I see a lot of substantive comments that are grey; quite often there are dead comments that seem pretty good too.

I'll try to keep my eyes open and vouch/upvote those.

Do you get the option to vouch? I'm at >26k karma and still don't have the vouch option, which leads me to believe it's been turned off for my user.

It’s only visible in the individual comment view (like the flag link) iirc, and it’s only available for dead (not just flagged) comments. For example, I have a vouch link available for this comment:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16439776

You might want to shoot the mods an email to check the if there’s something particular with your account.

Ah yes, you have to click the [X hours ago] link and directly flag/vouch from that page.

Otherwise it's not an option on the normal comment page.

Thanks for clarifying.

See this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16440450

You need to click the [x time ago] link to see the flag/vouch option.

Checked it out. No vouch link. Thanks for mentioning it though.

EDIT: The post was dead at the time I checked, but it's possible it still shows as dead after it has been deleted, which I assume removes the vouch option.

It only shows up when the post is dead.

It's possible I'm mistaken then. My apologies. I did not intend for my suggestion to be perceived as a punitive measure had been taken ("which leads me to believe it's been turned off for my user").