HN Explorer

Ask HN: Doesn HN delete deleted comments?

5 points by noncoml ↗ HN
When one deletes a comment, does HN actually eventually delete it, or does it just stay in their db/files/server as "marked deleted"?

Also what about edits? Does HN keep all versions, or does it overwrite the edited comment with the new contents?

5 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 21.3 ms ] thread
verdverm
what about all the people scraping HN or saving the feeds?
gus_massa
> what about all the people scraping HN or permanently capturing the feeds?

And what happens if someone quotes your comment?

verdverm
or edits it after you quote it? :]
gus_massa
:)

Yes. I assume there are like 20 scampers saving everything posted in HN. Including big search companies, intelligence agencies, alternative interface projects and overenthusiastic users.

Going back to the original question:

I don't remember how HN is implemented. IIRC they are still using text files instead of databases. I'll assume they just mark it as deleted, not a hard delete, but I'm a bit paranoiac. Even if it's deleted, I don't think the swipe the hard disk, or all the backups and old machines that have the last year version, or ...

Anyway, if someone makes a huge mistake, they can email the mods and they may try to take a look and perhaps hide or delete it. Anyway, contacting the 20 scrapers may be more difficult.

caseyscottmckay
I assume nothing is ever deleted on the internet. Even comments you type out, but never submit are most likely saved by all websites (and if you use Windows/Mac, I'm assuming every single keystroke is sent back to the home base and saved). All of that is valuable data for future models.