Poll: What power should a poster have over their posts

Poll: What power should a poster have over their posts

  • Unlimited power to delete. Unlimited power to edit.

    Votes: 66 49.6%
  • No power to delete. Unlimited power to edit.

    Votes: 23 17.3%
  • No power to delete. Restricted power to edit.

    Votes: 37 27.8%
  • No power to delete. No power to edit.

    Votes: 7 5.3%

  • Total voters
    133
When someone post a thread and it strays away from it's intended purpose or causes others to get irate and argumentative the OP should have the right to delete the thread..
 
The Internet should be part of the real world ......

The Internet should be part of the real world ......

........ where, what has been said can not be un-said (unless you are an elected official 😉 ) .

Too much flexibility in editing internet dialog contributes to diarrhea in post content.
Everyone here has been guilty of it at one point or another.

The power we should have over our posts should come before posting.
After that you said..... it's out there.
If you want to unsay it... admit your foible out in the open not by taking down an entire dialog.
Now that is taking power over your posts.
 
When someone post a thread and it strays away from it's intended purpose or causes others to get irate and argumentative the OP should have the right to delete the thread..



That works when the OP is not prone to irrationality. 🙂

If everyone were rational there would be no need for mods.

If the OP wants to delete a thread and it makes sense to the mods to do so, cool. Just message a mod to start the process.
 
The power we should have over our posts should come before posting.
After that you said..... it's out there.
If you want to unsay it... admit your foible out in the open not by taking down an entire dialog.
Now that is taking power over your posts.

Well said, couldn't agree more.
 
Devils advocate - surely thats the mods are for ?

The less the moderators have to do the better - for everybody - IMO.

Deleting a post is useful in the (very common) instance that while you were typing a reply to a question somebody else has written the exact same answer and posted it already. Happens all the time, and is reason enough to have the ability to delete your own post.

Or perhaps you start a thread to ask a question, got your answer, delete thread. Fair enough.
 
The less the moderators have to do the better - for everybody - IMO.

Deleting a post is useful in the (very common) instance that while you were typing a reply to a question somebody else has written the exact same answer and posted it already. Happens all the time, and is reason enough to have the ability to delete your own post.

Or perhaps you start a thread to ask a question, got your answer, delete thread. Fair enough.

I agree with your first "for instance" but no the second.

If someone asks a question and answers come in. This is now a dialog.
The dialog is not "owned" by the OP. The answers are for everyone as is the dialog. This is the basis of user forums and why they can exist and become databases of information.... discussion shared by all members and archived for future use.
Not solely serving the OP. That does not work.
 
Or perhaps you start a thread to ask a question, got your answer, delete thread. Fair enough.

Or you could... leave the question and post the answer, too.

Think that anybody would be annoyed to see a solution to a problem preserved for the future?
 
The less the moderators have to do the better - for everybody - IMO.

you don't much care for us, do you?

Speaking from years of experience as a moderator on one of the largest internet forums, it is simply that having users get mods involved in things they should be able to handle themselves becomes tedious for both users and mods. Deleting your own post is something I think even a seriously incompetent user should be able to handle on their own.

I agree with your first "for instance" but no the second.

If someone asks a question and answers come in. This is now a dialog.
The dialog is not "owned" by the OP. The answers are for everyone as is the dialog. This is the basis of user forums and why they can exist and become databases of information.... discussion shared by all members and archived for future use.
Not solely serving the OP. That does not work.

There are good reasons one may want to be able to ask a question to an open group, but need to delete the thread. For instance seeking advice on an ongoing project, or seeking a collaborator for an upcoming project, etc. It can be a lot simpler to just delete the thread once you have what you need, than to deal with people asking if you "still need/want/are looking for" etc. This also obviously applies to things like sales/wanted threads.
 
who has their undies twisted over this? seriously... if someone figures out their post is stupid and adds nothing to the conversation they can dump it....and they should. These posts are not codex manuscripts discovered in the desert. ....far more important things in life to get twisted over -
 
It can be a lot simpler to just delete the thread once you have what you need, than to deal with people asking if you "still need/want/are looking for" etc. This also obviously applies to things like sales/wanted threads.

Or you could post a one-liner to that thread saying that this thing is over and you are not monitoring this thread anymore.

Is this really such an annoyance that we would rather have threads that have enormous wealth of information or extremely good content simply disappearing in a second?
 
Is this really such an annoyance that we would rather have threads that have enormous wealth of information or extremely good content simply disappearing in a second?

I would be annoyed if "we" decided people couldn't delete their own posts because something like 1/10th of a percent of all threads started on this forum were inconveniently deleted by the original thread starter. The problem is basically theoretical rather than practical. 🙂
 
"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it. "

Well that used to be true, but perhaps not now. Although some things published on the web hang around to haunt us.

I like the current privilege available on this site, to edit my own posts. I can't imagine wanting to delete a whole thread, and I hope I'd think long and hard before doing that.
 
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