From https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34719677 - "The software displays "* * *" when the comment is neither dead nor deleted, but the viewer doesn't have permission to see the text."

And https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34694341 - "In the future, please do as https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ask and send such questions to hn@ycombinator.com"

Thank you! Finally got a definitive answer.

It's very hard to find these answers, as "* * *" is not indexed and cannot be used as a query on most search engines.

Perhaps a more descriptive, search-able message would be better. Like [comment delayed]

Wait… I’m using `delay` to create an “edit window” because I often spot mistakes after posting. Didn’t realize it actually shows up instead of being, well, delayed.

Edit: tested it on this comment (in another private window). Observations: delay=1 is actually around 3 minutes. The comment didn’t show up until the time has passed. No * * * was observed.

Yes, however I got this: https://imgur.com/a/Nlf6tox

When I followed the links, HN showed your pre-edit comment.

I swear I've seen "* * *" on HN, but maybe it was just on hw.leftium.com and any other clients of the HN API.

Interesting, I’ve never seen that. Reading HN since circa 2012, but it feels like delay > 0 should be rare enough. Maybe the author of that app (or is it a mailing list?) would be interested in researching what hn’s js itself does in this case. Maybe delay was just “slapped on top” like we all sometimes do :)

P.s. I edited the comment above somewhat later after tinkering, so if you received a notification and followed it quickly enough, it was expected that I was too slow to post an update. I don’t think there’s another issue here.

Also, just as an idea how it may happen. I was thinking about how you go to comments from this app. If you follow a “context” link, the page may not yet contain the #hash and may simply omit the comment. But if you follow a “reply” link, aka “time ago”, HN itself may have no choice but to show three stars until the delay is over.

i sometimes see these in HNReplies to my submissions or comments.

I haven't seen this. Maybe they're editing comments they can't delete because of replies?

Weird, someone else was posting the same question a while back:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34694341

Maybe check your browser's addons/extensions?

Weird, I see comments with the `* * *` using the app Harmonic, on Android. Like my own, here, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35115859

That's currently showing as three asterisks on Harmonic app. But loading it up in Firefox mobile, correctly shows the content.

"ding ding ding" lol

Can you give us a link to such a comment?