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I think overall, one or several moderators (I don't know who) tend to delete comments too quickly. In a few cases, some of my comments were deleted a few hours after I wrote them, then some reader asked me the same question as I was answering in the comments.

E.g. Revisiting Research, A reason to close

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Could moderators please delete comments with less precipitation? Or even better, quit deleting comments that are relevant to the question. Thanks.

Comment deletion is much more frequent on this SE than the other one I frequent. I stopped writing answers as they were deleted, I'll do the same for comments.

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    This goes on to show that comments are not permanent and you should provide answers in an actual answer instead of a comment.
    – Joe W
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 18:24
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    @JoeW You should provide answers in an actual answer instead of a comment.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 23:07
  • FWIW, I was a little shocked that some of our comments were deleted, but I can understand how they were viewed as a conversation between two people (which I guess should have probably happened in chat).
    – Atl LED
    Commented Jan 18, 2016 at 16:16
  • @AtlLED - In my opinion, there should be more leeway for comments staying in meta - after all, this is the place where site decisions are made, so discussions happen. My post was mostly addressing the deletion of obsolete comments, which I think is appropriate. Half of a conversation makes no sense.
    – anongoodnurse
    Commented Jan 19, 2016 at 23:10

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Comments are considered expendable on every SE/SO site.

Comments are disposable: unlike posts, there's no revision history, and they can be deleted without warning by their authors, by moderators, and in response to flags.

Flagging is an important form of community self-moderation, a highly regarded privilege on these sites. There are even badges awarded for helpful flags (often raised on comments.) Handling flags is one of the most important duties of moderators; it's one way to allow the community to participate in moderating and shaping their site.

If you make a comment in response to someone else (in effect having a conversation with that person, discouraged on SO sites), and the person you answered removes their comment, your comment immediately becomes obsolete, and if flagged by a user, the mod usually will delete the comment. This is true on every site I'm on. It's a very easy decision, since comments are not meant to be answers, are not equivalent to answers, and usually have no lasting value, especially if the comment was part of a conversation half of which is now missing. All it does is clutter the page, possibly confuse readers, and distract from the actual question or answer.

Could moderators please delete comments with less precipitation? Or even better, quit deleting comments that are relevant to the question. Thanks.

I hope this is never the case, as it goes against the spirit of SO. If you want your words immortalized, write an answer. That's the model.

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    Comment deletion is much more frequent on this SE than the other one I frequent. I stopped writing answers as they were deleted, I'll do the same then for comments.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Jan 16, 2016 at 23:05
  • @FranckDernoncourt why do you stop answering? Bad answers only get downvoted, not deleted.
    – Ooker
    Commented Jan 18, 2016 at 7:21
  • @Ooker that is not true, My friend had an answer which got three upvotes before it was deleted by a moderator because "it didn't have good enough sources"... the funny thing is that the bureaucratic moderator who initially voted to close the answer also provided a competing answer with even less in the way of sources.... Interesting isn't it.
    – Maxfield Solar
    Commented Feb 29, 2016 at 4:43

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