I agree that it could be more user friendly, but here's the function of delay (from http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html):

I agree that it could be more user friendly, but here's the function of delay (from http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html): >There's a new "delay" field in your profile that lets you specify the delay (in minutes) between when you create a comment and when it's visible to others; this was added because many users edit comments immediately after posting them.