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Far too often a moderator will delete comments from one side of a conversation while leaving comments from the other side of the conversation in place.

If it were a series of stand alone comments and one particular contributor was off-topic or rude that might be understandable. However, in many cases deletion of one set of point/counterpoint comments leaves an incomplete, out of context, incoherent series of remarks utterly lacking the other side of the story, while still tagging the deleted user by name.

Two options are preferable to this practice; simply push all comments to chat as is often done, or delete the entire conversation. Anything less can only be construed as selective censorship, laziness, or both.

So what, if any, reason is there to delete one half of a conversation in comments and leave the remainder hanging if what's left is incoherent and doesn't serve the purpose of comments?

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Are you sure this is a result of mod action?

Users can and do delete their own comments. Sometimes they flag the other side and sometimes they don’t.

I don’t spend a lot of time on comments

The other mods can speak for themselves, but personally, I deal with comments as they are flagged and consider only the reason the flager states. I don’t go look at the whole comment unless I’m asked to.

Flag them

The solution is for you (or anyone else) to flag orphan comments as no longer needed and we’ll get rid of them.

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    Yes, I am sure it is mod action, I wouldn't have asked if it were other people's comments. I know that because I have deleted my own before. What I find particularly frustrating and unacceptable is when my are deleted, but someone else's response to me remains...
    – Michael Hall
    Commented Jul 20 at 1:48
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    @MichaelHall as I said, flag it. But you shouldn’t be engaging in conversation in comments in the first place - spin up a chat room.
    – Dale M Mod
    Commented Jul 20 at 5:54
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    Oh come on, conversations happen all the time in chat. I have flagged them, but that dismisses the issue of them being deleted in the first place when you see a complete conversation and only delete half. I don't see any excuse for that, I'm giving you an opportunity to justify it
    – Michael Hall
    Commented Jul 20 at 13:47
  • I don’t feel any need to.
    – Dale M Mod
    Commented Jul 20 at 14:11
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    FWIW, I down voted your answer because you start out asking a question that I refuted in the first comment and you haven't edited it. Then you recommend that I flag those comments, which doesn't answer the question and also repeats information that I'm already aware of. Yes, it's a loaded question. Because I've already come to the conclusion that the practice is unacceptable and lazy on the part of the mods. Or, an honest error... I'll spot you that.
    – Michael Hall
    Commented Jul 20 at 14:22
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    ... And because you seem to be passively accepting the practice as okay.
    – Michael Hall
    Commented Jul 20 at 14:23
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    Really, it is blatantly taking sides with one half of the conversation and that is completely unacceptable from any moderator here
    – Michael Hall
    Commented Jul 20 at 14:24

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