..
    – Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan
    Dec 10, 2013 at 19:05
  • @AnnaLear: We have been encouraged to flag instead of delete in order to leave a paper trail; why does this reasoning not apply to ones own comments?
    – Raphael
    Jul 3, 2014 at 6:24
  • @raphael You mean as moderators, you're encouraged to flag others' comments instead of deleting? If that's it, I think it's, at best, optimistic to expect the general user base to be aware of a policy like that, nevermind follow it. Additionally, individual users aren't required to submit a reason for deleting their own comment. They don't need to prepare to be accountable later. Whether they should or not is a different discussion (I'm personally on the side of "no", but then again... there may be benefits), but if yes, we're better off just implementing deletion reasons instead of this.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Jul 3, 2014 at 10:05
  • @AnnaLear True, deletion reasons would be better. I have wondered more than once why a comment had been deleted. Of course, my confusion is not a problem. We do, however, try to prevent self-vandalism, don't we?
    – Raphael
    Jul 3, 2014 at 10:50
  • @Raphael Sure. But if something vitally important (to the point where we'd call deleting it "vandalism") is in a comment, we have bigger problems.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    Jul 3, 2014 at 15:45
  • I resort to using a 2nd account to flag my comment...
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Nov 5, 2015 at 20:30
  • @FranckDernoncourt On SR, at least, you can just throw a custom flag on the post explaining it. Might be a little easier than running a second account :)
    – Undo
    Nov 5, 2015 at 20:55

2 Answers 2

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However, I'm unable to flag my own comments, and I don't want to delete them and break the thread.

You can simply use the "other..." comment flag and explain to the moderators that the comment discussion between you and PearsonArtPhoto is now obsolete (and should go the way of the dodo).

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Actually flagging means that you want to report something to the mod team to take action.

You dislike something, you flag it, because you donot have rights to delete it. You see something spam, you flag it. So that moderator can take action on it.

Flagging your own content will be no problem, but the process will be same, you are gonna say: "Hi mod, I dislike my comment and it is a vague one; please delete it!" And the mod will delete it, whereas as Anna Lear has already mentioned that adding a flag fucntion to your comment will leave no reason to have a delete button too.

Why don't you just delete the comment? And however, asking for the code in SO is just to get information about his question, it is not obsolete (atleast in my opinion).

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    I'd have to argue that if the code was added, the comment would absolutely be obsolete.
    – Undo
    Dec 10, 2013 at 19:09
  • You're right! In this case the comment argument would be obsolete, and as well as un necessary! Because discussions are allowed in chat. So in this part you're right!
    – Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan
    Dec 10, 2013 at 19:11
  • If I delete comment instantly it might be too soon. I use flagging as obsolete to make a timeout.
    – Tomáš Zato
    Jan 14, 2016 at 8:58

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