Deleting your OWN posts and threads

[Beat Shock 581]

Is there ever something that you post and regret posting? A lot of them say: "What you post on the internet, it will be there forever". Can we at least try to prevent that with our replies, and make it so we could delete posts we've made in threads?

 

Sometimes, I post things when I'm tired, and not thinking straight. Sometimes, I post things that I wish I hadn't said, or things I didn't mean to say. Only if there was a way we could delete our own posts we made to topics, just like we could delete status updates and comments.

 

Also, it would be nice if we could lock or delete our own threads, (Ones that weren't well thought out, or not worthy of discussion) because when topics are locked by a mod or admin, they are still visible to other members, and the topic poster can't apologize or clear up a few mistakes because they can't reply to their locked topic.

 

I might know why we wouldn't put a "delete" option in our posts and threads, but I'm not sure. (maybe it makes it so people could delete bad posts they made before the mods see them?)

 

Maybe others have asked this, but one thing for sure, I know I've wanted to suggest this for a while.

[Evilshy 5,090]

I've asked the same question myself. The answer given by the higher ups is that it makes you think more about what you post. A lesser reason being that people may have already replied, stupid and regrettable as your post may have been, and it'd be rude to just take away whatever they were replying to.

Personally, I'm in two minds about this. I can see why it's a good idea, but on the flip side, I think most people are like me, in that they only post stuff they'd want to delete when pissed off or not thinking clearly for some reason, so the whole "think more about what you post" isn't as relevant. Of course, if you're like me, you post what's on your mind and if anybody else doesn't like it they can deal with it.

 

As for threads, similar reasons, except that it's also bad to just up and delete/lock a thread that some people may be interested in, worse than just a single reply, as locking/deleting just kills all the discussion right there. I do agree with this.

 

However, if you want something of yours deleted or locked, just report it yourself and give the reason why. As long as it's a decent reason, the staff will probably do it for you

[NavelColt 22,879]

Be careful about what you write on the Internet, and try not to write things that you would later feel the need to remove. Even if you remove it, you will leave many traces of the content behind: your post would really only be "hidden" - ie. removed from public view but still in our database, anyone following the topic will probably have a copy of it in their email account, it is probably going to stay in Google's cache for a few days, the Internet Archive might have picked it up, and it may have propagated through as many as ten backups across two separate datacentres.

 

My staff and I will usually check the revision history of any post that has been edited to be "blank" and restore an earlier version of it if we find that it contained perfectly legitimate content (which it often does).

 

In my past experience with giving users the power to delete their own posts, it has been abused to the point of rendering the system detrimental to the overall health of topics. If you absolutely must have a post removed, report it and explain exactly why you want it removed in your report description.

~Add the ability to delete posts.

 

This has been asked time and time again, really. The staff are active, reasonable and freely capable of deleting content for you. That's not to say we'll do so for no reason; being responsible for what you post is something everyone should be conscious of.

[Beat Shock 581]

Ok, thank you very much!

 

I see why we wouldn't have that option now, and I also agree with the "report yourself" idea. I never knew about this...

 

Yet again, thanks for answering my question!

[FedoraMemes 582]

I have thought about this before, and have come to the conclusion that it's not the best idea, because either way, people will already see it, so even if you remove it, people could still have seen it, and it also encourages you to make better posts, and think about the quality of the content you post.

 

If you find a mistake in your post, you can always edit that part out.