I made a post yesterday about how internet memes are reframing women leaders in US politics in a positive light. A initial kneejerk comment about Hillary Clinton turned into an off-topic derail. I flagged the comments, and the mod dropped a note but didn't delete. I followed up through the contact form & was told simply that they'd remove any further responses (but the comments already there were left up).Is the concern here about removing a comment that's already been up for a little while and responded to? Since there were a lot of favorites on comments & the mod note pushing back against the first comment, I could easily make the assumption that MeFites are probably fine with comments of that type being removed even in that circumstance.There's been many discussions about how kneejerk comments at the top of threads (particularly about women's issues & other more-sensitive topics - but just in general too) are discouraging & offputting to both posters and other commenters. A substantial portion of the comments in that thread yesterday ended up being off-topic to the post and my impression is that was exacerbated by the initial threadshits not being deleted. (I do feel early comments in a thread absolutely affect the tone of a comment thread.)Would it help if we had a community consensus that we're fine with clearly over-the-line comments being deleted no matter how long they've been up or how much response they've gotten - instead of being left to stink up a thread, cause negative feelings, and take up mod time in pruning the derails?Do we have a clear community consensus that we're fine with comments like that being deleted?