I assume nothing is ever deleted on the internet. Even comments you type out, but never submit are most likely saved by all websites (and if you use Windows/Mac, I'm assuming every single keystroke is sent back to the home base and saved). All of that is valuable data for future models.

what about all the people scraping HN or saving the feeds?

> what about all the people scraping HN or permanently capturing the feeds?

And what happens if someone quotes your comment?

or edits it after you quote it? :]

:)

Yes. I assume there are like 20 scampers saving everything posted in HN. Including big search companies, intelligence agencies, alternative interface projects and overenthusiastic users.

Going back to the original question:

I don't remember how HN is implemented. IIRC they are still using text files instead of databases. I'll assume they just mark it as deleted, not a hard delete, but I'm a bit paranoiac. Even if it's deleted, I don't think the swipe the hard disk, or all the backups and old machines that have the last year version, or ...

Anyway, if someone makes a huge mistake, they can email the mods and they may try to take a look and perhaps hide or delete it. Anyway, contacting the 20 scrapers may be more difficult.