Other times I want to get a summary of a new topic so I will find an applicable subreddit and sort by top from the last year to get an idea of what is interesting for this community.
As the saying goes, work is done for those who pay for it. When I, like you, write comments on sites like these I am the one paying for it. I derive entertainment value for the cost I am sinking, so I find it to be an acceptable trade, but beyond that small window the entertainment is over and the value of what was produced is gone. To keep it around beyond that is just hoarding data.
I can appreciate that one might find value in feeling like they are helping out a greater community by allowing others to read their work. I commend those who see that value. But even that seems fleeting. If your work disappeared without you noticing, the value derived from that would not be lost. It is not the perpetual existence of the data that provides that value.
Although, I think the greater question here is: What value is there in allowing a for-profit company like Reddit to get rich selling the work you paid for?
That's exactly why they put in dirty hacks to defend against this.
Reddit depends on all the old content because it's indexed by search engines. People add "Reddit" when they search and then they navigate to the site. Old content brings in visitors.
I'd rather not get harrased from old comments in arguments I long forgotten about. Because some redditors will stalk you that persistently. I just don't want to bother to begin with.
If that cost some useful advice, I apologize. Rotten apples and all that.
Also comments don't rot on the internet, nothing is ever "past its prime". Why do you think comments lose value to other people? In fact, there's quite likely a long tail of future users who would benefit, who are even larger than the short tail of people in the current 24h.
Although, of course, what you say about money is true. In fact, I can see from my not deleted HN history that I wrote that money is just an IOU only three days ago. I guess there is some value in being able to look back on my work! But is it value enough?
Human nature is to be transactional. If I offer you my time to write a comment for you, I am going to expect something in return. That in return could be nothing more than the smile you give me when you read it. It doesn't have to be some elaborate, grandiose thing, but there has to be some kind of payment or one will quickly sour to the ordeal.
If I were to write for you now, what would you give me in return? I suspect nothing because there is nothing of value I could offer you with my writing. Conversely, I offer you nothing. Will you write something for me? I expect not. Why would you?
you're not making the best case yourself. You'd be the person coming that the host would spend half the party trying to separate from certain others becuase you'll just get into a huge fight over a bike shed and ruin the night for every.
A person on the internet deletes their comments. It's not that deep.
Why do you feel entitled to the work I have paid for? It is one thing if I generously offer it to you, but to expect it?
And you're going out of your way to delete something you already wrote. That's extra work for you. Why do you hate the future users who might find value?
Other people don't enter the picture. There is no hate towards them, they simply don't exist in the sphere the comments are created in. It is a false premise to think that they are involved.
It would be easier to write them and then close the tab before hitting the button to post them. If you truly only derive value from writing them and none from anybody reading them.
And then it still "costs" you to delete them, by your logic. What is the value you get from that? If it's not from a desire to remove value for others, which you claim it isn't?
The forum software which outputs those silly outputs does provide value. For instance, Reddit and I established an agreement where if I pay even more of my time to look at their ads, which gives them value, they will provide me with those silly outputs, which I find valuable. It has been a mutually beneficial trade.
Should the cost of using Reddit go higher, as it seems it will, then the calculator will come out and I will have to determine if the cost is still in line with the benefit. With only 10% of the value coming from there, there isn't a whole lot room for them to play with, especially when you have HN graciously offering essentially the same service for a much lower cost.
I still don't understand why you delete them afterwards when that takes effort. That has a cost, and it negatively impacts others.
It is quite possible that those outputs originate from people, but there is nothing in the service to indicate that they do come from people. They could just as easily come from a cleverly designed random number generator (think GPT). There is no real way for me to really know for sure, and it really makes no difference so long as I am sufficiently entertained by the silliness of the software outputs.
Such implementation details are well beyond my concern and not a part of the value being exchanged between me and Reddit. As they say in the world of software, "nobody cares that you used language X". While the developers writing the software may find value in "X", it makes no difference to the end user. The same applies here.
Cleaning out your fridge takes effort. I have never been happy any time I have relaxed on those efforts, though. While I am sure there is someone starving in the world that would enjoy the food about to be tossed, that does not provide sufficient reason to hoard that which is past its prime.
Deleting your comments provides no benefit. Comments don't take up space of yours. And comments don't rot.
There must be a reason you're deleting comments, but it's doesn't make sense that it's because of a flawed fridge analogy.
There's no "foul stench" of comments more than a day old, that's nonsensical.
You're obviously under no legal obligation to leave your comments up, but it's simply not playing nice with others.
I'm not going to comment here any more but I sincerely hope you're able to think about this. And take in the fact that there are actual real-life people having a conversation with you. We're not "software". And you might have a more rewarding experience online if you're able to take that in. Good luck.
There very well could be people involved, but that is just an implementation detail hidden from the user. These services only present arbitrary characters of faceless and unknown origin. What lies beneath is a mystery. Which, in fairness, is a lot of the appeal. Going outside will always provide a better experience for when you want to involve other people! We come here because we want to spend some time away from other people to collect our own thoughts just for ourselves.
The foul stench is the continued silliness that persists after the entertainment is over. The design of HN is not so bad for this, but Reddit will put it right in your face if it has more to output. Once the entertainment is over, it's too much. I don't care. Silly is only entertaining for a short period of time and needs to end when that time has elapsed.