Why Can't We Delete Our Posts?

[the truthseeker]

There, I wrote it.

 

 

I know many of you are asking it and I'll put a voice to it.

 

 

 

it all boils down to what the board Admins decide on what's allowed (and not, and explaining why. We'll skip the customization of forum software/conflicts for now, as that does not appear to be the case.) 

 

So I put the question out there to Klei, but it's up to them to answer, or decide not to answer which they could decide. 

 

Until then, ask a moderator via report to delete something, and use Edit on your posts until then.

 

(Ironically, this may be one of my unedited posts.) 

[Palpetinus]

Simply because it would cause confusion when people new to a specific thread read through the posts.

Imagine following scenario:

Person A starts a new thread.

Person B starts to object about A's opinion rudely/improperly/etc.

A demands B to calm down or something similar.

B realises their mistake and deletes the post, trying to undo what they did wrong.

Person C joins and reads through the first post. They now have: the original post and the creator of the thread seemingly talking to nobody. If A isn't online at the moment, more people will join and get confused as to who A is referring to.

 

The Edit function is rather essential for a forum though. If I couldn't edit out any typo I made, I would re-read everything twice to make sure it's correct.

And what you're supposed to do when you disagree with your past self by being convinced is either post agian, voiding your opinion or edit the post, strike through the post and leave a small note as to why you did that.

In short: On a forum, discussions aren't a one-time thing like in a chatroom, discussions are here to stay and should be understandable for any third person joining.

 

EDIT: I'll also mention that it's surely no technical issue. I know for certain that mods (those with the golden names) have the possibility to delete posts, they usually do that when a thread got derailed too hard.

[The Letter W]

Not enough sacrifices to JoeW.

[Maximum124]

Simply because it would cause confusion when people new to a specific thread read through the posts.

Imagine following scenario:

Person A starts a new thread.

Person B starts to object about A's opinion rudely/improperly/etc.

A demands B to calm down or something similar.

B realises their mistake and deletes the post, trying to undo what they did wrong.

Person C joins and reads through the first post. They now have: the original post and the creator of the thread seemingly talking to nobody. If A isn't online at the moment, more people will join and get confused as to who A is referring to.

 

The Edit function is rather essential for a forum though. If I couldn't edit out any typo I made, I would re-read everything twice to make sure it's correct.

And what you're supposed to do when you disagree with your past self by being convinced is either post agian, voiding your opinion or edit the post, strike through the post and leave a small note as to why you did that.

In short: On a forum, discussions aren't a one-time thing like in a chatroom, discussions are here to stay and should be understandable for any third person joining.

 

EDIT: I'll also mention that it's surely no technical issue. I know for certain that mods (those with the golden names) have the possibility to delete posts, they usually do that when a thread got derailed too hard.

 

If the person deletes, their post would be in person's A quote. It wouldnt be a problem, you can basically "delete" posts now by just going back and editing it to something different. Might as well be able to go all the way through, we were promised long ago moderation in the art section over your own threads. I know I have some stuff I really want to get rid of badly In mine just because its...yeah....but we still can't delete anything just hide posts. I'd really want this. Even if its just for my own posts.

 

[Palpetinus]

If the person deletes, their post would be in person's A quote.

 

You're forgetting that in a conversation between only two people, people often don't quote at all. Or they might be new and unfamiliar to quoting.

 

It wouldnt be a problem, you can basically "delete" posts now by just going back and editing it to something different.

 

I addressed that too. The thing is simply that if you edit it, there's a note about the editing and the post itself is still there. So a third person will conclude that B wrote something and deleted it, instead of wondering who A is talking to.

 

we were promised long ago moderation in the art section over your own threads.

 

True, I wonder why that's been delayed for so long, or even ignored until further notice. That's besides the point though, OP is asking in general, not only about art threads.

[Maximum124]

You're forgetting that in a conversation between only two people, people often don't quote at all. Or they might be new and unfamiliar to quoting.

 

 

I addressed that too. The thing is simply that if you edit it, there's a note about the editing and the post itself is still there. So a third person will conclude that B wrote something and deleted it, instead of wondering who A is talking to.

 

 

True, I wonder why that's been delayed for so long, or even ignored until further notice. That's besides the point though, OP is asking in general, not only about art threads.

 

1: If they're not quoting that causes confusion anyway, anything could happen to the posts and people would still be confused. If I had a dime for every time someone responded to me id only have like 2 dimes because I have no idea who's trying to talk to me unless they use quotes. this is also assuming other people aren't viewing the thread at the time, there too much "what if" for this to be a solid argument.

 

What we do know

 

You can edit your posts, anytime anywhere, I could go back and change everything Ive said to just "..." and it'd be really confusing. Even with quotes stuff that went unquoted would be effectively "deleted" So we can kinda do it now, Im just saying why not all the way.

 

2: It would probably say "this post was deleted" much like the blocked or hidden posts now, Mods could probably view the posts anyway and clear things up, if people are deleting posts to cover up terrible things that they've said they need to be looked into anyway.

 

3: Im asking in addition to the OP, I'd like this in general too.

[Palpetinus]

1: If they're not quoting that causes confusion anyway, anything could happen to the posts and people would still be confused. If I had a dime for every time someone responded to me id only have like 2 dimes because I have no idea who's trying to talk to me unless they use quotes. this is also assuming other people aren't viewing the thread at the time, there too much "what if" for this to be a solid argument.

 

What we do know

 

You can edit your posts, anytime anywhere, I could go back and change everything Ive said to just "..." and it'd be really confusing. Even with quotes stuff that went unquoted would be effectively "deleted" So we can kinda do it now, Im just saying why not all the way.

 

2: It would probably say "this post was deleted" much like the blocked or hidden posts now, Mods could probably view the posts anyway and clear things up, if people are deleting posts to cover up terrible things that they've said they need to be looked into anyway.

 

3: Im asking in addition to the OP, I'd like this in general too.

 

1. Well if it's only you and OP talking, who would OP be talking to. You, of course. Which is my point, you see that quite frequently in threads of new members.

There is no "what if", since I see this happening frequently.

EDIT: forgot to mention: If you were to go back and edit everything to "...", people know you're covering something.

 

 

2. If it still says "this post was deleted", it's not been fully deleted though. The text has been, the "post" is essentially still there. I was assuming that by deleting you mean removing it fully, like mods already can. And if it leaves a message, why bother having that anyway, you can just edit it and write "-deleted-" there, would be the exact same thing as you suggest.

 

Again, keep in mind I am talking about the whole forums here, the art forums would have exceptions.

[Maximum124]

1. Well if it's only you and OP talking, who would OP be talking to. You, of course. Which is my point, you see that quite frequently in threads of new members.

There is no "what if", since I see this happening frequently.

EDIT: forgot to mention: If you were to go back and edit everything to "...", people know you're covering something.

 

 

2. If it still says "this post was deleted", it's not been fully deleted though. The text has been, the "post" is essentially still there. I was assuming that by deleting you mean removing it fully, like mods already can. And if it leaves a message, why bother having that anyway, you can just edit it and write "-deleted-" there, would be the exact same thing as you suggest.

 

Again, keep in mind I am talking about the whole forums here, the art forums would have exceptions.

 

And I dont see why not, I mean same thing so whats the difference really

[Palpetinus]

And I dont see why not, I mean same thing so whats the difference really

 

Yeah I guess fair enough. Depends on how bored @JoeW is to implement it.

Because it wouldn't be the same "deleting" as already implemented, so there would be some minor coding work to do.

 

I don't think it's by any means essential, but would be a more convenient way to void posts.

[BarovSoap]

The answer is simple: trolls

[Sporb]

And I dont see why not, I mean same thing so whats the difference really

Why not? Because it would encourage people to delete posts, which is confusing at best and trollish at worst. Obviously, I could be completely wrong here, but I think that being able to 'delete' a post by editing it is really just a side effect of allowing people to edit their posts. It's not so much intentional; it's just really difficult to get rid of without severely limiting the edit system. And, hey, maybe once in a while someone might actually have a legitimate reason to delete a post.

But, in the vast majority of cases, deleting posts is not desirable and I see no reason to make it easier and encourage people to do it.

Heck, my cynical, overly suspicious mind is already trying to guess at what sinister motives you people have for requesting the ability to delete posts, because I don't see what good it could possibly do.

[JoeW]

Generally, I don't want posts deleted at all. For the most part, the only time any post is deleted, is because it is severely offensive, or a spam post.

This is mainly for the sake of transparency and accountability issues. The ability to post and then remove the content that was posted creates all kinds of problems.

Even just somebody locking their own topic for whatever reason while others who are still using the topic are having a conversation can become a problem.

[greenglacier]

Amazing @JoeW Now I became omniscient.

[Hugo M.]

Generally, I don't want posts deleted at all. For the most part, the only time any post is deleted, is because it is severely offensive, or a spam post.

This is mainly for the sake of transparency and accountability issues. The ability to post and then remove the content that was posted creates all kinds of problems.

Even just somebody locking their own topic for whatever reason while others who are still using the topic are having a conversation can become a problem.

 But is there a reason for why artists in the art section can't mod their own threads? Or is it just some kind of bug?

Also why don't the same rules apply to status updates? Anyone can make and delete their statuses (and/or posts on a status) at any time, and I've never seen someone using that feature for trolling and rarely causes any kind of problems.

[Snob]

 But is there a reason for why artists in the art section can't mod their own threads? Or is it just some kind of bug?

I've been waiting for a response about this issue (for quite some time), but JoeW still hasn't said anything about this. It's actually a big problem for artists and I'm disappointed that it hasn't been fixed yet.

[Palpetinus]

Generally, I don't want posts deleted at all. For the most part, the only time any post is deleted, is because it is severely offensive, or a spam post.

This is mainly for the sake of transparency and accountability issues. The ability to post and then remove the content that was posted creates all kinds of problems.

Even just somebody locking their own topic for whatever reason while others who are still using the topic are having a conversation can become a problem.

 

That's pretty much what I tried to say.

 

Also Joedoubleyou, I've seen posts deleted that simply slightly derailed a finished topic. Last time that was in the Invisinc forums about the DirectX issue, I think. Someone asked a question, question got answered in the first answer and then there was nothing to talk about so it slowly derailed to discussing things distantly related to the OP.

I'm not saying I've had all my childhood memories in that thread and you ruined my life by deleting it, but I still don't think that was spam.

[RustyNayle]

Isn't the Truthseeker talking about actually deleting the whole post, not just deleting an individual comment?

[Morgan17]

Isn't the Truthseeker talking about actually deleting the whole post, not just deleting an individual comment?

[NetflixAndChill]

And changing username! There's even a name history button.

[Derpime]

I would rather just keep my head chill when i am in an argument. Or when i read my own posts and find it offensive to some extent. I will do like this:

[Deleted post, you don't want to know what it was].

 

And yes, Truthseeker was talking about deleting the entire post, not just the text. And again, people are typing behind their keyboards, rage won't do anything, so chilllllllllll.......

[Palpetinus]

There's even a name history button.

Probably there because the forums are from a template (chucklefish uses the same I believe), so it was just left there and was not removed.