Modify the 'has 1 or 0 comments' requirement for 'RemoveAbandonedQuestions' script

Question

From the help center, auto-delete section (emphasis is mine):

If the question is more than 365 days old, and ...

• has a score of 0 or less, or a score of 1 and a deleted owner
• has no answers
• is not locked
• has view count <= the age of the question in days times 1.5
• has 1 or 0 comments
• isn't on a meta site

... it will be automatically deleted. These are termed "abandoned" questions (RemoveAbandonedQuestions).

I have been reading about the scripts for auto deletion of posts in SE, and reviewing borderline questions to those scripts. By borderline I mean, almost all criteria are met except one.

The 'comments' requirement caught my attention. For example, all assumptions above are true except the question has two or more comments which are as old as the Q (see questions from query 'b').

Wouldn't it be more in line with the Stack Exchange saying "comments are second-class citizens" to instead of setting the requirement based on amount/count of comments, to set it based on the date from the most recent comment (no matter how many comments)? The name of the script refers to 'abandoned questions' and a pile of old comments under an old question does not make it less abandoned, does it?

There are many questions being kept from auto-deletion due to the comment criterium, consequently hindering useful searches (see query 'a').

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Data to support proposal:

Take a look at the following data retrieved from two queries in SEDE:

• a) Questions escaping from auto-deletion due to comments returning the list of questions not being deleted by the current comment criterium.
• b) Questions eligible for auto-deletion where comment rule is based on age (instead of n# of comments) returning the list of questions not being deleted based on age of comment (most recent comment older than 'n' months).

Table1. Number of questions to be deleted based on different scenarios for the comment rule in the RemoveAbandonedQuestions script (first column is the baseline). Results from January, 2019:

                  total           most recent comment
                  n# of comments  older than n months          
              ------------------  -------------------
SE site****     < 2*         0**  12***      6      0(**)
------------  ------------------  -------------------
Super User        0  24750(6.3%^) 24625  24733  24802
Ask Ubuntu        0  12530(4.0%)  12412  12560  12602
Server Fault      0   7905(2.9%)   7839   7899   7922  
GIS               0   3137(2.9%)   3097   3128   3140
------------  ------------------  -------------------    

• _{^ Proportion of questions to be deleted in relation to the total number of questions.}
• _{* Number of comments < 2 is what is currently implemented (the baseline), i.e., no additional posts are deleted.}
• _{** Number of Qs to be deleted if the comment rule was deactivated (no comment threshold required). Data was retrieved from query a).}
• _{*** Number of Qs to be deleted if date required from the most recent comment was older than 12 months. This was the maximum threshold for period of time used because it would not make sense requiring the comment to be older than the time threshold for the post itself (365 days). Data was retrieved from query b).}
• _{(**) The number of questions here should have matched the second column from section 'total n# of comments', but they were pretty close.}
• _{**** Unfortunately, the queries ran out memory for Stack Overflow and Mathematics.}

If my queries are correct, it seems 'age of comments' are irrelevant to this matter, i.e., completely removing the comment rule would yield almost the same results than requiring the most recent comment to be at least 1 year old.

In other words, 'abandoned' questions which are currently being prevented from auto deletion due to the comment rule, also do have only 'abandoned' comments.

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Meanwhile, if anyone is interested knowing about own comments preventing questions from auto-deletion, see this query and its description.

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_{The following post is a near duplicate in Stack Overflow Meta: Time for roomba to ignore comments (credits to user gnat).}

Answer 1

I agree with you on this. In particular, when you say this it resonates with me:

Wouldn't it be more in line with the Stack Exchange saying "comments are second-class citizens" to instead of setting the requirement based on a low threshold for number of comments keeping the question, to set it based on the date from the most recent comment (no matter how many comments)? The name of the script refers to 'abandoned questions' and a pile of old comments under an old question does not make it less abandoned, does it?

I review many old unanswered questions and I think that if a question has had no answer posted, and it has long since ceased attracting comments to try and make it more answerable, then it can be considered abandoned.

I propose that:

• has 1 or 0 comments

be taken out of the algorithm, and in its place, this be used:

• has had no new comments for 365 days

Answer 2

I just went to propose something similar myself.. In my mind, the logic is backwards.

More comments => worse question.

More comments likely implies the question needs more work, e.g., they're unclear so people ask for clarification. More specifically, comments require that

1. a user has found the post,
2. they chose to refrain from upvoting it [putting aside upvote/downvotes cancelling out], and
3. they were willing to interact with the post.

If the question is attracting comments because it's good, it'd also get upvotes or answers.

Roomba is being held up by comments like the following on Stack Overflow:

1. • Have you tried creating a custom installer action project and reference that in the setup project as pre and post install action?
   • any solution about it ??
2. • Should be the same as this question, I believe: stackoverflow.com/questions/727283/…
   • also here are others related to this question: stackoverflow.com/questions/260540/how-do-you-scrape-ajax-pages blog.databigbang.com/web-scraping-ajax-and-javascript-sites
3. • This should work by modifying the CSPROJ file, which is nothing but a MSBUILD script. MSBUILD, however, is not always very intuitive for such modifications. And it's hard to tell what VS will do to your references.
   • Which IDE are you using?
   • If VS2005/8, this is a dupe
4. • i think you will need to provide some more information than "not working well" to get any useful replies
   • We've got no chance of helping you unless you give more information
5. • OP: I've noted that EF object are not keen to load trees as with LinqToSQL. But how do you force load an object within a collection?
   • Resources is a navigation property?
   • OP: Yes it is. One to One relationship...
   • can you post what error its giving you?

Actual comments preventing roomba. (Obtained by this Data Explorer query.)

Answer 3

If one day the "has 1 or 0 comments" criterion is removed, then I would recommend to be changed with the "has a score of 0 or less" rule to "has a score of -1 or less", because plenty of perfectly on-topic questions have a score of 0, especially on Stack Exchange websites with low frequentation and for advanced questions. I've had hundreds of my questions removed by the auto-deletion script, and the vast majority of them had a score of 0.

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Here are some examples of questions that got automatically removed because they had a score of 0 (but which I later reposted):

• How can I know to which class each score corresponds to in LibShortText prediction output file?
• Ignore files that have already been committed to a Git repository in GitHub for Windows
• Does reducing the amount of carb intake increase the anti-inflammatory effect of turmeric curcumin?
• How can I see the network up/down speed for each tab in Google Chrome?
• Is there any downside in combining the ingestion of NR and NMN supplements to increase one's level of NAD+?
• What is the correlation between the convex acromion type and rotator cuff tears?

Answer 4

I often comment on questions asking for clarification or giving other feedback to the user on how to get a better answer. I would hate to think that I'm keeping bad questions alive while trying to be helpful.

On the other hand I see situations where the answer is in the comments and nobody ever pasted the answer as an actual answer.

In conclusion; I think that the questions that have comments that are flagged by your new rule as "abandoned" need to go in to a new "Review queues" section where people with review power can choose to close them or paste the answer in to the answer section and close out the question.