Deleting my own posts.

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 1:20 pm

I asked this a couple of months ago in the problems thread, but got no reply, so I'm asking again.
It seems that since the re-make of the forums, I've lost the ability to delete my own posts. Was that an intended change or just a side effect which was too insignificant to be noticed and fixed?
Just curious

Post by **BuckGB** » Mon Sep 29, 2003 6:08 pm

I apologize for the inconvenience, but it was actually intended. Several users requested that this option be taken away, for one particular reason. Picture this - you start a thread, it receives twenty replies, and for some reason you decide you want to delete your original post. Well, since it began the thread, all twenty replies go with it. This really isn't fair to the people who took the time to respond to a thread, so I've decided to disable the permission altogether.

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 8:39 am

Sounds reasonable... but then again you could've just disabled the deletion of threads and left us do what we want with our posts. This way when you delete something you only delete what you've written...

Post by **BuckGB** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 1:20 pm

But if I allow members to delete only their own posts, and their post happens to be the first of an entire thread, the whole thread is deleted. Unfortunately, it's not just as simple as removing the option to delete an entire thread.

knarf · Post by **knarf** » Wed Oct 01, 2003 4:19 pm

Why would you delete your old posts anyway??
IMO this is completely unnessacary.

But that's just me

garazdawi · Post by **garazdawi** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 12:25 am

double posting is one reason, and also exactly resaying what someone else was saying....... but none of those are really major.....

Xandax · Post by **Xandax** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 12:39 am

Most of the times when such things happens can be handled by simply editing away the contens of a post.

If for some reason one doesn't wish what is posted to continue being written, edit it out.

That way you can "delete" a post, but the thread will continue - it might not be "nice" to the rest of the posts in that thread, but it is a valid option.

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 11:01 am

Originally posted by Buck Satan
But if I allow members to delete only their own posts, and their post happens to be the first of an entire thread, the whole thread is deleted. Unfortunately, it's not just as simple as removing the option to delete an entire thread.

What I was actually trying to say is, that there should be some sort of check on whether the post is the first one in the thread, and if it is it shouldn't allow you to delete it. But if it isn't there should be no reason to dissallow the deletion of the post. I'm pretty sure I've seen it work like this on other boards.

@knarf, It's not old posts that I was thinking about. I was actually thinking about something you post but then suddenly deceide it wasn't worth it/wasn't appropriate/whatever. Or as garazdawi mentioned double posts.

I know I can always just edit all the text out, but it seems a lot cleaner if the whole post is removed

Anyways, it's quite a minor change so if it's too hard to implement don't bother @ buck. I was originally just wondering if it was intended or not.

knarf · Post by **knarf** » Thu Oct 02, 2003 11:56 am

I know I can always just edit all the text out, but it seems a lot cleaner if the whole post is removed

You're definately right about that

Well I could post this in another thread, but now we're talking about cleaning, maybe all the inactive members should be cleared, I think there are at least 2 or 3 thousand of them here, it will make the board faster and looks more fair to new members who want to sign up.

Just a thought

Jan Mistique · Post by **Jan Mistique** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 5:11 am

This is a good idea Knarf. If an uncleared membership list causes lag, taking it to it's logical conclusion, the board will eventually seize up altogether under the weight of long absent members.

Members absent for a certain amount of time could be sent an email to ask whether they wish to remain members. From experience though, some people will always want to remain in membership whether they ever visit the site or not. Separate rules should exist for that!