As is all to common here, we have had yet another Meta question asking why comments were removed from a post. The answer to this is pretty clear, and I'm not at all questioning their removal.

One thing that user was questioning though was why they were deleted and not moved to a chat room, and I didn't know the answer to that one. I did a quick search through Meta and couldn't find any general guidance there either.

Do the moderators have any general guidelines that determine whether comments get moved to a chat room or are simply deleted? It would be helpful for explaining to newer users who don't understand why their comments were removed. It would also be helpful for understanding which types of discussions are considered worth having, even if comments aren't the right place to do it.


I'd say my question is different from What's the process for moving comments into chat?, because that question is asking how the chat gets created at all without comparing to comment deletion. I'm asking about why moderators choose to do one versus the other.


It depends

Here are some examples:

  • If the comment(s) are along the lines of "We need a location", and the OP adds the location information, then I will just burniate the comments.
  • If there is some back and forth chatter going on to clarify the question, I will typically move all comments to chat.
  • If comments are flagged by a user, and I agree with the person raising the flag, again I will burniate the comment in question.

I can say with 100% certainty that I am not wondering around the site looking for comments to nuke.

Note: This answer is from my perspective only. I am not speaking for the other moderators.

  • "wondering around the site" -> "wandering around the site"? – SeldomNeedy May 17 at 20:33
  • @SeldomNeedy i sometimes wonder around this website – aaaaaa Jun 17 at 22:46

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