Ask HN: What Does “* * *” Mean in Comments?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35112387

by ocimbote • 3 years ago

14 11 3 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi, as per the title, I see more and more people commenting "* * *" as their sole contribution.

What does it mean?

dpkirchner• 3 years ago

I haven't seen this. Maybe they're editing comments they can't delete because of replies?

slater2• 3 years ago

Weird, someone else was posting the same question a while back:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34694341

Maybe check your browser's addons/extensions?

joshxyz• 3 years ago

"ding ding ding" lol

PenguinCoder• 3 years ago

Weird, I see comments with the `* * *` using the app Harmonic, on Android. Like my own, here, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35115859

That's currently showing as three asterisks on Harmonic app. But loading it up in Firefox mobile, correctly shows the content.

slater2• 3 years ago

Can you give us a link to such a comment?

mtmail• 3 years ago

From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34719677 - "The software displays "* * *" when the comment is neither dead nor deleted, but the viewer doesn't have permission to see the text."

And https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34694341 - "In the future, please do as https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ask and send such questions to hn@ycombinator.com"

Leftium2• 3 years ago

Thank you! Finally got a definitive answer.

It's very hard to find these answers, as "* * *" is not indexed and cannot be used as a query on most search engines.

Perhaps a more descriptive, search-able message would be better. Like [comment delayed]

wruza2• 3 years ago

Wait… I’m using `delay` to create an “edit window” because I often spot mistakes after posting. Didn’t realize it actually shows up instead of being, well, delayed.

Edit: tested it on this comment (in another private window). Observations: delay=1 is actually around 3 minutes. The comment didn’t show up until the time has passed. No * * * was observed.

Ask HN: What Does “* * *” Mean in Comments?

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