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How do you (the powers that be) determine when 'comments' have gone on too long, and add the message stating such, and to move the discussion to a chat room? This happened to me after seven 'comments' were posted:

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Whereas in this case:

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there are ten! - I was a little annoyed. :(

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  • $\begingroup$ Often short incomplete questions lead to lengthy commenting sessions where the community attempts to elicit more information necessary to provide decent answers. I think we should avoid entering chat, and instead delete our comments that have been dealt with (and update the question with added information). Chats get deleted automatically after a set amount of time if there is no continued use. $\endgroup$
    – zeffii
    Jul 20, 2013 at 13:49
  • $\begingroup$ @zeffii those chats are not deleted; they are made invisible and locked after they haven't been used for some time. $\endgroup$ Jul 20, 2013 at 18:48
  • $\begingroup$ @RolandiXor, pretty much the same thing on a user-level then? $\endgroup$
    – zeffii
    Jul 20, 2013 at 18:53
  • $\begingroup$ @zeffii I'm not sure I understand that question. $\endgroup$ Jul 20, 2013 at 23:29
  • $\begingroup$ it wasn't really a question. It appears that discussions that moved over to chat may or may not be viewable after a certain period. To a user who stumbles into such dead ends it will appear that the chat no longer exists, in effect it will appear deleted. $\endgroup$
    – zeffii
    Jul 21, 2013 at 11:37

2 Answers 2

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The message that too many comments have been posted is actually partly automated. It comes up as a message to moderators (and IIRC, some users with certain privileges) suggesting to them to move the discussion to chat. Sometimes the message is ignored, hence why comments may go on longer than they should.

It is not so much of a bad message/move, just something that is done to keep the site clean as comments are second class citizens on Stack Exchange :)

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  • $\begingroup$ thanks for that, it makes me feel a lot better :) I must apologise for being so 'touchy', I am relatively new to all this 'communicating by keyboard', and I am learning! $\endgroup$
    – SteveW
    Jul 20, 2013 at 21:59
  • $\begingroup$ @SteveW that's good to hear (read) :). If this answered your question, you can mark it as answered by clicking the tick next to my answer. $\endgroup$ Jul 21, 2013 at 3:41
  • $\begingroup$ I was waiting to see if there would be any more answers, but... oh, alright, he he he. $\endgroup$
    – SteveW
    Jul 21, 2013 at 5:42
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This becomes really easy if you look at the comments as if they were going to start fading away automatically by default (let's say after a week or so). Would that be disruptive to the content of the original post, or the users who search out that information later?

Comments are supposed to be there to request clarification or suggest improvements to that post. Period. If the comments are not actively working towards integrating those improvements directly into the post, it's time for it to go.

Comments are not supposed to be used like a miniature discussion system or a personal chat room. When they start being used that way, we simply say "sorry, that is outside the purpose of this site."

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