Comment on [deleted by author] by dickie

dickie · 5/29/2026, 5:27:14 AM · permalink

# Lessons Learned Trying To Delete My Entire Comment History

Is there was a way to bulk-delete my own comments? The answer turned out to be "sort of."

I got a JavaScript deletion script to work partially several times, but the biggest lesson was that deleting an entire comment history is not as simple as finding every delete button and clicking it.

I was not trying to access anything I couldn't already access. I was simply trying to automate the same actions I could perform manually on my own profile:

```text
Go to my profile
Click Comments
Click Delete
Confirm
Scroll
Repeat
```

The first step was inspecting the page and finding the actual HTML for the delete button and the Comments tab. Once I had the real HTML, I could give it to AI and ask for a script that interacted with those specific elements.

That worked much better than asking:

```text
Make me a script to delete all my comments.
```

The real challenge turned out to be page state.

The script could often delete one comment successfully. Then the site would reload part of the page, switch tabs, unload comments, stop exposing delete buttons, or otherwise change what the script was looking at.

In other words, the page kept moving underneath the script.

The other complication was infinite scroll. Comments were not all loaded at once. The script had to:

```text
Click Comments
Look for delete buttons
Delete one
Confirm
Click Comments again
Scroll
Wait
Look again
Repeat
```

That "click Comments again" step turned out to be surprisingly important.

One useful thing I learned was that AI works much better when you provide the actual page details:

```text
The delete button HTML.
The Comments tab HTML.
What happens after a delete.
Whether there is a popup.
Whether the page uses infinite scroll.
Console output.
```

Once AI had those details, the scripts became much more accurate.

Another lesson is to test pieces separately.

Don't start with a giant deletion loop.

Start by confirming:

```text
Can the script find the Comments tab?
Can the script find a delete button?
Can it delete one comment?
Can it handle the popup?
Can it return to Comments afterward?
```

Only after those pieces work should you try to automate the whole process.

One issue I did **not** have to deal with was blocked users.

There are reports that deleting comments can become more complicated if someone involved in a thread has blocked you. Comments may not display normally, the thread may not load correctly, or delete controls may behave differently.

Since I never encountered that situation during testing, none of my scripts accounted for it.

The final takeaway is this:

```text
Deleting one visible comment with JavaScript is easy.

Deleting an entire comment history from a modern web app with tabs,
confirmation dialogs, dynamic page updates, and infinite scroll
is the hard part.
```

The approach that worked best was not treating the page like a database.

It was treating the page like a person would:

```text
Go to Comments.
Look around.
Delete one.
Confirm.
Go back to Comments.
Scroll.
Look again.
Repeat.
```

I never got a perfect one-click solution before my post history was gone, so I couldn't keep refining it.

Still, for anyone trying something similar, the biggest piece of advice is simple:

**Give the AI the actual HTML and actual console output.**

That ended up being far more useful than asking for a generic deletion script.

9 bumps

braven · 5/29/2026, 4:58:08 PM · permalink

3 bumps

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