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Feature Request – Delete Comments
I contacted HN support recently to delete comments and remove an account and received a reply with the following:
"Happy to help. HN doesn't remove entire account histories, because that would gut the threads the account had participated in, which would be unfair to the other users in the threads. But we can randomize the username and disable the account if you'd like."
I indicated that I could flag each comment and that feature which is readily available, would satisfy the requests.
I also stated that they should put a message on the login screen to notify users that they make it difficult to delete comments/accounts in 2022, going into 2023. Every other site makes that feature available for accounts on a platform.
I also never received a response from HN support since that initial reply. It looked like a canned response.
Having a feature that allows deleting comments older than 30 days is reasonable in this day and age. For a year-end task, I was able locate instructions on Twitter, Youtube and Facebook to delete comments, so it is not a novel feature.
Please add the fuctionality to delete comments , knowing the conversations already took place and are completed. It is a reasonable request to remove archived comments without needing to contact HN support.
- gardenfelder 4y agoWhy?
- featurerequest1 4y agoIt seems like a reasonable feature in 2022. Every other site makes that feature available to users without any intervention from support. And as stated, the conversation have already taken place and most likely no further participation ever. Its not much of a loss, with ephemeral comments being par for the course on the Internet. Is it just waiting for that normal feature to become available and then delete comments and an account? The facilities are in place to already achieve those results. Its also a good end-of-year habit to delete unused accounts online. No other site uses the word gutted for something so basic.
- toast0 4y agoPlenty of sites get posted again in the future, and past discussions are often linked. So while the conversation is over, the comments are not ephemeral. I understand you may not want your comments to be linked to you anymore, but what's the problem if your name is removed? For the most part, your comments will stand on their own without your name, and anyone who comes to the discussion later can benefit from your contributions.
- krapp 4y agoA person's identity can still be derived from their comments. In order to truly anonymize them, one would need to go through them one at a time and redact any identifiable information. Randomizing the username is only useful in the cases where someone's username was their real name.
- bediger4000 4y agoPerhaps you decide the valuable Intellectual Property of your comments and argumentation is enriching a new site owner whose manners you despise. You might want that IP that you own removed.
- featurerequest1 4y agoEven casually, deleting comments and accounts happen all the time. I would laugh if a site used the word "gutted" as a weak excuse for not having that feature available. The IQ is so high on that statement.
- mikewarot 4y agoIf someone makes a lot of comments that others react to, and those comments are pulled, then everyone loses the context of all the subsequent threads. In pulling your comment, you silence everyone who responded to you. It gives uneven power to the person removing their comments. I'd say this would be a bad thing to allow, and would break more than it fixes.
- featurerequest1 4y agoIn 2022, why would that basic programming hurdle even be mentioned? Deleting comments is such a basic feature. Its just lazy programming.
- mikewarot 4y agoWe all know it can be done, but we also agree that it shouldn't be done.
- tkiolp4 4y agoThis could be easily solved not by removing the comment but by unlinking it from its author (e.g., make the author of a “removed” comment be “None” or “Null” or whatever)
- throwaway675309 4y agoI disagree. unless there are extenuating circumstances such as accidentally exposing personal data or data of a sensitive nature, I think that randomizing the username is sufficient. It is unfair to the users of the site to allow people to delete comments at whim as it creates discontinuity in the structure of conversations. Take the time to think before you speak.
- featurerequest1 4y agoI disagree. I think deleting comments is such an elementary feature, it should be standard. Its 2022. Deleting comments and accounts is transparancy. HN is not up with the times.