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I have been going through some of the older posts on the site and finding lots of what I perceive as obsolete comments: chats about edits which have long been committed, "thanks", "welcome to the site", "great question", etc. and flagging them as such. Of course, I avoid any comments that have further information or follow up questions.

After chatting with two of the moderators who had opposing viewpoints on the subject, I'd like to see how this would be received by the community. Obviously, the final say for the deletion of comments comes from our fearless moderator corps (the only exception is comments that are flagged by 2 users as offensive are autodeleted).

So, if you are in favor or opposed, please express that opinion by using one of the preset answers below, or if you have another opinion to offer, please add your own answer.

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  • We are apparently very indecisive
    – Ben Brocka
    Jun 22, 2012 at 14:19
  • Could we collapse them instead?
    – Quidam
    Dec 18, 2016 at 5:53

3 Answers 3

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Yes, obsolete comments should be flagged for deletion.

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    Yes, but when I have more time, I'll add a detailed answer. ;) Till then, I'm keeping this comment around so it can be removed at a later time. :)
    – Steven Jeuris Mod
    Jun 13, 2012 at 17:47
  • I still have flags left on Meta :P Jun 13, 2012 at 17:50
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Comments are impermanent and should only be kept around so long as they are interesting, useful and relevant (or some reasonable combination of the above).

There's no value in keeping around comments saying "Please do X" long after X has been done, so please do flag obsolete comments for deletion. Cluttered comments sections only make the site harder to read while making it less enjoyable and useful.

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No, obsolete comments should not be flagged for deletion.

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    @JoelReyesNoche Forgive my attempt at humor (and the body should be at least 30 characters, so changing to 'no' requires a cheat), I've changed them accordingly. As to the other issue, comments themselves are really "second-class" citizens on SE. Anything important in them should be incorporated into the questions and answers. In looking through them, I have left alone any that have any relevance. While I understand and respect that it is important to be polite to commenters, commenters should also be courteous in yielding their comments to cleanup when they have become obsolete. Jul 1, 2012 at 0:12

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