Deleting posts

[EEVblog]

now, i cant recall for sure, as i usually just skim at best, then just click ok, but from what ive seen, most message boards as a part of the user agreement you agree to when signing up specifically states that once something is posted, it becomes property of you give full rights to that information to the board. im just curious if the user agreement here has something like that in it?

Nope!
There are just some rules about playing nice.
But I should update this to state that it's not my data, and you may chose to remove it at any time.

[liquibyte]

I want to apologize to everyone here and explain why I've edited my above post.  What I did and what I said were harsh but I believe enough of the right people have read it to get my point across.  This is why being able to edit things are a good idea and I think that Dave's stance on it are valid and justified.  What you say on the net never really goes away, there's a copy somewhere always.  No one should have to live with a falsehood or an attack forever and I'll be the first to admit that I've been guilty of both in the past.

To xrunner, I apologize for doing what I did but I wanted to show you that, even with very little to go on, your life can be exposed in ways you never imagined.  I thought for quite some time before I decided to take this action and then again for longer for self censoring.  You seem to be intelligent enough to understand the consequences and repercussions of the internet and information.  Let us now be friends here or barring that, civil.

[xrunner]

To xrunner, I apologize for doing what I did but I wanted to show you that, even with very little to go on, your life can be exposed in ways you never imagined.  I thought for quite some time before I decided to take this action and then again for longer for self censoring.  You seem to be intelligent enough to understand the consequences and repercussions of the internet and information.  Let us now be friends here or barring that, civil.

Sure, let's move forward. Thanks for your input to this thread and topic.

Have a Happy New Year! 

[Fraser]

Yay ! Peace and harmony restored   

Happy New Year to all 

May we all have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2014.

[npelov]

Deleting post and deleting thread should have been 2 different options. It's issue of the forum (phpbb?). Just leave it disabled and if someone wants to delete their own post will replace it's contents with <deleted>. The info in the thread could be too valuable to be lost.

[mrflibble]

Deleting post and deleting thread should have been 2 different options. It's issue of the forum (phpbb?). Just leave it disabled and if someone wants to delete their own post will replace it's contents with <deleted>. The info in the thread could be too valuable to be lost.

Dave already made the decision to keep things as they were (both edit and delete enabled). Fine by me since things have worked well enough so far.

[Lightages]

Case in point: I responded to a request from someone about information on a brand of multimeters and when I return later to read the forum the thread was deleted by the OP. I will stop participating here if my time is wasted by assholes like that. Make it so people can't delete a thread once it is replied to or start seeing less people posting. Why waste our time?

[Fsck]

I think threads shouldn't be deletable, dunno if the forum can accommodate that though.

[mrflibble]

Case in point: I responded to a request from someone about information on a brand of multimeters and when I return later to read the forum the thread was deleted by the OP. I will stop participating here if my time is wasted by assholes like that. Make it so people can't delete a thread once it is replied to or start seeing less people posting. Why waste our time?

Care to identify the asshole in question to prevent others from wasting time?

[GeoffS]

Currently, users are not be able to delete a topic/thread unless there is only one post and it belongs to the user.

Users can delete/edit a post with the exception of the first post in a thread which cannot be deleted.

[Teneyes]

The error you get deleting the 1st post

--------------------------------------------
An Error Has Occurred!

You cannot delete your own topics in this board. Check to make sure this topic wasn't just moved to another board.
--------------------------------------------------------

Note:  I had saved the 2 posts before I try

[GeoffS]

The error you get deleting the 1st post

--------------------------------------------
An Error Has Occurred!

You cannot delete your own topics in this board. Check to make sure this topic wasn't just moved to another board.
--------------------------------------------------------

Note:  I had saved the 2 posts before I try

Thanks for the correction.

[GiskardReventlov]

Some forums have a time limit after an initial post, when the time expires the post can no longer be edited. The idea with editing is just for those cases where there are glaring typos or someone hit post instead of preview and in these cases that's something usually noticed right away.

[hammy]

Being able to delete posts, and correct errors and bad grammar helps me feel I retain some control of my online presence.

Right! This forum is not the forum software of a company who wants to maximize their shareholder value! It is not necessary to catch our posts to collect a timeline and perfect profile of our habits and arguments.

This is Dave's forum and he is very progressive and up-to-date with his understanding:

The reason I have always allowed deletion and editing because I believe that if you go to the trouble to contribute information to forum, then it's your information, and you should have the right the delete it if you so chose. I don't own your data, you do. This is not some permanent recording and archive service.
made and you can't take it back. There was no mechanism to take it back. But with digital communications (esp on a single site like this, assuming no one archives it) you do have the ability to go and take back what you said if you so desire. Should that be allowed? I think so, yes.
So I view this forum more like a noticeboard than the national archives.

Thank you!

The usage of "the internet" evolves. This includes also the usage of forum software. It is absolutely necessary that normal posts about stuff vanishes after some time. In five, ten or fifteen years it is absolutely unnecessary somebody can read my old posts about "Stealing: The double standard?"! After some time nobody can catch the sense of this discussion. (And maybe, in five or then years, I have another position about this topic.)

Statements and positions change with time. "The internet" needs the ability to forget. And a privately owned forum like this can pave the way.