[nindalf]

Deletion of posts and comments is a thorny issue. Why does HN not allow deletion of individual comments? It seems like a perfectly valid use case - you don't want to delete your entire account, just a few comments that contain PII or or any other reason.

Facebook allows this. So does twitter, reddit and every single other website that allows posts and comments from users. Why doesn't HN?

In fact, how do I delete my HN account at all? This isn't visible in the settings page, as far as I can tell.

[johnisgood]

Someone might quote your comment as well upon replying. Should we delete the comment after yours which may or may not contain something you wanted to delete? Should we delete the entire thread? If not, would it not get confusing quickly, as in many cases we would have no idea to what the comments are responding?

[gowld]

HN is a chitchat site, not StackExchange. It doesn't need permanent archival of full-fidelity conversations.

[ryandrake]

If you email the mods politely, they will remove a post of your own if you request it. I’ve done it. It’s not spelled out in the rules but that’s apparently how you can do it.

I’ve always wondered if they’d cooperate if I asked them to mass-delete all of my posts, in case I ever became a politician.