Spyro the Dragon Forums / Please enable post delete [resolved]

Re: Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (GameBoyBlue) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 04:51:58 +0000

I made an edit aswell. Alright, I think my issue is resolved. Thanks to everyone for sharing and explaining their perspective, even if it not my own. Which is perfectly alright. A "blank edit" and "deletion notice" really arn't so dissimilar in the end, anyway.

Re: Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (Stormy) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 04:48:29 +0000

Oops, I should have refreshed to see if you'd replied. See my edit at the bottom of my last post. I answered your question about edit history.

Re: Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (GameBoyBlue) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 04:46:05 +0000

I admit I don't spend much time on fan forums, and it would seem this is just a butting of heads of official forum culture and fan forum culture. How much can a moderator view of edit history? Because if a mod can view history, and you need mod permission to delete a post entirely, well that creates a problem if you have a bad relationship with a mod, does it not? I'm sure the mods here are fine, though there are cases of more dominating ones.

Re: Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (Stormy) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 04:41:29 +0000

Hmm, after thinking about this a little more, I think what's causing the disagreement is this part here:

GameBoyBlue wrote:

why we wouldn't want to give ownership of posts to the author

Technically, posts don't belong to their authors on forums. Once they are submitted, they belong to the forum, or, more specifically, the owner of the forum. This is how things work on forums basically everywhere. The privacy policy explains it pretty well:

Any information/posts/content you submit to SpyroForum becomes the sole property of SpyroForum, and we will (at our discretion) remove or modify such information at any time.

If this was a blog that you owned yourself, I would completely agree that not being able to delete your own posts would be a design flaw. But that's not really how forums work.

36IStillLikeSpyro36 also brings up some good points. Functionally, there's no real difference between a blank edit and a deleted post except for the confusion and broken links that come with post deletion. I could also definitely see the feature being abused in arguments.

Edit:

My fear is moderators having too much power to view edits, and having to much power and really too much hastle to approve such simple exchanges.

Edits are not viewable at all (unless you have subscriptions set to mail you the content of new posts) but I don't see why this would make a difference or why giving users the right to delete posts would give moderators less power.

As for being a hassle, if you want your post gone immediately, you always have editing permissions. Moderators aren't going to fully delete the post 99% of the time, anyway.

Re: Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (GameBoyBlue) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 04:38:16 +0000

Interesting. I never knew. Some examples of forums which allow post deletion include Gamefaqs.com, most officially owned game forums such as mwomercs.com and robertsspaceindustries.com, and most news sites that allow comments. These sites usually leave a space saying "post deleted by ".

I see the fear of confusion, and I suppose that is why some sites leave a deletion notice, though many don't. My fear is moderators having too much power to view edits, and having to much power and really too much hastle to approve such simple exchanges.

Re: Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (36IStillLikeSpyro36) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 04:27:32 +0000

i don't think i've ever seen a site that allowed posts to be deleted at any time.

for the first few minutes after it's posted i've seen, sure, and that'd be cool to have here if possible at all because there have been times where i posted in the wrong thread for example.

i don't really have an opinion on posts being deleted any time, i see where you're coming from but at the same time i don't see what's so bad about a blank edit. i don't know, this doesn't seem like the kind of forum where that kind of thing would be a bother, i see posts mostly getting deleted during arguments and that doesn't really happen here. i dunno.

Re: Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (Stormy) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 04:25:43 +0000

I'm confused about which part you disagree on, then? It's really uncommon for forums to have a feature for deleting your own posts, at least in my experience.

Re: Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (GameBoyBlue) — Tue, 17 Jun 2014 04:22:08 +0000

Wow, I completely disagree. I'm really not understanding how there could be an alternate perspective on this, and why we wouldn't want to give ownership of posts to the author.

Re: Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (Sear/Burst) — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 22:59:17 +0000

You go Stormy! I saw the title, and I was about to say something along the lines of "It would be confusing".

Re: Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (Stormy) — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 22:14:31 +0000

We're not big on deleting things here. It can make threads get confusing if everyone starts deleting their posts whenever they feel like it.

If you're ever embarrassed of one of your posts, though, you can always edit the post to remove anything you don't want people to see. In extreme circumstances, you can contact a moderator to get the post removed.

Of course, the preferred method for avoiding embarrassment is to always think before you post.

Re: Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (NeoReaper) — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 21:31:53 +0000

Sounds like a good idea...

Please enable post delete [resolved]

dummy@example.com (GameBoyBlue) — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 19:13:55 +0000

This is a pretty basic feature to avoid embarrassment and promote courtesy, without leaving behind a blank edit instead. Please add!

resolved: edits are not viewable by mods and thus a blank edit is used.