HN isn't Twitter or Facebook, it's just a forum. 1.) I don't think it has anything to do with age 2.) Even if you would be able to delete it, your comments wo

HN isn't Twitter or Facebook, it's just a forum. 1.) I don't think it has anything to do with age 2.) Even if you would be able to delete it, your comments would probably be cached by google, archive.org etc 3.) You contradict yourself here > So what if someone deletes a comment and people reading 5 years in the future don't see it. The reason you are able to delete a comment immediately after on HN but not later (as I see it) - let's say you're tired or drunk and reply with wrong information or being rude and realize it after you already pressed reply. This has nothing to do with data hoarding, you realize that if enough people would be able to remove their comments the whole thread would be destroyed and no longer make any sense for new readers. Also it might misrepresent what other people were replying to, when taken out of context some innocent reply could be labeled racist, sexist or what have you. It could bring much bigger consequences than your worries that "your shit is out there".