I think downvoting things to minus infinity is almost always better than deleting them. (One exception is purging all content posted by new users banned for spam/nonsense.) A warning before temporary suspension of posting privileges if it’s not heeded should be equally effective where a comment would normally be deleted as discouragement from further engagement in some current drama.
I do not necessarily disagree with you, but I’d like to request that discussions of whether it’s acceptable to delete comments, or to allow post authors to delete comments, etc., to be kept out of this discussion. My purpose here is just to establish whether this specific thing I am asking about is acceptable or not—I am taking site policy for granted right now.
I think downvoting things to minus infinity is almost always better than deleting them. (One exception is purging all content posted by new users banned for spam/nonsense.) A warning before temporary suspension of posting privileges if it’s not heeded should be equally effective where a comment would normally be deleted as discouragement from further engagement in some current drama.
I do not necessarily disagree with you, but I’d like to request that discussions of whether it’s acceptable to delete comments, or to allow post authors to delete comments, etc., to be kept out of this discussion. My purpose here is just to establish whether this specific thing I am asking about is acceptable or not—I am taking site policy for granted right now.