Suggestion: Post delete button.

[Lord Nicoll]

A few times I've wanted to delete posts (well mostly statuses but sometimes posts too). Ranging from already solved it to made a categorical error and it wasn't an issue anymore. Some kind of delete post or submit to be delete option would be nice as reporting my own post with the caption please delete is kinda a jenky work around. 

Edited December 14, 2016 by Lord Nicoll
Corrected typo

[Lord Nicoll]

Just now, wrathoftheturkey said:

For solutions you can mark as solved, but this would be a moderating nightmare.

And I can imagine reporting your own post as a nightmare too, also marking your own posts as the solution seems a little score bumpy to me, like posting loads of not very related content to make your post count go up, something people apparently care about.

 

[Lord Nicoll]

1 minute ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

Not many people do, but if it happened repeatedly I'd imagine the mods would catch on. Best answer doesn't really give you anything, it just makes it easier for other people to find if they have the same problem.

Reporting your own post lets the mods see what you said instead of going "hey you're a fag" and then deleting it before the mods can see it but starting a flame war in the process. Happens on Reddit a lot

For instances where flame wars start of my post I'd always report with the explanation that these guess are annoying and being monkeys with each other on my post, I'd never delete my post if others abused another or me, because that is what the report button is for, but  dedicated request to delete button would probably help the mods categorise between abusive posts reported or just people looking to delete their post or status update. 

[Litargirio]

This would just lend itself to trolling.

 

All you need to do is think twice and use your brain before posting stuff. Then, you don't need to delete anything.

[Lord Nicoll]

1 minute ago, Litargirio said:

This would just lend itself to trolling.

 

All you need to do is think twice and use your brain before posting stuff. Then, you don't need to delete anything.

That is an argumentative fallacy. Not everyone has 20/20 foresight. 

[Litargirio]

6 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Not everyone has 20/20 foresight. 

It's not about foresight, just think

• Do I really want to post this?
• Do I really have to post this?
• How will people react to my post?
• What else will happen as a consequence of me posting my post?

Common sense. Besides, there aren't that many cases in which you really have to delete your post. If a post outlives its usefulness, you can just leave it alone.

[Lord Nicoll]

1 minute ago, Litargirio said:

It's not about foresight, just think

• Do I really want to post this?
• Do I really have to post this?
• How will people react to my post?
• What else will happen as a consequence of me posting my post?

Common sense. Besides, there aren't that many cases in which you really have to delete your post. If a post outlives its usefulness, you can just leave it alone.

You seem to be trying to shift the burden of responsibility away from if they need or want to, to they should have thought about it. That isn't an acceptable rebuttal. A delete button isn't a doomsday button, it just leads to some posts that the OP mightn't want anymore being there, but particularly for status updates.

[Litargirio]

1 minute ago, Lord Nicoll said:

You seem to be trying to shift the burden of responsibility away from if they need or want to, to they should have thought about it.

What I'm saying is just because you want to doesn't mean you should be able to.

[LogicalDrm]

24 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

And I can imagine reporting your own post as a nightmare too, also marking your own posts as the solution seems a little score bumpy to me, like posting loads of not very related content to make your post count go up, something people apparently care about.

What bad is in reporting your own posts? Thats as good as requesting delete?

 

This is among topics that get frequently requested and always denied. The one of main reasons is possibility of trolling. Another is that solved threads are better to be there if someone else happens to search for answer. You can ask for lock instead.

 

Some examples of times this has been asked:

 

[Lord Nicoll]

Just now, LoGiCalDrm said:

What bad is in reporting your own posts? Thats as good as requesting delete?

 

This is among topics that get frequently requested and always denied. The one of main reasons is possibility of trolling. Another is that solved threads are better to be there if someone else happens to search for answer. You can ask for lock instead.

 

Some examples of times this has been asked:

 

People seem to think a delete post button leads to trolling. It won't. "Oh no he posted someone and deleted it, what a troll". If people fall for bait, then they probably aren't the best example of a good member of the forum. People will continue to ask for it for the reason it's a reasonable option. Other forums have it, other forums with much less actiove moderation and it doesn't lead to trolling, it just gives people some control over their posts, maybe that is why they implement it, While this forum website is well moderated, at times it can be more authoritarian than it aught to be.

[LogicalDrm]

2 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

People seem to think a delete post button leads to trolling. It won't. "Oh no he posted someone and deleted it, what a troll". If people fall for bait, then they probably aren't the best example of a good member of the forum. People will continue to ask for it for the reason it's a reasonable option. Other forums have it, other forums with much less actiove moderation and it doesn't lead to trolling, it just gives people some control over their posts, maybe that is why they implement it, While this forum website is well moderated, at times it can be more authoritarian than it aught to be.

There will be trolling, in this sense I mean someone will be posting something which will ignite in seconds and then remove the thread after 15-30mins. Or asks question begging for sympathy but gets pushed down by community and then wants to get rid of it. But more importantly there will be personal attacks and other such things which will be harmful. Moderators won't see all. Actually they see very little and rely for reporting of any harmful posting. Having delete ability for all users would make it even harder to find those members who are disrupting peace.

 

Another thing is the said reason where you have had some issue which has got solved. Would you really want to hide that from others who might have same issue?

[Lord Nicoll]

1 minute ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

There will be trolling, in this sense I mean someone will be posting something which will ignite in seconds and then remove the thread after 15-30mins. Or asks question begging for sympathy but gets pushed down by community and then wants to get rid of it. But more importantly there will be personal attacks and other such things which will be harmful. Moderators won't see all. Actually they see very little and rely for reporting of any harmful posting. Having delete ability for all users would make it even harder to find those members who are disrupting peace.

 

Another thing is the said reason where you have had some issue which has got solved. Would you really want to hide that from others who might have same issue?

A few times I post questions, but mine seemed to confuse most of the people from being Linux VM's and why it wasn't working. Turned out it a cable fell and pull the PCIe extender that went to another machine out and that is why the VM crashed when it tried to use it, I noticed when I went to pass it through it after a reboot it wasn't there and them found out and reported my post asking for it to be deleted (it was) so in cases like that, I doubt anyone else will  have that issue, I doubt anyone would be doing something as jenky as running a GPU in one server that is connected to another by the most ghetto method possible (the PSU at the time in the other server wasn't strong enough) so things like that kinda just clutter the forums and wouldn't help anyone. 

[LogicalDrm]

3 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

A few times I post questions, but mine seemed to confuse most of the people from being Linux VM's and why it wasn't working. Turned out it a cable fell and pull the PCIe extender that went to another machine out and that is why the VM crashed when it tried to use it, I noticed when I went to pass it through it after a reboot it wasn't there and them found out and reported my post asking for it to be deleted (it was) so in cases like that, I doubt anyone else will  have that issue, I doubt anyone would be doing something as jenky as running a GPU in one server that is connected to another by the most ghetto method possible (the PSU at the time in the other server wasn't strong enough) so things like that kinda just clutter the forums and wouldn't help anyone. 

I think you are overreacting. Things like that are very rare to see and so very, very little of the clutter. Its not like the "Post link/pic/vid without any context" trend we seem to be having. And no, I don't think your issue would be one someone would be delighted to find. But there could be some who create account just for the one special issue, find answer and ask for delete after that. I've seen those few.

[Lord Nicoll]

1 minute ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

I think you are overreacting. Things like that are very rare to see and so very, very little of the clutter. Its not like the "Post link/pic/vid without any context" trend we seem to be having. And no, I don't think your issue would be one someone would be delighted to find. But there could be some who create account just for the one special issue, find answer and ask for delete after that. I've seen those few.

Maybe for things like that, but for statuses a delete option would be a very nice feature, as I don't think you can argue their usefulness as much as a post that the OP fixed after asking for help. 

[LogicalDrm]

2 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Maybe for things like that, but for statuses a delete option would be a very nice feature, as I don't think you can argue their usefulness as much as a post that the OP fixed after asking for help. 

For that I have no opinion. I think it has been also suggested and might have been software reasons for there not being one. Or why statuses in all have so much limited feature set.

[manikyath]

if i recall that's not a thing for two reasons:

- the kind of people that lose an argument and then attempt to wipe their traces

- the kind of people that would ask a question, get an answer, and then delete their topic (which fyi isnt the purpose of a forum )

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, manikyath said:

if i recall that's not a thing for two reasons:

- the kind of people that lose an argument and then attempt to wipe their traces

- the kind of people that would ask a question, get an answer, and then delete their topic (which fyi isnt the purpose of a forum )

or the kind of person who ask a stupid question

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, deXxterlab97 said:

or the kind of person who ask a stupid question

that would fall under the second one.

[Blade of Grass]

Its been discussed internally before and we've decided against it for reasons stated above, but to reiterate:

1. Posts can already be deleted by reporting them and asking a mod to delete it
2. Gives an essentially untraceable way for people to troll/harass others
3. Allows people to delete threads that shouldn't be deleted (for example, their solution is solved so they delete the thread, what about other people who have the same issue? etc)

Regarding status updates: You can "Hide" a status update which makes it invisible to everyone else, its in the "options" dropdown menu. 

[Lord Nicoll]

4 minutes ago, Blade of Grass said:

Its been discussed internally before and we've decided against it for reasons stated above, but to reiterate:

1. Posts can already be deleted by reporting them and asking a mod to delete it
2. Gives an essentially untraceable way for people to troll/harass others
3. Allows people to delete threads that shouldn't be deleted (for example, their solution is solved so they delete the thread, what about other people who have the same issue? etc)

Regarding status updates: You can "Hide" a status update which makes it invisible to everyone else, its in the "options" dropdown menu. 

that's a useful one, lol, always being remind of bad status updates but at least people can't see them.

[Bouzoo]

11 hours ago, Lord Nicoll said:

People seem to think a delete post button leads to trolling. It won't. 

It may not in your case, but sadly that is not something that you can guarantee. It will lead, and it is inevitable. There may not be all that much cases of trolls deleting, but when looking at current troll posts, it would probably be high enough. 

[Akolyte]

Maybe a delete button is bad, and would cause issues but what is wrong with including a button that requests a delete?  I know you can report it but it's unfriendly in my opinion to new users because they won't necessarily know that you have to report a post to delete it.  I think a good compromise between a user-friendly delete button and the current method of requesting post removal.  

 

 

[Unimportant]

As a little sidenote:

 

I made some double posts because of a internet/pc hiccup. A delete button would help with that.

If a delete button is too much a "moderating nightmare". How about a simple script that checks if a post is 100% identical to the previous one and automatically removes it (or at least asks to confirm the double post).

[LogicalDrm]

1 hour ago, Mike_The_B0ss said:

Maybe a delete button is bad, and would cause issues but what is wrong with including a button that requests a delete?  I know you can report it but it's unfriendly in my opinion to new users because they won't necessarily know that you have to report a post to delete it.  I think a good compromise between a user-friendly delete button and the current method of requesting post removal. 

 

The function of Report is outlines in CS. Which every users agrees to have read upon registration. So why would there be need to another button for it? Imo it would be one too much. Since you'd still need to fill in reason for request, it wouldn't be any more simpler.

 

36 minutes ago, Unimportant said:

As a little sidenote:

 

I made some double posts because of a internet/pc hiccup. A delete button would help with that.

If a delete button is too much a "moderating nightmare". How about a simple script that checks if a post is 100% identical to the previous one and automatically removes it (or at least asks to confirm the double post).

Again, Report. Its all what is needed. Merging/deleting things like that is breeze to mods. I know, I report ton of stuff daily. Script for identicals is also suggested before, for this reason and for targeting spam, reposts and such. @colonel_mortis has said it would be really heavy on server to have to check all posts against same text. Idk if it would made any difference if it was limited to posts in last 15mins or not.

[Mr.Meerkat]

10 hours ago, Mike_The_B0ss said:

I think a good compromise between a user-friendly delete button and the current method of requesting post removal. 

Aka a delete button where it get sent to a mod and the mod would decide whether it should be deleted or not