I've noticed lately that some of my comments are being edited - and not by me - to the point where questions asked of the OP are cut.
Why is that?
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- 3\$\begingroup\$ Can you provide links to one or more specific comments where this has occurred? You can get links from the listing of your comments. AFAIK, only moderators can edit other people's comments. \$\endgroup\$Dave Tweed– Dave Tweed Mod2014-09-19 12:05:08 +00:00Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 12:05
- \$\begingroup\$ You may be confusing comments (which this is) with answers. Answers can be edited by others although they certainly shouldn't be getting edited to that point. I don't suppose this is related to a person looking for a circuit a day or two and you answered with a Google link that I commented on and downvoted? If that's one example let me know and I can explain the sequence that caused that (you probably won't be able to find it now). \$\endgroup\$PeterJ– PeterJ2014-09-19 12:31:58 +00:00Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 12:31
- \$\begingroup\$ @Dave Tweed: I couldn't find it, and neither could I find the post associated with it. Strange, to say the least. I guess I'll have to pay more attention and make an external list of my posts and comments from now on. Thanks for your help. :-) \$\endgroup\$EM Fields– EM Fields2014-09-19 13:08:18 +00:00Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 13:08
- \$\begingroup\$ @PeterJ: I know the difference between comments and answers, and if you can explain how a comment gets edited when an answer gets downvoted I'm all ears... \$\endgroup\$EM Fields– EM Fields2014-09-19 13:12:29 +00:00Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 13:12
- \$\begingroup\$ @EMFields, Fair enough just seen a few people confuse the terms. As Dave said only elected diamond moderators can edit them although in my experience it's pretty rare but perhaps one will remember doing it. There are a few additional ways they can get deleted outright but that doesn't sound what you have in mind. \$\endgroup\$PeterJ– PeterJ2014-09-19 13:21:27 +00:00Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 13:21
- \$\begingroup\$ @Dave Tweed: Found it; It's associated with this question:"What is the best way to solder these wires to circuit board?" \$\endgroup\$EM Fields– EM Fields2014-09-19 13:32:41 +00:00Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 13:32
- 1\$\begingroup\$ Do you mean "What's the wire gauge/diameter and the insulation diameter?"? What did it say originally? \$\endgroup\$Dave Tweed– Dave Tweed Mod2014-09-19 13:57:09 +00:00Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 13:57
- \$\begingroup\$ Yes, that's it. I don't recall, exactly, but it said something like there are an almost infinite number of ways to transition between a board and a cable, so did he want something perpendicular to or parallel to the plane of the board, what were the conductor and insulation diameters, and how much money did he want to spend. \$\endgroup\$EM Fields– EM Fields2014-09-19 14:07:30 +00:00Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 14:07
- \$\begingroup\$ I don't see any evidence that the comment was edited, but then the SE system saves very little information about edits to comments anyway. I can't imagine that a moderator would have edited that sort of material out, so I think we're going to have to chalk it up to some sort of system or communications glitch. (test edit) \$\endgroup\$Dave Tweed– Dave Tweed Mod2014-09-19 21:20:00 +00:00Commented Sep 19, 2014 at 21:20
- \$\begingroup\$ @Dave Tweed: Well, i seems kind of odd that the system would glitch so specifically, but I'll defer to your judgement. BTW, is there a list on moderators I can peruse, please? Thanks. :-) \$\endgroup\$EM Fields– EM Fields2014-09-20 00:31:39 +00:00Commented Sep 20, 2014 at 0:31
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1 Answer
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This is taken from How do comments work? on Meta.SE:
Users may edit their own comments any number of times for five minutes after they are first posted. Edited comments are marked with a little pencil icon, and a mouseover tooltip over that icon will provide a count of how many times the comment was edited, like this: Pencil icon
Moderators can edit any comment at any time. Moderator comment edits are logged and visible to other moderators, but no revision history is kept. Such edits will also show the pencil icon.
So the answer is that only you or a diamond moderator can edit a comment. Because no revision history is kept if you make a change other than it being visible how many time it's been edited (you can see examples on this question) no history is retained.
Moderator edits are logged presumably to stop a moderator with a vendetta being able to go off editing a user's comments to something inappropriate without leaving a trace for other moderators or the Stack Exchange team to investigate. For this particular case Dave Tweed has said he can't see any sign of any such edits, also the pencil icon isn't displayed.
My guess would be that you've either attempted to edit the comment or add an additional one that's gone off into orbit and never been received by the server. You can view the list of EE.SE moderators from this page and additionally most employees of Stack Exchange can perform the same functions (and more). A suspected comment edit seems a bit minor to worry about but if you did ever want to contact the latter for some reason there is a "contact us" button on the bottom of each page.
