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About three hours ago I commented on the blog Looking to understand which API is best for a certain task? A new study uses Stack Overflow data to rank them. I got a comment ID: 425507, but it leads to nowhere; no comments to be seen.

Of course I forgot copy my text before posting, but it was basically explaining my observations after clicking around a bit on the site mentioned in the blog.

Where are the comments?

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    Could you approximate the content of that comment from memory? It could help us understand where it did go and why. (As an aside, I don't know if Meta is the right venue for complaining about comments being removed from the blog. As it is, we already have to deal with comments being removed here.)
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Nov 8, 2019 at 9:53
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    @Fred lol. Yes, the comment contained the word "stupid", amongst others, but that was an example of why analyzing text like this doesn't work for purposes like that (something like "my stupid code won't work" is picked up by that algorithm as a complaint against the library the question is about). Do you mean this might have triggered some moderation?
    – CodeCaster
    Nov 8, 2019 at 9:57
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    Given the current climate, most likely, yes.
    – Frédéric Hamidi
    Nov 8, 2019 at 9:58
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    @Fred that's a shame, because I think my comment could have started an interesting discussion.
    – CodeCaster
    Nov 8, 2019 at 9:59
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    Thanks for the downvotes anyway. Why? Is it that weird to expect comments posted under the blog to show up, or to be notified that they may be placed in a moderation queue, or to receive an email telling why it was rejected? I searched and found no mention of this.
    – CodeCaster
    Nov 8, 2019 at 14:31

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I believe the blog sometimes has comment moderation turned on. I've had comments posted (almost?) instantly, and others that showed up days later and even not at all. My guess is they have gone back and forth (possibly per post) enabling and disabling moderation on comments depending on the topic, staff availability, etc. I don't think there is any feedback process for the moderation cycle, it just eventually shows up — or it doesn't. This is pretty typical of comment systems on blogs where users are not authenticated. Sometimes a message is shown informing you that your comment is awaiting moderation, but it is usually impossible to come back later to find out the status.

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  • Yes in most of the blog I've seen provide a notice that there comment were first subject to moderation before seen publicly.
    – Abhishek Gurjar
    Nov 8, 2019 at 9:59
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    "This is pretty typical of blog comment systems" - shame on me for expecting this blog to be different, then. I received no email, nor did I get notified that my comment might be moderated.
    – CodeCaster
    Nov 8, 2019 at 10:00
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    @CodeCaster Blog comments have been moderated for literally decades. There is no reason to be surprised by this. Why would you expect one particular blog to be different, then act surprised when it's not?
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Nov 8, 2019 at 11:27
  • @Lightness well since it's Stack Overflow and all. I don't think I ever commented on their blog. I didn't expect this. Now I understand why there's at most a handful of comments under the blogs I've read before. Also, all other blogs that I frequent do have moderation, but then in the sense of quickly removing comments that aren't appropriate. An approval queue for comments just smells so ... 1999.
    – CodeCaster
    Nov 8, 2019 at 11:56
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    @CodeCaster If you think Stack Overflow is immune from unexplained and unhelpful nuking of swathes of comments at a time, you haven't been paying attention :)
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Nov 8, 2019 at 12:16
  • @Lightness I know.
    – CodeCaster
    Nov 8, 2019 at 12:17
  • Well then.......
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Nov 8, 2019 at 12:19
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    @Lightness as stated in my first comment here, shame on me for expecting any different then. What purpose does the blog have then, if it doesn't allow for discussion? Because the whole premise of the PhD thesis of this guy seems to be that if someone posts a comment or an answer containing the string "nice", then that's +1 for the "popularity" of the library the question is tagged with, and if someone posts "wrong", "bug" or "error", again, anywhere in a comment or answer, the library gets a -1. That's just plain ridiculous, and I wanted a discussion about that under the blog.
    – CodeCaster
    Nov 8, 2019 at 12:23
  • @CodeCaster A blog isn't a chatroom. Never has been.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Nov 8, 2019 at 14:58

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