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Let's say I paste a comment URL such as:

https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/100303/what-are-christian-responses-to-graham-oppys-argument-for-atheism-from-naturali#comment284517_100303

into a chatroom, which is automatically expanded into the comment text (including any markdown), i.e., "oneboxing".

If the comment is later deleted, what will happen to the comment text in the chatroom? Will it show something like "(comment deleted)" or nothing will happen (i.e., everything is retained)?

I found an FAQ about oneboxing links, but it's not 100% clear on what happens when the URL referent is deleted later. It only says (emphasis added):

Stack Exchange sites: Home pages, questions, answers, users, and comments (except for deleted things)

Can the FAQ answer be updated to answer my question here?

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    I tested this. If you delete the comment you oneboxed elsewhere, the onebox persists. Possibly it gets the information from the history or it's simply copied over.
    – Mast
    Commented Mar 6 at 17:37
  • @Mast Thanks. I should have tested this myself as well. But still, I thought posting a Q to meta may be useful for later visitors asking the same question. Maybe someone (who also look at the code for chat) can confirm and then update the FAQ to clarify the exact behavior when something is later deleted?
    – GratefulDisciple
    Commented Mar 6 at 17:54

1 Answer 1

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The FAQ has now been edited by Makyen to add in the following text, which I later refined:

Are oneboxes updated if the resource behind them is changed or removed?

No. Once created, oneboxes are static, not dynamic. The HTML for the onebox is rendered at the time the chat message containing the onebox is posted or edited, and is stored in the database along with the chat message's source text. Later changes to the oneboxed resource will not affect the onebox unless the message is edited, which will trigger the onebox to be re-rendered (or not rendered if the resource that's being oneboxed has been deleted).

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    From one programmer to another, this is the kind of concise whitebox behavior description that should satisfy any technical SE user.
    – GratefulDisciple
    Commented Mar 6 at 20:09

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