Won't fix Make so users can delete their own posts.

Our mods need to eat!

 

We don't allow users to delete their own posts because there are plenty of circumstances where deleting a post isn't the best course of action, plus the feature would be abused: it could lead to misinformation/loss of information or shenanigans like someone going into a thread, saying something inflammatory to stir up the pot/derail the thread and then delete it later on. Being unable to delete your own post reinforces the point that at least some thought should be put into a post that you make.

If we let just anyone delete their posts all willy-nilly, we'd have threads full of discussions and things that would end up missing big ol' chunks of conversation because X user got mad at responses from Y user, and then we'd just have Y user's posts with no context. Not particularly good for a discussion board.

There's also the case where someone might come into the Temp, ask a question about something, get an answer, and then go and delete their question because hey now they know, making it difficult for someone else having the same problem to find that answer and going and creating their own thread with the same question (which we try to avoid). Or what if a prominent member decided one day they're going to leave the Temp, and decide to go and delete all of their posts for whatever reason?



As for mod workload, it's not like it's some huge undertaking to delete a post for them, it's literally two clicks. That's what mods are there for, moderating posts.

 

I could easily see "dirty deletes" being a problem, like someone making shitty comments and then deleting them before they get reported or someone posting illegal content and deleting them. Even with the mods being able to see these dirty deletes, it would still get pretty messy. There are also the issues brought up by Tom in his post. It's kind of best to just let the staff do their job and handle keeping the forums clean.

 

It does also make the database work harder if there are deleted posts as it has to generate more custom queries, repopulate premade tables and whatever else.

 

The only issue I have with the not been able to delete your own posts is if something is accidentally posted before it is ready (in my case my tutorial the other day) so I had to edit to be TBA with a report asking for it to be deleted until it is ready, but that was only a minor thing, overall if the system works don't mess with it

 

Hello.

Maybe imagine this Example please:

Post 1:
User#1 asks for help.

Post 2:
User#2 gives an Solution/Help/Link or whatever.
(It is one,that really helps many,many Users in the future and seems very valuable for the Community)

Post 3:
User #1 thanks for the help.

Post 4:
....
Post 31:
Many Users have used the Help from Post 2.


Whatever the Circumstances,User#2 suddenly decides to delete his Post completely with no Trace....(maybe because it was Tuesday and the Weather was not fine in his Town or the User has "Issues" with the Staff or......)

But you are right,this can not prevent Users from deleting the Content of their own Posts.
But he leaves a "Trail"..

Thank you.

 

Re editing your post can act like deleting if no one replies to you and leave traces of your old post by

 

depends on how you implement it, it really does not have to be that hard

 

Seems like a 5 minute deletion window middle grounds / negates the issue.

 

By not being particularly fixated on the narrow scope of nailing trolls within 5 minutes, I was more addressing Toms points.

 

True but a ground up migration of the database to either one of the fun trendy databases (as well as getting all the server botherers up to speed on that -- everybody probably should get familiar with NoSQL before too long but the more old fashioned stuff is already there and working), massive prebaked tables of cached renders, or reworking of the forum to be less query happily whilst playing to deleted posts, to say nothing of then having to have fun with forum software next update (or possibly migration if and when Xenforo gets long in the tooth) is a lot of work. One that solves no great problem if indeed there are other issues with allowing access to the mighty delete key.

 

This is why I prefer building some things myself, not only as a challenge but to have the luxury of doing whatever I want. Although heavily time consuming and sanity destroying that can be sometimes.

Regardless it's also not a very desirable feature to begin with, point was already made that someone could talk shit and then simply delete it, or a thread would lose important context if someone deleted a post.
There's ofcourse also ways to mitigate that but again would have similar challenges.
If I had to implement every whim or wish endusers had about the stuff I make I would absolutely lose my mind or it would cause more potential issues than it would do good.

 

I agreed with GBAtemp staffs above and GBAtemp isn't Facebook nor Twitter, sorry.