Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - QUESTION Why can't we delete our own posts?

Cynthetiq · 10-31-2009, 02:40 PM

Thanks woods for the reminder. Since i couldn't remember and this was bugging me since I read it this morning, so I looked it up.

You can make that change, but again, I will cite acid boarding that people do. There have been people from time to time, who have decided that they didn't want their posts to be here anymore and would edit ever single post they had with ... I've seen it done with members who have had over 1,000 posts. It really fucks up the threads into incoherent piles of poo, especially if they were very active in the thread.

If they could have deleted them they would have. IMO that's not fair to the rest of the community.

Now, we've been using vbulletin since version 2.2, so there's a lot of backend baggage that still haunts us from all the updates and versions.

But the short answer for me is that I'm not a fan of it, there's only few cases where I think that deleting a post make sense, but even then, one should be more responsible and think before they press the submit button. Deleted posts of users also do not come up in searches, so if a person becomes a problem member, flames people and deletes them, we'll not really know about it as easily. A standing post even if it is edited can be reported and because of post edit history (something very new in vb software) we can see what was edited out. None of that is really searchable, meaning I cannot search for deleted posts of a user, nor can I search to see what posts they edited.

I have from time to time had to research long time members here, and it's a pain in the ass. When there was no post edit history I was luck that sometimes people quoted the offensive material. Had they had the ability to delete their posts, would have made it easier for them to cover their tracks.

---------- Post added at 06:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:56 PM ----------

I just remember something else. We historically have not deleted threads or posts. This is because we've had to rebuild the forum from backups, and when having to do recalculations of threads and posts, if you don't have the posts, well you can't count them.

Even rexed TB posts were not deleted, they were just moved out of the community view.

10-31-2009, 02:40 PM	#7 (permalink)
Cynthetiq Tilted Cat Head Administrator Location: Manhattan, NY	Thanks woods for the reminder. Since i couldn't remember and this was bugging me since I read it this morning, so I looked it up. You can make that change, but again, I will cite acid boarding that people do. There have been people from time to time, who have decided that they didn't want their posts to be here anymore and would edit ever single post they had with ... I've seen it done with members who have had over 1,000 posts. It really fucks up the threads into incoherent piles of poo, especially if they were very active in the thread. If they could have deleted them they would have. IMO that's not fair to the rest of the community. Now, we've been using vbulletin since version 2.2, so there's a lot of backend baggage that still haunts us from all the updates and versions. But the short answer for me is that I'm not a fan of it, there's only few cases where I think that deleting a post make sense, but even then, one should be more responsible and think before they press the submit button. Deleted posts of users also do not come up in searches, so if a person becomes a problem member, flames people and deletes them, we'll not really know about it as easily. A standing post even if it is edited can be reported and because of post edit history (something very new in vb software) we can see what was edited out. None of that is really searchable, meaning I cannot search for deleted posts of a user, nor can I search to see what posts they edited. I have from time to time had to research long time members here, and it's a pain in the ass. When there was no post edit history I was luck that sometimes people quoted the offensive material. Had they had the ability to delete their posts, would have made it easier for them to cover their tracks. ---------- Post added at 06:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:56 PM ---------- I just remember something else. We historically have not deleted threads or posts. This is because we've had to rebuild the forum from backups, and when having to do recalculations of threads and posts, if you don't have the posts, well you can't count them. Even rexed TB posts were not deleted, they were just moved out of the community view. __________________ I don't care if you are black, white, purple, green, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, hippie, cop, bum, admin, user, English, Irish, French, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, indian, cowboy, tall, short, fat, skinny, emo, punk, mod, rocker, straight, gay, lesbian, jock, nerd, geek, Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent, driver, pedestrian, or bicyclist, either you're an asshole or you're not. What's the best nation in the world? DO-NATION!