Can we start *really* deleting posts, please?

[McHaggis]

We've all seen it before, someone posts something off-topic, the thread derails and all the replies to that post are deleted along with it. After reading through page 24 of the 3DS Homebrew Channel thread, I just think it's gone too far. There is a total of 11 trashed posts on that page, leaving 4 remaining (assuming 15 posts per page). Arguably, the entire page adds very little to the thread and could be skipped entirely.

'Deleted' posts are wasting valuable page real-estate and bandwidth as well as unnecessarily increasing page counts, and don't seem to serve any purpose beyond telling the poster why it was deleted ― something that could be easily done with a private message/notification.

Can we nuke this feature, pretty please?

Edit: the referenced thread has had all of the deleted posts hidden now. Thanks VA.

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

@[member='Vulpes Abnocto'], your idea of disapproving posts sounds interesting. Are disapproved posts shown to the moderators and the original poster when they return to a thread? If that's the case, most of the mechanisms are in place already and a small mod could make all deleted posts be treated like disapproved posts.

It's not an idea. It's a possibility available to us right now.
Disapproved posts are invisible to the general populace, yet are still viewable to the moderation staff and all staff members above us. This lets us cut out the crap posted by known instigators while retaining the evidence of their infractions, yet the forum at large remains unaffected. All that is required is a shift of how we on the moderation staff handle reported posts. Some of us have moved on to the unapprove method, but it's not yet an official response method.

In my opinion this should be the official response method in cases that require a deletion of three or more posts.

 

[raulpica]

Disapproved posts are invisible to the general populace, yet are still viewable to the moderation staff and all staff members above us. This lets us cut out the crap posted by known instigators while retaining the evidence of their infractions, yet the forum at large remains unaffected. All that is required is a shift of how we on the moderation staff handle reported posts. Some of us have moved on to the unapprove method, but it's not yet an official response method.

Huh, my OCD reminds me how the "unapproved" posts are just "queued for approval" and not "deleted" (we've got the regular deleted function for that) and that makes me uneasy, but that's just me I guess

Also, I like to think that entire pags of trashed posts are a sign to the the other users that the thread has already been tainted with sillyness and such, and that it should push them to be a little more considerate in their posting

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

Huh, my OCD reminds me how the "unapproved" posts are just "queued for approval" and not "deleted" (we've got the regular deleted function for that) and that makes me uneasy, but that's just me I guess

Also, I like to think that entire pages of trashed posts are a sign to the the other users that the thread has already been tainted with sillyness and such, and that it should push them to be a little more considerate in their posting

Well the thing is that (you know this as well as I do) we don't want to fully delete posts.
(we're going into the inner workings of the GBAtemp staff, now)
We want to retain evidence in all cases to refer back to if and when people kick up more of a fuss than they have before.
So full deletion actually hinders us, now. And in the future when we add more moderators to the staff it will hinder them even further. The newcomers will have no idea what events transpired in the past to bring us to our current decisions if we delete the posts completely.
Trashing posts does give us the opportunity to respond to people directly, and explain why their post was not acceptable. But after a point those trashed posts tend to jam up our otherwise (relatively) smoothly running forum.
That's why I'm pushing for the unapprove option to be made our standard operating procedure.

 

[rastsan]

I understand my perspective is invalid, but semi-deleted posts are EXTREMELY insulting, if you veer off topic a bit or someone has a trigger finger on the report button, your words get vaporized and you get a scant explanation that is so utterly VAGUE that it leaves the reason WHY you were modded up to interpretation. But I guess humiliation on top of censorship is what gbatemp is all about.

Its only insulting if you cannot accept the tiniest bit of criticism, if you have any sort of maturity you will accept the criticism - not get insulted and hopefully LEARN from the experience. When It happens on a regular basis, that is a sign that you should be paying attention to and not be insulted by. Its not humiliation, unless it directly was intended to hurt you. I have yet to see a modded post of yours that was modded specifically to demean or otherwise damage your reputation (other than in this thread, and even then, it really does look to me more like a criticism than someone trying to demean you).

I agree that excessive deleted posts quickly clutter a thread, when you get "reply to trashed post", but I think they need to stay in place to show that they were bad posts, rule violations etc.
The problem is that these posts still take up as much space as a normal post, they need to be reduced down, such as eliminating all of the user profile info but just leaving their name.

I am all for this and would suggest a general one line with a link... no pics no sig just a link in/to their name to their profile along with the reason... in telephone personal lines they have this handy feature where as the mod you just hit a button to insert the reason(s) for why your profile or message is being deleted. so "deleted for: rule 1,2,8,9 violations" where violations is a link to the rules page so if they have any questions about which rules they broke can find them there. if the reason is'n found against the rules you can then list the reason. But I have seen mods do that here so....

I understand my perspective is invalid, but semi-deleted posts are EXTREMELY insulting, if you veer off topic a bit or someone has a trigger finger on the report button, your words get vaporized and you get a scant explanation that is so utterly VAGUE that it leaves the reason WHY you were modded up to interpretation. But I guess humiliation on top of censorship is what gbatemp is all about.

You fly off the handle if your post is slightly edited, trashed with a reason, or deleted altogether. You take them all as serious personal insults. And don't even get me started on what happens if we don't immediately identify who it was that made the minor edit, trashing, or deletion.
It's like you think the whole world is out to censor your incredibly superior mind and you absolutely NEED to lash out at any and all people who might keep humanity from hearing your artistically crafted insults.

There is a difference between humiliation and censorship - that you use these words without clearly understanding their meaning is a sign yup.

My original point was about humiliation being a standard punishment. Lily then exposes my warning level. Sorry I didn't convey that clearly.

*pauses, then nods*
Alright. I see your side, now.
I can't agree with many things you say, but I can on this point.

what does your worn level have to do with humiliation? that level is there to remind you and others that whomever has that warn level has posted inappropiate material here. As in stuff that goes against the rules or is just demeaning or otherwise in-appropriate to the intention of that thread. Is it really that hard to hit the report button instead of making a post that basically is just a "response to trash post"? or even better to not post anything if what you are posting doesn't contribute in any way?

Huh, my OCD reminds me how the "unapproved" posts are just "queued for approval" and not "deleted" (we've got the regular deleted function for that) and that makes me uneasy, but that's just me I guess

Also, I like to think that entire pages of trashed posts are a sign to the the other users that the thread has already been tainted with sillyness and such, and that it should push them to be a little more considerate in their posting

Well the thing is that (you know this as well as I do) we don't want to fully delete posts.
(we're going into the inner workings of the GBAtemp staff, now)
We want to retain evidence in all cases to refer back to if and when people kick up more of a fuss than they have before.
So full deletion actually hinders us, now. And in the future when we add more moderators to the staff it will hinder them even further. The newcomers will have no idea what events transpired in the past to bring us to our current decisions if we delete the posts completely.
Trashing posts does give us the opportunity to respond to people directly, and explain why their post was not acceptable. But after a point those trashed posts tend to jam up our otherwise (relatively) smoothly running forum.
That's why I'm pushing for the unapprove option to be made our standard operating procedure.

Pages locked back in 2008 for that specific reason an entire thread of trashed posts aside from the very first post, locked due to others "trash talk".
I am all for full deletion actually. I have been considering removing certain pf my pages/threads entirely and moving everything to a blog on another site where i have the control to do exactly that - remove inappropriate posts. (also for other legal reasons, that I don't want to get on to here... as it just depresses the heck out of me...)

 

[McHaggis]

what does your worn level have to do with humiliation? that level is there to remind you and others that whomever has that warn level has posted inappropiate material here. As in stuff that goes against the rules or is just demeaning or otherwise in-appropriate to the intention of that thread. Is it really that hard to hit the report button instead of making a post that basically is just a "response to trash post"? or even better to not post anything if what you are posting doesn't contribute in any way?

yuyuyup was indicating humiliation because his warn level was publicly announced in this thread. Warn levels are otherwise private, viewable only by the member they apply to and the moderators.

 

[kthnxshwn]

shwn: That happens sometimes. I don't have to completely agree with yyy to see where he's coming from.
Most of the time I don't agree with you either, but I do see where you might be correct in some things.
Whether you want to admit it or not, we do listen to the members here.

I was more so commenting on the fact that yuyuyup explained that humiliation was the standard of punishment here and then Lily falling directly into that and becoming a pawn.

 

[rastsan]

what does your warn level have to do with humiliation? that level is there to remind you and others that whomever has that warn level has posted inappropiate material here. As in stuff that goes against the rules or is just demeaning or otherwise in-appropriate to the intention of that thread. Is it really that hard to hit the report button instead of making a post that basically is just a "response to trash post"? or even better to not post anything if what you are posting doesn't contribute in any way?

yuyuyup was indicating humiliation because his warn level was publicly announced in this thread. Warn levels are otherwise private, viewable only by the member they apply to and the moderators.

coming from the editor in chief.... hmmm again a point made for me. I can't be the only one who sees the irony here. Is the message I was trying to pass on being missed here? AN indication that the poster is posting in-appropriate material... the higher the level the more inappropriate/ more inappropriate number of posts. that the editor in chief posted that should again tell yup a very big and important message. that they posted it all should tell any others complainers something too. It really isn't humiliation. Re-read what you quoted from me when you get it you will understand.
to make it more clearly understood I will give you a hint we were talking about "warn' level.

what this has to do with deleting posts is that warn level relates to modded posts. warn level reflects the amount of work someone has to put in to clean up set inappropriate material. They have better things to do then to keep tracking down the inappropriate stuff you post. that you feel that you need a better explanation or humiliated only proves that that warn level of yours and the stuff you post should be monitored more. that anybody else sees this as humiliation only proves that those who do see it as humiliation - don't understand the rules. it further expounds the need to watch you more.

If you don't understand after that... oh boy... you won't see me supporting you in getting un-banned (if you do get banned).

To make your warn level being posted yup just a tiny bit less humiliating instead of posting it myself I'll let someone else do it... please post mine. I am happy to share. if any others feel that this might help in soothing wounded feeling I encourage you as well to post yours...
(yupyupyup you have seen some of things I posted in the eof right?) I am still amazed I haven't been banned outright....

oh and the number of my threads I have had deleted at others request due to inappropriateness is over 5. not edited posts full blown deleted threads. which I didn't even question why they wanted it deleted I just had it deleted. If someone else really feels that strongly it is no big loss. I can always post it somewhere more appropriate off of gbatemp.

 

[The Catboy]

what does your worn level have to do with humiliation? that level is there to remind you and others that whomever has that warn level has posted inappropiate material here. As in stuff that goes against the rules or is just demeaning or otherwise in-appropriate to the intention of that thread. Is it really that hard to hit the report button instead of making a post that basically is just a "response to trash post"? or even better to not post anything if what you are posting doesn't contribute in any way?

yuyuyup was indicating humiliation because his warn level was publicly announced in this thread. Warn levels are otherwise private, viewable only by the member they apply to and the moderators.

He asked for an example and he got it. You get what you asked for. Sure it was a bit extreme to post it, but it's not like she also posted his whole list of of reasons behind the warnings. Still YYY tends to go onto every thread and take them personally and make the whole thread about himself. He does that quite often and if you point this fact out he also takes that personally like the world is against him or something.

On-topic for once. Personally I like how it's done now really. It makes it clear to everyone that there are rules and punishments for breaking the rules, just making posts go away, only shows that when you break the rules, they just vanish into thin air.

 

[Anon10W1z]

[gbatemp inner secrets]
There are ways to delete posts but for the most part we are discouraged from it in place of the "hiding"/trashing style as there are implications for the database behind it all (GBAtemp is large enough in terms of bandwidth requirements and database size that the those responsible for the technical side of things will spend no small amount of time tweaking certain features to reduce load and requests) and nobody wants to fiddling at that level with any backups that might exist in the case of a debate over a judgement/action (it is quite possible to untrash a post and indeed other staff can usually see the trashed posts in a thread). Of course is less an aesthetics thing and more of a technical debate and to that end you might even have a point at some level although I am not sure how hard it would be to unwind.
[/gbatemp inner secrets]

I suppose the other side of it is much like anything the staff and regulars usually just skip over it (I assume most of you use view new posts- kind of how you probably do not read every title or skip certain sections) and as others have said it does not really happen that often.

If that's the case, then a different database query could be used for normal users which doesn't return these posts. This would solve the problem of retaining deleted posts and allowing undeletion. I know of many comment engines using this method to hide comments that have not yet been approved for display to end users, or have received a certain number of spam flags. Stack Overflow uses a similar method, showing deleted posts only to mods and users with greater than 10k reputation.

I disagree. I think this feature should remain with the staff. If there are trolling/off-topic posts, just report them if they are that bad.

I think you misread the request. To clarify, I'm asking if deleted posts could be *really* deleted or at least hidden from the average user. See also http://en.wikipedia....or.27s_.22we.22.

Ohhh~~~ Yeah I think I did misread it greatly. I should really stop posting when I just got out of bed

exactly why we need a way to delete our posts.

Anyway, sometimes I see a "delete" button on some of my posts. It's weird.