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Underground > Policy & Help >

Proposing deletion of one's own threads

  
 
Ganesh
23:19 / 22.01.03
If the individual who originates a thread then asks that it be deleted, how should we proceed? Is the 'Moderate Topic' option available to non-moderators?
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
23:26 / 22.01.03
No, I don't think it is.

I suppose it depends, really. In this case it feels rather like giving in - doing what this poster is telling us to do is exactly what many people have been objecting to - but I think a better reason, especially for the thread in the Head Shop, is that other people have expended time and thought on their posts and it's not fair to them to delete that without asking (though to an extent distributed moderation should counter this). The Concentric Citizen thread could probably go without anyone being annoyed though...
 
 
Ganesh
23:36 / 22.01.03
The difficulty lies in establishing consensus, though, doesn't it? The more individuals who've contributed to a thread, the more care (theoretically, at least) we must take in ensuring that everyone's 'intellectual property' is respected. I agree, broadly speaking, that few would miss the thread you mention - but deleting it in its entirety because one poster (even the thread's originator) requests such feels wrong...
 
 
Kit-Cat Club
23:40 / 22.01.03
I think on the whole I agree - and besides, if people post in the threads agreeing to have them deleted, it will cure me of my terrible desire to post 'STOP WHINING AND ADAPT' in all of them. That might be the best way to proceed - what do you reckon?

(Easy enough for me to say as it hasn't happened in my forum yet)
 
 
Ganesh
23:47 / 22.01.03
Yeah. Outwith exceptional circumstances (spamming, etc.) I really wouldn't want to delete a thread unless there was some evidence that either a) an overwhelming majority of it contributors wanted that thread deleted, or b) I'd allowed sufficient time for those posters objecting to deletion to make their views known.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
23:58 / 22.01.03
Of course it's wrong.

What I'd do? On the threads in the conversation,, I see no good reason to delete "CCC", except as part of a general policy of scorched earth, which has not and probably will not be agreed on. However, if ic wishes to move his posts for deletion, I'm sure some moderator will happily confirm that. The problem lies in getting a quorum together to approve the deletion of everybody else's posts as well....we could certainly live without it.

The "icq" thread could go much more easily, since fairly few people have posted to it and that was largely piss-taking anyway. Although it *does* actually have some interest.

The "boycott 8 mile" thread has turned into a perfectly pleasant thread, and I feel the logical thing to do would be to delete the first post and invite other contributors to moderate their posts as they see fit to remove the irrelevant bits. Likewise, although nobody has msged me about it, if I were asked to delete the post starting the thread now called "online activism" in the Head Shop, I would be happy to, as I think the thread would be perfectly comprehensible without it, but I'm not going to throw away the work and thought put in by other people in order to appease a tantrum.

We treat these requests, as far as I'm concerned, just as we would a request from any other member of Barbelith to do likewise.

In general, IMHO, if a thread is double-posted, or the person who originates it very shortly thereafter regrets having put it up and requests deletion, then I see no problem in going ahead with that. As soon as the thread is replied to, the thread in effect ceases to be the property of the originator and becomes the property of Barbelith. If everyone who has posted to a thread msged me saying they approved of the request to delete, then I probably would, although it would still feel a little hard on the people who might be reading it with interest. But that would clearly be a situation in which lots of people felt strongly that the thread should be deleted.

Moving a thread? Much less significant. But I'd need a good reason to delete a thread, and that one contributor to it doesn't want to play anymore is not, to my mind, convincing. I would however, be happy to take the time to remove one person's posts if the integrity of the thread could be maintained while doing it; I have agreed to mutual post deletions before when tempers have flared and the thread has got sidetracked. But the whole thread? I'd need a good reason to agree to that if it came up as a mod request.
 
 
Ganesh
00:02 / 23.01.03
Thanks, Haus; that served to crystallise most of my own opinions on the matter.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
17:28 / 23.01.03
I know that when Chrome wakes up he's going to have words to say about my last post in the CCC thread. Pretty much any other ic thread can go without anyone shedding a tear, but I think this one needs to stay, at least as long as any other post with the same 'last post date'. It shows Barbelith at it's best and worst in dealing with a troll, now if anyone comes in asking why we aren't 'FUKKING sHIt UPp!' we can point to this thread, either they take the hint and calm down or they go off in a huff because most of us aren't the sexy anarchists Grant Morrison thought we were or they prove to be a troll and we ignore them.

I generally dislike deletion of material on here generally, unless it's illegal or contains private information or contains stuff that a large number of people find disturbing. I guess I'm just wondering how much right I have to claim partial ownership of someone else's message that I reply to. Hmmm, that's not quite what I mean. Will need to think about that.
 
 
The Falcon
18:10 / 23.01.03
I take it there's no 'lock thread' option, then.
 
 
Less searchable M0rd4nt
22:14 / 23.01.03
D.F.: sadly, no.

Slightly off-topic, but still relevant: what about the deletion of irritant threads by mods? I'm against the whole rampant deletion thing. I know some threads truly deserve to go to the great big forum in the sky, but there's reasons that deletion is not necessarily a great idea. For one, it tends to get the poster who initiated the topic all het up, something that tends to end in tears at bedtime. For another, topic deletion leads to upsurges of who-watches-the-watchmen style criticsm, which may be perfectly justified but boy, does it get tiresome.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, when people ask the inevitable question "But what did so-and-so do that was so terrible?" you've flushed the evidence out into the North Sea. And then comes the hailing of so-and-so as a misunderstood genius, and the "Barbelith Is A Police State" tracts, and then someone tries to explain to the complainants that Barbelith is not the only message board on the internet, and they still won't shut up, and then I for one have to go and work off my feelings of frustration by drop-kicking puppies.

Please, think of the puppies.
 
 
ONLY NICE THINGS
23:24 / 23.01.03
Fair point, although I think that the threads are not actyually destroyed, just made unavailable - in extremis Tom could fish them up as evidence. In general, deleting threads is a postion of last resort, I'd say - when the board has collectively decided that somebody is totally beyond the pale.The only time in my Barbelifetime that somebodies *new* threads have been deleted pretty much as a matter of policy was Knodge, and even then the old ones still stood. I can't think of more than a few times I've moved to delete a thread. In general, a move to the Conversation if it fits nowhere else, either in subject matter or tone, seems to be the best thing to do.
 
 
Strange Machine Vs The Virus with Shoes
00:12 / 24.01.03
We tend to use common sense to attribute artistic integrity. Just because I’m a clever cunt, doesn’t mean you can get away with shit. I know every trick in the book. Pretentious “art” wankers are no exemption. This is the place i dump my shit..
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
03:30 / 25.01.03
Technically, they aren't destroyed - they just disappear out of the index/search database, as I understand it - so the stuff is still available should the need arise...
 
  
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