[bruce343434]

That is interesting, perhaps a synchronisation error? As if the actual comment wasn't available yet but the email already got sent.

[Leftium]

I don't think it's just an HN Replies email thing. I've seen "* * *" in actual HN comment threads, too.

And I've seen it in 100% of your replies to me, when I've never seen it for other replies. So I wonder if it's related to how you use HN

[__ryan__]

This is definitely solely an HN Replies thing.

[Leftium]

This is the first time I've seen it in my HN Replies, but I have seen "* * *" before on https://news.ycombinator.com/. I even saw another comment asking about this type of comment.

[__ryan__]

Do you have any HN-related extensions installed?

Edit: I truly did not believe you, but it appears to maybe be the “delay” feature [0]. Users with a delay set might show the asterisks until the delay passes.

My apologies.

0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=231024