If you've been blogging for any length of time now, you've probably seen this message. Perhaps you've seen it on the comment section of someone else's blog or you've had to delete comments on your own blog. There are lots of good reasons to delete a comment. It could be something that's outdated, incorrect, illegible or just plain rude.
However, I'm curious as to why the creators of blogspot decided to take care of the problem this way. If you delete a comment, it should just be gone without any trace. Why do have to see the "comment deleted" notice? That would be like reading a book and suddenly you get to a page where there's a big note from the author that says something like, "I was going to go in a completely different direction here, but then I changed my mind. Keep reading." Or, "My stupid editor didn't like this part, so I had to take it in a different direction." Or even, "I don't know what I was thinking when I originally wrote this part. It was really stupid. I should probably cut back on all the cough syrup in the morning."
It seems pointless to keep this everlasting reminder of a comment that wasn't good enough or sensitive enough to remain on the blog. I say this as someone who has deleted comments and who has had his comments deleted (both justifiably). But, I must say that I'm curious to know about some comments that you've had to delete. So, if you're a blogger, let me know by leaving me a comment. You might have to be creative in how you tell your story so that I don't have to delete it and thus leave that eternal reminder that your comment was not ready for prime time.
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8 comments:
I've deleted comments I've made on someone else's blog when I was just way too tired and far too embarassed to leave the kooky spelling errors for all to see. Sort of like discovering spinach-in-the-teeth.
I had to delete two comments on my blog so far in eight months of blogging. One was the aforementioned spelling error. The commentor posted another comment, but I decided she would feel relieved if she returned and saw the first goofy one gone.
The second one was from a local blogger from my city who was trying to get me to join his local-blogger ring. Wasn't interested. Wanted him to know in the kindest way possible. I removed his comment. Nuff said, since he hasn't approached me again. (He'd tried twice.)
Perhaps that's why Blogger keeps the deletions visible. Otherwise if it's gone without a trace, the offending commentor might assume something went wrong with Blogger and post the comment again.
I have bee really fortunate in that I have only had to delete a handful of comments. Three because they were spam (hence turning on those pain in the rear character things) and a couple because they gave too much location information.
I haven't ever gone back and deleted any of my own comments, although I probably should have!
The only comment I have deleted was an ad for some sort of dog product on a post mentioning our pet fish.
I only recently learned that you can delete your own comments. One time I left a comment on some lady's blog that was just plain rude (not in the gross sense of the word). After I did it, I thought, "Man, why did I say that? I don't even know this person and here I am telling her what to do when she didn't even ask." It's a long, stupid story. Anyway, she managed to delete it herself and I'm sure she thinks I'm a pig. Oh well.
Hi,
I came over from Miss Sniz's blog by her link to yours! I'm with you on the comment deleted question. The only time I delete a comment is when I post it and then notice all my typographical errors. So, I copy and paste, correct the errors and re-post, then delete the old one.
You're right. Why should that 'comment deleted' stay there forever.
Good post.
Randy
Could you just delete this one for effect?
I got to your blog by way of your wife's blog. Nice blog by the way! I've only had to delete one comment before and it has irritated me considerably that the "comment deleted" thing is still there!! I was writing about something my husband had done and even though I wasn't upset or blasting my husband in my blog this person who left the comment lectured me on how I shouldn't be putting my husband down on a public blog even though what my husband did was foolish, etc. And I wasn't EVEN SAYING THAT to begin with. I couldn't believe the nerve of that person. LOL I quickly deleted that comment but now the "comment deleted" tag is forever there. UGH
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