The software displays "* * *" when the comment is neither dead nor deleted, but the viewer doesn't have permission to see the text. The most common case* of this is when the commenter has 'delay' set to something more than 0 in their profile, and their delay period hasn't expired yet. That's why it goes away eventually. (Re 'delay', see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.)

You guys should really ask these questions in the right place! "possible cover-up", sheesh - I know it's fun to imagine sinister goings on but wouldn't you just rather find out?

* maybe the only case - it should maybe say [delayed] but I think there might be obscure corner cases

Edit: this is fixed now... I think.

Have you emailed dang with the details? I doubt anyone here would be able to add anything useful as only Daniel would have visibility into whatever is causing the behavior you are witnessing.

    [email protected]

I also see those (mostly when using hnreplies.com, but always from the same posters.

I assume it's because they have written something they wish they hadn't, and while they are drafting a new comment they are replacing the original comment with that placeholder.

Just my assumption, no inside info.

(The earlier flagging was obnoxious, but your over-the-top accusatory style will certainly garner flags, as well)

> He was flagged and his post deleted

You can see flagged posts by enabling showdead=yes in your profile. It's not deleted. It's good that you as second person saw the "**" posts and thanks for adding more detail. Might indeed be something with firebase API. The mystery won't be solved by second guessing the cause though. Best way forward is if you email the moderators (link in footer) and provide examples to further debug.

Damn my guy, you replied to the above referenced post as well! Is you a well AI? On top of the showdead tip, would love to know more about how you've tamed the floodwaters of the HN firehose.