Is there anything to stop someone who has posted a topic with no replies (or with replies, for that matter) who wants the thread gone from going back and deleting the text of the message and changing the topic to "Deleted - Please remove"? 

The message is gone, and any evidence it ever existed will go away as soon as the local mod notices (which is pretty quick around here).

Honestly, I'd like the ability to delete certain posts or topics just in case I mistakenly start a thread that already exists.  Satyr says there hasn't been much abuse of it, so I see no reason to take it away.  That's just my opinion.

Alexandra wrote:

satyreyes wrote:

There's no need for sarcasm.

I can't hear you!  You're so high up!

You're being rude and immature, which I assure you does not help your case here. Shut up.

If this post stomps on anyone's toes, I'm not apologizing. I wrote a whole long post here and then realized I don't need to apologize for a reasonable policy. The bottom line is this: every poster on this forum is responsible for the content they post. Many forums have a fifteen minute lockout on editing posts, but IRG does not. Why? Each of you has the power to renege on material you wrote. What you do not have is the power to retract content other people wrote. Personal accountability falls apart if someone else can be accountable for your posts, which is the case if thread/post deletion is allowed, even if it's virtually never used. (It has been used as a threat before, though.) Anyone who has been here for a while also knows that deleting threads is not something we mods do, either. I have ONLY ever deleted spam sign-up threads made by accounts created entirely to spam the forum. Every other thread, whether a repeat, flame war, or close request, has simply been that: closed.

If the general accounts are able to delete threads, I did not mean for that to be so at any point, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't so at launch. My guess is a random forum upgrade dicked with the settings on me and I didn't notice. That's my mistake, but just because a power was available doesn't mean it was wisely placed or reasonable to have. I think we can all fairly agree that each of us should have power over what we say--and that it's stupidly unfair for the power to be in anyone else's hands to delete what you've written. Like I said--even us mods don't do that. You can delete the content you write. If you make a thread and want to delete it, delete the content and we'll delete the post if there's no replies. I'm not going to drive myself nuts coding a feature you basically already have.

Alexandra wrote:

Giovanna wrote:

You're being rude and immature, which I assure you does not help your case here. Shut up.

I apologize.  I ran out of eggshells for a moment, but I just got a refill.  Thank you!

First of all, there's no reason to act like that. They're making points, you are offering sarcastic, unhelpful commentary. If you have valid feedback to add to the conversation, then add it. You are undermining Chani's point and her stands and your support of her does not further her cause.

Chani, I understand where you're coming from. I truly do. But in a community, I place the needs and the good of others as highly as my own -I am the originator of the Non-suited Pics thread and the I Just Gotta Say thread, both of which are usually very high up. What if I had a disastrously bad experience with someone on the forum, and decided to leave in a huff, removing as many traces of myself as I possibly could? I could delete both of those threads -and non suited goes all the way back to the beginnings of the forums. That's years and years of posts, and lots of work on the part of others. What if I had started a thread like the Complaints or Angst thread -places people still go back to and read and feel supported by (I know I do)? What if I left in a vindictive huff and decided to delete those on my way out? Those are threads where people have worked hard on what they say. I don't think anyone should have the right to delete something once another person's writing has become involved. It's not fair, it's not right to take away that history -or to be able to, even- no matter what.

Personally, I wouldn't be troubled or offended by removing the ability to delete threads.  If I really do have an issue with a thread I have created, I can still do this:

I. If the thread has no replies, then I can send a pm to a mod asking for it to be deleted.

II.  If the thread has replies, then I can

        A)  PM a mod and ask for the thread to be locked.
        B)  Edit the first post to explain any changes and/or to state why said thread is locked.
        C)  Create a new thread, if all I wanted to do was edit the content of future conversation, with changed rules and link back to the locked thread.
        D)  If not, then post a comment in a thread such as "random thoughts thread" or something more appropriate with an explanation and link to the locked     
                        thread.
        E)  Some combination of the above.

All of these options are easy enough to do and do not delete anyone but said individual's single post. 

Though I do agree with Chani and others that said issue does bring up the issue of trust, I also agree with Sat and Mocha that....well.  It couldn't hurt, right?  And I don't feel, yet again, on a strictly personal level, that this means that the mods do not think that I am responsible.  Just human.  Fallible and impossible to predict. Things happen and better safe than sorry and all that.

Tamago wrote:

Hell a few months ago, A_Man and I had to delete multiple posts on satyreyes' request because we derailed a thread.

That's actually not quite how it happened.  You derailed the thread; I got upset and chewed you out; and you guys voluntarily, without the slightest bit of prompting from me, went back and deleted each and every one of the hundreds of offending posts.  I could have done it much more easily with my mod tools, but I didn't even have a chance to.  It's moments like that that make IRG worth loving.

Tamago wrote:

The last thing you would want to see is this forum beseiged with Orwellian Editors.

Oh, I think there's a big difference between the "citizens" of a community being able to change their individual histories a little and another "dictator's" being able erase everyone's pasts completely.

As far as not allowing editing posts after a few days goes, I'd say, to a huge degree, it's a matter of functionality to have it and not privilege. Yes, it's terrible for me to be able to unedit my calling Stormcrow a dirty slut from my post, so as to make his response of "go to hell, you filthy harlot" look completely unwarranted, but then what about satyr's magnificent master analysis thread? He'd have to just keep reposting and he wouldn't be able to keep anything in the neat little categories and it'd just be very inconvenient.

And I support being able to PM a mod to delete their own unanswered threads. As far as I'm aware, people don't feel the need too often for this to present a major inconvenience, so this seems like a pretty valid solution.

And for answered threads that need ending? Biokraze enacted this quite perfectly and OITL has explained it quite perfectly. I concur with his actions and her words.

Alexandra wrote:

MissMocha wrote:

First of all, there's no reason to act like that. They're making points, you are offering sarcastic, unhelpful commentary. If you have valid feedback to add to the conversation, then add it.

Deja vu, really.

Okay.  When it's me, that's one thing; when it's Gio, that's one thing; but when it's a user that's a different thing.  Take a week off.  Spend it thinking about whether you actually want to belong to this community.

I have to completely concur with OITL and Biokraze. There are options that don't involve risking a person foolishly deleting a topic. I think that if there were an issue to come up with someone wanting/needing to delete a topic, then we can deal with the controversy when it arises.

So after reading everyone's thoughts, I think we should just remove the damn thing. We don't need it, there are better methods.

satyreyes wrote:

It sounds like there's a fairly clear consensus (and Gio is fairly firm), so I'm going to leave self-topic-deletion off.  I know the minority feels strongly about this, and I'm sorry I can't give everyone everything they want.    Everyone should feel free to shoot me or the other mods a PM if they need their topic deleted.  Thanks, everyone, for your input!

Cool.  I'm very much in favor with this, actually.  No complaints here.

There is one other use for the EDIT feature that has not been mentioned.  It allows you to go to a past post and copypasta everything including the pictures and BBCodes and use it in a new post instead of having to rewrite and link everything again.

satyreyes wrote:

Alexandra wrote:

MissMocha wrote:

First of all, there's no reason to act like that. They're making points, you are offering sarcastic, unhelpful commentary. If you have valid feedback to add to the conversation, then add it.

Deja vu, really.

Okay.  When it's me, that's one thing; when it's Gio, that's one thing; but when it's a user that's a different thing.  Take a week off.  Spend it thinking about whether you actually want to belong to this community.

If you're running the show, no, I don't.

I like how the outlook of the forum changed and there was a fair amount of drama and I didn't notice for a week and some change. Shows how far my head's up my ass.

(then again I haven't exactly been posting like a madman)

I kind of want to say my part on this issue even though it's already been resolved. I think it's a pretty good idea to leave thread-deletion off. I've considered deleting the gripes thread before for purely selfish reasons. I regret making it. I think it makes me look whiny and I regret how much I've posted in it, but then again it isn't exactly my writing anymore, is it? I've made maybe 5% of the posts in that thread and in the meantime I've seen a lot of good discussion go down and some profound emotional outpourings in a thread I pretty much made so I could bitch about my day. It seems like it's less about whether or not the mods trust us and more about the fact that it would be a crying shame on the rare chance that it happens.

Oh look did I just regurgitate what everyone else has been saying? Oops.