4
\$\begingroup\$

This has happened to many of my questions:

So someone comments and says "blah blah blah u should add this or remove this or modify this too your question"

Then someone else comes along and sees that the question is fine and wasn't in the state that commenter 1 said

They add a comment and say "the question does have blah blah blah what are you talking about"

Its not really a big deal, but i am wondering is there anything I should be doing to prevent this?

\$\endgroup\$
9
  • \$\begingroup\$ I'm not sure you need to, but some questions do add a footnote "Edited based on comments" etc. \$\endgroup\$
    – Anindo Ghosh
    Aug 26, 2013 at 3:33
  • \$\begingroup\$ If I make a suggestion like that, I'll try to come back and remove my comment after you fix the issue. But obviously this won't be instantaneous, and sometimes I'll move on and never do it at all. \$\endgroup\$
    – The Photon
    Aug 26, 2013 at 4:15
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ I can see the point of deleting the comments once they are acted upon, but there is also reason for leaving them. A string of such comments shows this is a high-maintainance user. If I see a lot of stuff that had to be dragged out of the user kicking and screaming, I may figure this question isn't worth the inevitable resulting bother and go elsewhere. In other words, a long string of such comments is useful to warn other you are a moron. If you want to avoid that, write a good question in the first place. \$\endgroup\$
    – Olin Lathrop
    Aug 26, 2013 at 19:27
  • 2
    \$\begingroup\$ @OlinLathrop, "a string of comments showing stuff getting dragged out of the user kicking and screaming" is the definition of noise. Destroy it. Annihilate it for all eternity. I don't want to see it. \$\endgroup\$
    – travisbartley
    Aug 28, 2013 at 8:32
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ Using a comments as a way of publicly shaming a user is not productive for Q/A content. If you have the urge for cruelly bullying strangers on the internet, go somewhere like 4chan, because this isn't the place for it. \$\endgroup\$
    – travisbartley
    Aug 28, 2013 at 8:37
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @travis Olin doesn't mean actually shame them or insult in the comments, he means the comments simply show that the asker isn't being cooperative or understanding. \$\endgroup\$
    – Passerby
    Aug 28, 2013 at 21:32
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ @Passerby, It looks like he meant both, "In other words, a long string of such comments is useful to warn other you are a moron." \$\endgroup\$
    – travisbartley
    Aug 29, 2013 at 1:02
  • \$\begingroup\$ @trav1s there is a difference between commenting "op's an idiot" and thinking "op is an idiot, I'm going to just skip this question without commenting" \$\endgroup\$
    – Passerby
    Aug 29, 2013 at 2:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Passerby, I can agree with that. I am saying that trying to show others that someone is a moron is shaming. And even if it wasn't, the comments in question aren't of any utility for users looking for a solution to their problem. So let's get rid of them, regardless of the motivation for keeping them. \$\endgroup\$
    – travisbartley
    Aug 29, 2013 at 2:40

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6
\$\begingroup\$

The best thing to do is to add a comment of your own after making the edit, something like "@username, thank you for the suggestion. Edited." The comment will show up in the users inbox, and the user can delete their now-irrelevant suggestion.

Otherwise, a mod may eventually wander by and remove the comments.

\$\endgroup\$
1
  • \$\begingroup\$ Also, next to all comments is the flag button, which you can specify "obsolete" as the reason for flagging. This will significantly improve the speed of a mod wandering by for cases of particularly distracting or noisy obsolete comments. I rarely use this as I acknowledge the fact that obsolete comments are a side-effect of naturally evolving multi-user content, and keeping all content including comments up to date is unreasonable and unnecessary. \$\endgroup\$
    – travisbartley
    Aug 28, 2013 at 8:29

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .