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This is a deleted answer. When I open it it shows me one comment, along with the option to "show 1 more comment":

Screenshot showing the described situation

However, when I click on "show 1 more comment" nothing happens. That is to say that no new comments appear, but the "show 1 more comment" link disappears, as it has been "used up":

Screenshot of described situation

Now this phenomenon is not simply because the post is deleted, as there are other deleted posts where I can expand comments by clicking on "show 1 more comment". For instance, this deleted answer:

Screenshot of described situation

Screenshot of described situation

And this deleted answer:

Screenshot of described situation

Screenshot of described situation

So why in the first example does an additional comment not appear when I click "show 1 more comment"?

Now I happen to know that there was a deleted comment(s?) on that answer. But if the comments were deleted then it shouldn't show me the "show 1 more comment" link in the first place. For instance, in this deleted answer there was also a deleted comment, and I am not shown any "show 1 more comment" link:

Screenshot of described situation

My only theory is that perhaps the comment got deleted after the post was deleted, so maybe the "show 1 more comment" link is stuck there because that's how it was at the time the post was deleted, but I have no idea if that even makes sense.

I found a similar question, but it has an answer saying that this just happens from time to time and it self-corrects; however, in this case it does not appear to be self-correcting so I don't know if it's the same thing.

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    There's a bit more details here, but that too doesn't mention how this goes for deleted posts. So I'm not sure if this will self-correct there too.
    – Tinkeringbell Mod
    Jan 15, 2019 at 19:12
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    @Tinkeringbell Thanks for the link. In the comments there it seems that it does not apply to deleted posts. (And I waited ~15 hours before posting this to see if it would correct, and it hasn't. I also think that I actually noticed this a couple of weeks ago, in which case it certainly didn't self-correct.)
    – Alex
    Jan 15, 2019 at 19:17
  • Also related: meta.stackexchange.com/q/110436/295232
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Jan 15, 2019 at 19:28
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    Looks like the process that auto-deletes negatively scored content when a user gets destroyed messes things up there. The post got deleted, which validated the comment flags and deleted the comment also, but it didn't update the number of comments on the post. I'd guess because it's still in the process of saving the IsDeleted state on the post while a different process is trying to update the CommentCount. Another odd race condition?
    – animuson StaffMod
    Jan 15, 2019 at 19:42
  • @animuson So the comment and the post were deleted as a byproduct of the user being deleted? In the last example the user was also deleted, so does that mean that the process happened differently there?
    – Alex
    Jan 15, 2019 at 19:46
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    @Alex It would only mess up if there was an active comment flag against the user, on a post they own that will also end up deleted. It's a set of conditions.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Jan 15, 2019 at 19:47
  • @animuson So, basically, lots of confusing things happen behind the scenes?
    – Alex
    Jan 15, 2019 at 19:51
  • @Alex. Yes. This is always the problem. Although sometimes even obscurer and more confusing things can happen ... for example with suggested edits. I have just read recently that Stack Exchange staff is doing some kind of dark magic to prevent such things from happening most of the time... ;)
    – MEE
    Jan 15, 2019 at 20:23
  • @MEEisJohannGambolputty... - It's sad when performing dark magic repeatedly is an easier thing to do than fixing a bug. Oh well, at least it keeps the local supply of eye-of-newt from getting stale :-)
    – RDFozz
    Jan 15, 2019 at 20:50
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    Still ongoing, as can be seen by meta.stackexchange.com/questions/339839/…
    – Andrew Grimm
    Dec 8, 2019 at 1:12
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    This newer report about the same thing has an official response and an answer explaining the cause of the issue: Show more comments not working in a deleted question
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    May 3, 2022 at 18:05

1 Answer 1

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Whatever the issue was, it is no longer an issue. When I view the deleted answer now it only shows me the one comment, without the option to expand another comment:

Screenshot showing comment on deleted answer with no option to expand another comment

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