Thread: Deleting threads

When I came over to this board, it astounded me that posters had the ability to delete threads that they started. I still don't understand why that is a necessary thing, or when it would truly be a useful.

From a contributing poster point of view, it is frustrating to me to make a comment that has much merit (okay, in my case, making a really funny joke) only to see the thread disappear because of a whim of the thread starter. Unless no one ever responded to the thread, there is conversation in there. I don't like the idea that a member can, in effect, censor the board if they don't like the way a thread is going.

I also am not really a fan of taking "power" away from individual posters either. So I'm not necessarily asking that that ability go away, but I would like to discuss it. Maybe someone can explain to me when it is appropriate to use, or give some examples so I can understand.

We did discuss that in the beginning, whether a thread-starter would have
the power to delete his/her own thread. We decided to let it be, but we also
agreed that the thread-starter should not have the final authority on whether
to delete it. If it has gone on for a while and a lot of posts have been made,
the ownership of the thread, in effect, transfers to the general membership.

As a mod, I did once reverse the thread-starter's action when he deleted a
thread, for that very reason. That was the only time I did that.

Actually, the deletion of a thread is not all that frequent, so I never considered
it a terribly big deal, and neither did the other mods, most likely, since it wasn't
discussed at all, that I know of, after the original discussion.

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I brought this up once as well but when i realized it wasnt a big deal and it didnt happen often so i think its ok the way it is.

If a poster starts a thread and it goes crazy; that poster should have the right to delete it. Numerous occasions I've had to do it because people couldn't stay on topic. Instead of the pooping and pissing continuing, I took action. Moderators should only be able to bring back threads like that if they ask the thread starter first or clear it up. JMHO.

Cheese wants all the power to herself.

It came in handy for my Nagger thread and the all about ree-tards threads.

I frst brought up this issue on Mania, pointing out my dislike for a thread starter being able to delete thread that could have tens, hundreds or even thousands of posts. I didn't get a lot of support on it there.

When we started Broncosforums.com, the default behavior is to allow the poster to delete his/her post which started the thread, which also deletes the thread.

A month or so after we started up, we had thad discussion among the advisory board (the group that defined all the early rules, voted on the mods, etc.) and the consensus was that a poster should be able to delete their own thread, but if there was a complaint or a mod noticed a large thread that was deleted and had moved more into that 'community property' realm, then they could/should undelete it.

You have several situations. Let's take a long running thread like the Drunk thread or something. One day the original poster (can't remember who it is and don't have time to look), gets pissed at BF and deletes his post/thread, and now thousands of posts go poof.

Or, take a political thread. Someone starts a thread about the president (former, current, future, it doesn't matter for the hypothetical), maybe posting very positive things about what a great job someone is doing for the country, but the number of counterpoints from people pointing out what harm he is doing outweighs what little good. The original thread starter doesn't like it, because he meant it to be a "positive only" thread. S/he might not have even posted in it in days or weeks, and dozens (or more) people have been having an active discussion since. Then, s/he comes back, and deletes it and hundreds of posts are gone.

I have never thought either of those above scenarios justify a single poster being able to delete an entire thread where dozens (or more) people have posted and conversed.

IMO, posters shouldn't have the right to delete posts. If they feel a thread has gone in a direction they didn't intend (but it isn't simply a bunch flaiming/attacking, rules violations), then they should either stop posting in the thread, or even edit their original post that started the thread and change it to "my post removed because this thread has gone in a direction that I didn't intend when I created it".

In the case of the rules violations, then report them, and if it is bad enough (beyond cleanup) then the thread can be deleted by a mod.

Anyway, as I have said, I have never been a fan of posters deleting threads on whims or because they weren't able to control the flow of discussion, so if we get enough support from others, we can always change it.

Having said all of that (if you made it this far ), the reality is that there aren't a great many deleted posts and most of them are mistakes or dupe threads that someone deletes almost immediately, as compared to threads with tens or hundreds of replies.

I don't think a member should have the ability to delete any thread if they are not a mod. Thiers or otherwise.

They should have some ownership on it though.

If they have set it out for a purpose and it is getting way off topic and they report it to a mod to have a mod clean it up then the mods should clean it up, whether they want to or not.

If it is just that the posts are on topic but are giving back feedback that the thread maker doesnt agree with as it is a different point of view then the thread maker should just suck it up and if reported a mod should do nothing about it.

But again, members should not beable to delete on threads...unless theirs is the only post.

i absolutely think you should be able to delete threads you started. . . .

Originally Posted by dogfish

i absolutely think you should be able to delete threads you started. . . .

Why Dog? I still don't understand why.

Originally Posted by frauschieze

Why Dog? I still don't understand why.

Alcohol is a good reason

I think you should be able to delete them anyways. It rarely happenes. However, I one time was told by my ex that champ bailey died or something. I normally would discard it, but she has some serious connections to some big companies etc. etc. Long story short, i made a thread to see if anyone else had anything on it.. Kinda like the scheff to buffalo for mccargo- No one did and it was a stupid thread so i took her down.

The scheff to buffalo thread, even though it was also not true, has lots of good discussion and is not ridiculous like the other one i made. I think i have only deleted 3-4 threads total in all my time....

I like it and find it useful when rarely needed.

Hindsight is 20/20

Originally Posted by frauschieze

Why Dog? I still don't understand why.

damn it, cheese!



how did i know you were gonna ask me that?

i don't know. . . i don't have any big, long-winded explanation. . . it's just what i think. . . your creation, your right to delete it. . . . there have been several times over the years where i've spent a considerable amount of time writing an opening post for a thread, and knuckleheads have turned it into shit either by posting a bunch of lame jokes, or by getting into an off-topic pissing match/flame war. . . in that circumstance, i feel like i should reserve the right to delete it rather than having to hope the mods will do so. . .

This is like a pro-life / pro-choice discussion.