Editign and Deleting Threads

[Badger]

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Just noticing this on the revised board. Am still wondering why 1) one can't edit their posts and 2) why someone can't choose to delete what they've written. Seem to remember a discussion a while back where The Well's policy of 'owning your own words' was thought to be a decent model in so far as people taking responsibility for what they wrote and for maintaining a level of accountability.

What are my options if say, I write something that turns out to be untrue about a person here or if in reviewing what I wrote I realize I may have crossed a social or legal line that contributes nothing to either the thread or the board community? Just a single example here but one that I'm sure many others could add to. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm finding myself more and more uncomfortable that what I write, what I say and the revelation of personal thoughts and opinions are grist for potential commodification by the project and that my 'ownership' of what I like to think is original and unique is somehow in jeapordy.

[stuart]

What are my options if say, I write something that turns out to be untrue about a person here or if in reviewing what I wrote I realize I may have crossed a social or legal line that contributes nothing to either the thread or the board community?

miranda

[technopatra]

There was a previous discussion (I'll have to look for it, can't remember what it was called) about thread deletion, and just about everyone who responded said somethign to the effect that they felt that going and deleting your posts after they'd received responses was uncool. It broke the continuityof the conversation, and there was much grousing about the responsibilty of folks to think before they post.

The edit button was removed because a couple of users decided to use it to delete all of their posts. We are still looking ofr a better solution to accomodate folks who simply want to fix their typos or bad references. We tried a mod that allowed you to delete your post if no one had replied to it, but it didn't seem to make much difference, as folks tend to respond PDQ.

Ideally, we will find something that would allow you some kind of grace period - 15 min? 30 min? to edit or remove a post, so that we can allow editing in the moment, but not let folks go back and delete everything they've written. That solution would seem to satisfy most folks.

In the meantime if anyone really wants to dleete a post that they feel is detrimental, they can contact me and I can do it for them. A few people have already done this when they posted commerce messages then realized it what a big no-no that is.

I personally think that we should allow editing or delting at all, but I'm not making a policy decision on something so subjective to one's experince. I'm open to bringing it back for discussion. If some sort of critical mass of folks have changed their minds, then I have no problem allowing it again.

Hmmm....need a way to quantify that. If there is enough interest I could run a poll and make an announcement so that more than the Feedback regulars voice their opinions. Anyone have other ideas?

[technopatra]

ok here we go - there were actually a couple about deleting and editing

http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?t=2552

http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?t=2514

http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?t=1047

I'm the first to admit they read as a lot less definitive now.

[G.W.B.]

Dont worry about it TP. The advise on link 1 & 2 explains it all.

Even though the idea of a time delay edit was always a good one.

Link 3 is probaly the better way to go though. after all I rubber neck too.

[technopatra]

ok I'm going with the drift and moving this portion of the thread over.

[Suzie Clipboard]

Ok, everyone, you heard Technopatra... She's moving this portion of the thread over. I am assisting her. I understand that you've all been moved once already from the thread- "new folder organization", but I am afraid that we are going to have to move you again. You see, this topic has a mis-spelling in its name- "Editing and Deleting Threads". We are now going to move to the topic with a name properly spelled - "Editing and Deleting Threads".

People, when you enter the new thread- Editing and Deleting Threads, you will be asked two questions- "Did you pack you own bag?" and "Has your bag been under your control at all times?". If you can answer "yes" to both of these questions, you may proceed to post your opinions in the new thread.

Everybody, I've taken the liberty of creating the new thread- "Editing and Deleting Threads" with proper spelling. As you can see on the Index page, I am now the "Author" of the new thread "Editing and Deleting Threads". This is the least I can do for Burning Man. Now, please transfer to the new thread-

"Editing and Deleting Threads"

and cease to post here.

Thank you.
Sincerely yours, Suzie.

[Bob]

....You see, this topic has a mis-spelling in its name- "Editing and Deleting Threads". We are now going to move to the topic with a name properly spelled - "Editing and Deleting Threads". ....

Did you consider the title may have been a mispelling troll?

Anyhow -- I see no compelling life-or-death reason to disallow the author from editing or deleting the body of posts. After ten minutes of grace period to delete the whole thing, I'd keep the post, empty or not, w/name/subject/date headers, to preserve a rough record of the thread sequence and avoid complete confusion. Crippling normal features available w/phpBB because a few people on the board at a certain time lodge petty complaints seems punitive toward all the users who come here for reliable advice and information -- those might care less about following the ridiculous twists and turns in conversations of short-term significance, and might care more whether I might have made a mistake entering an URL re: shade structures a week or a month ago. If it matters to you and the context of your post, take on the responsibility of including an attributed representative quote yourself (see above).