What's the reason for the empty comments, lately?

In the last few weeks, I frequently see some empty comments. It's just the username and no text beneath.

Is there a deeper reason behind this? Do people nowadays strip away the text instead of deleting a comment? Or did some script surface that 'makes the internet forget'? First I thought people did this before deleting a comment and the deletion just didn't get federated. But I scrolled through some older posts and they also still have comments like that, so that can't be it. Right?

Can anyone educate me?

asm_x86 ,

rufus OP ,

It's a hashtag. Pretty much invisible but I can still see it.

ArcaneSlime ,

I had a comment removed from c/veganscomplaining or whatever their community is that showed up like that when they censored it.

rufus OP ,

Well that shouldn't happen. I guess it's technically possible because I can also change my own comments and they're not signed or anything... But changing other people's comments is kind if lying and being disingenuous. Either it's a technical issue, or your comment was so offensive that it warranted an exception to the rule, or the mods/admins don't know what is right and what is wrong.

ArcaneSlime ,

Nah it wasn't that bad, like I didn't say slurs or anything but I did say some pretty non-vegan shit lmao so I get it. Still though that may be why some posts are blank, I doubt I'm the only one.

mtchristo ,

Are you using the eternity app ?

Cause I have noticed deleted comments showing up as blank. While on the web version the show up as "deleted by Creator"

rufus OP ,

Yes. I have like 3 different apps but I regularly use Eternity. I think you're right and a decent part if it is Eternity. Like half of the empty messages show up in other apps or the web interface. But not all of them. I don't quite think it's just deleted messages. Some others are definitely there and also don't show up in Eternity... Maybe it's a combination of factors. Honestly I didn't quite pay attention when I was using which app. I'm still trying to figure it out. But this definitely seems to be part of it.

CoffeeJunkie ,

Sometimes when I'm randomly banned from speaking for no good reason at all, I test to see if I'm still banned by typing 'A' & deleting it. This account has been muted for a week & it looks like it's finally lifted. For now.

My stuff still shows up as 'deleted by creator'. I've noticed the blanks, too. I use Sync for Lemmy.

rufus OP ,

Hmmh. I guess Lemmy should display that kind of information more prominently. But there isn't much progress UI wise... Guess you could just look it up in the modlog. Or do it like that 😆 Thanks for the report anyways.

aodhsishaj ,
whotookkarl ,
@whotookkarl@lemmy.world avatar 
         ****
Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

If I delete my post/comment, I first edit it to be blank because it can take way more time to actually delete the post/comment than just editing it. They'll appear as just a completely blank post (not even any unicode spaces or weird shit like that). I started doing this after seeing other users doing the same for the reason I mentioned.

rufus OP ,

Ah, thanks. Maybe there's a few people like that out there.

whotookkarl ,
@whotookkarl@lemmy.world avatar

I usually replace it with a period to try to make it easier to differentiate from posts that were only an image that didn't load

Kolanaki ,
@Kolanaki@yiffit.net avatar

Is it just blank on the website? The apps I use at least have the decency to put a "broken jpg" icon as a stand-in when an image doesn't work.

whotookkarl ,
@whotookkarl@lemmy.world avatar

I'm using sync and if an image post doesn't load i see an error, but if a comment with just an image doesn't load it just looks like a blank comment. I've checked the site a few times and usually the image loads on the site, or if you touch the blank post where an image would be and sometimes that gets it to show up.

downpunxx , (edited )
@downpunxx@fedia.io avatar

there's a gif here, if you can see it [posted from fedia.io mbin]

4z01235 ,

I can't see any gif, using Boost.

Chozo ,
@Chozo@fedia.io avatar

For some reason, attachments to comments posted from Kbin/Mbin don't seem to appear for Lemmy users.

andrew_s ,
@andrew_s@piefed.social avatar

'Bin follows the same format as Mastodon for inline images, which is different from Lemmy.
Mastodon puts the details for an inline image inside an 'attachment' field, with nothing in the 'content' fields, whereas Lemmy doesn't use an 'attachment' field at all for them, and includes the HTML for img src in the content.
It's always been the case that Mastodon didn't show images from Lemmy comments. I don't know if the reverse is a new thing or if it's always been like that.

mozz ,
@mozz@mbin.grits.dev avatar

Isn't ActivityPub a wonderful protocol

e-five , (edited )
@e-five@kbin.run avatar

I don't know if the reverse is a new thing or if it's always been like that.

Here's a comment in a lemmy issue describing mastodon images not appearing in lemmy from last year. Since the issue was closed three days after 0.19.3 released I had expected it to work in the next version 0.19.4, but it appears that was not the case.

Edit: While I'm here, I noticed piefed also doesn't support it, so was considering opening an issue to support attachments, but I imagine there wouldn't be much desire to do so until mastodon integration is more of a real thing? though I think other software does it, like Plemora/Akkoma/Iceshrimp, I didn't check but did see the code for it being discussed for plemora at least

andrew_s ,
@andrew_s@piefed.social avatar

Re: your edit - please feel free to open an Issue for PieFed about it. It's MBIN content in Lemmy's communities, so it's something that needs attention (we should show it, even if Lemmy doesn't). I'll have a crack at fixing it next time I'm working on the code.

KoboldCoterie ,
@KoboldCoterie@pawb.social avatar

Can't see it on desktop web.

mozz ,
@mozz@mbin.grits.dev avatar

The procedure I use for posting from Mbin is:

  • Try to just attach direct from the source with ![](https://whatever)
  • If that doesn’t work, attach the image to the message and save
  • And then edit the message and insert the self hosted image using that same markdown

Thus it’ll show on both mbin and Lemmy.

MelastSB ,
MelastSB ,

An empty quote seems to work, at least on sync

mihnt ,
@mihnt@lemmy.ca avatar

I can see the character it creates from Firefox flatpak.

rufus OP ,

Yeah, that's a bracket but very close to being invisible.

altima_neo ,
@altima_neo@lemmy.zip avatar

Same. I've gotten a few replies with a blank comment. It's weird.

rufus OP ,

Fair enough. At least I'm not getting crazy...

Bishma ,
@Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

I haven't noticed this. I'll keep my eyes peeled though. We're both on tchncs so if it's a replication thing we should both see it.

I use Alexandrite as my frontend if it turns out that it matters.

neme ,
@neme@lemm.ee avatar

Probably same reason as here: https://lemm.ee/post/35007837

rufus OP ,

Hmmh, not sure. I think broken images show up with some character. But that post also has one comment that shows empty in one App and text plus a picture on a different App. I think I need some time and figure out what it does on the computer.

aodhsishaj ,
originalucifer , (edited )
@originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

hmmmm ive seen image-only comments viewed like this on lemmy when sent from non-lemmy platforms

example .

originalucifer ,
@originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar
downpunxx ,
@downpunxx@fedia.io avatar

i can see it from fedia.io (mbin)

rufus OP ,

that's empty.

JetpackJackson ,

Empty here too.

bionicjoey ,

Empty for me on Jerboa

gravitas_deficiency ,

Empty when viewing from Voyager

jadedwench ,

Empty on Sync.

Kalcifer ,
@Kalcifer@sh.itjust.works avatar

Empty on Thunder.

Zak ,
@Zak@lemmy.world avatar

This comment does not show an image when viewed on lemmy.world. The image is also missing viewed on lemm.ee. The original Mastodon post does have an image.

downpunxx ,
@downpunxx@fedia.io avatar

curiously, i can see images in both the lemmy.world and lemm.ee post links you included in your comment (as well as the image from the og mastodon post). the originals must have been posted from kbin or mbin instances since i'm using fedia.io which is an mbin instance

shinigamiookamiryuu ,

They're like the dragon scroll, they reflect as much of your true destiny as you're able to see in yourself.

scottmeme ,

Are you able to read this text?

I haven't seen any issues on jerboa

rufus OP ,

Sure. I can read 99% of the comments normally. Thx I'm gonna try Jerboa again and see if I can reproduce it.

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