Sorry for appealing to your Sixth Sense on this one...<p>What exactly are [dead] comments on HN? I see that I have a setting to turn them on/off, but I don't understand what they are in the first place. Thanks!
you can turn the dead on or off as youve noticed.
with higher karma you can vouch comments that you are sure are not spam, or contribute in a meaningfull ["substantial"]
manner.