The flip side to that is, if they've made a thread about something unnecessarily provocative, then more people have the opportunity to be provoked by it in the time it takes to request deletion, & the point when it's actually deleted, than would be if the user could just remove it his or herself.
Yes, you are right, but you also need to know that certain rule is there with the intention, and it’s flip side in mind.
You think it was intentionally planned to omit that "privilege?" Likely not... probably just an oversight (believe it or not, they make them, too). There's essentially, nay... ABSOLUTELY no benefit to disallowing people to delete their own threads. The only issue with it now, is that it's probably beyond a "flick of the switch" remedy at this point, & the addition of such is likely excessively cumbersome. Doesn't REALLY matter, as the threads that need to go are gone regardless, but there's absolutely no reason anyone should have to wait for a mod to do their own dirty work, in this regard.
In this regard, you can edit your post for certain time limit.
"Evidences & proofs?" So...you want punitive measures against thought crimes, more than you want a cohesive community, yes? That someone starts a thread, & immediately thinks "you know, I wish I hadn't started that here" isn't good enough, you feel they need a finger wagging for having such naughty thoughts in the first place, yes? Granted, some lack the ability to self-regulate, & will make such a thread that don't have such hindsight, & they may very well need some degree of admonishment. Those people would catch their spanking with or without a delete button though, so what we're really talking about is board quality in the absence of moderator action. Which could be significant; from roughly 1am EST to 4am EST, there wasn't a mod available for a question I have about starting a "a trade" thread; kept checking back in that stretch to see if there was a name in red online... nothing. So for AT LEAST three hours, I could have had a thread up with just about anything. Granted, there's not a lot of activity through those hours, but that's irrelevant, as the damage could already be done; if I was inadvertently breaking a rule, I'd SURELY get a no-no point for it being up so long, & if it was offensive, just imagine how many awful feelings it might trigger...all for unnecessary, because I couldn't delete it myself. Sure, you can edit the content to an extent, but you can't edit the title...
Yes, you can.
Good deal. So, if you can do all that...why not delete? What, should they be pinched for "covering up" their no-no via edit? I'd still argue that pertains to board quality, because now you've got some junk thread that was given no thought up, that's just as garbage & pointless as duplicate threads. If you can change the title within 15 minutes...why not be able to delete the whole thing within 15 minutes? LoL, if anything, that's even MORE of a reason to give us the option...
Again, read the rule.
) about what they're posting before clicking that post/reply button. What users post may be up for a few hours, potentially damaging the reputation of the user who posted it, before we can get to it.
A picture perfect poster child example was a police forum. One would think the ideal place to get a heads up on the various laws and statutes. It was taken over by a person who arbitrarily deleted posts or threads using his personal IMHO and catering to a core group of preferred individuals. The result was a DB so full of holes searches were all but useless.
Just out of curiosity, how could such a feature be abused?Meant to make a statement in this thread sooner, sorry about the delay. The reasons mentioned by @BoyFromLA and @The Snark are just some examples of why users can't delete their own threads.
@tarantulas118
We are all about the preservation of content. Removing a thread because it was answered doesn't do anything to help the next person with that same question. It also means that anyone who replied to the thread wasted their time as the replies are deleted along with the thread. That is the major reason we do not allow users to delete their own threads.
@Tentacle Toast
While there may be an occasional oversight when it comes to permissions, they generally only occur when changes are made to the forum. Users deleting their own threads is not an oversight, but an example of the abuse of the few outweighing the convenience of the many. While a provocative thread may cause issues, in the long run, it staying up for a few hours until a mod can look at it is much less problematic, as well as much less work, than someone rage quitting and deleting all their content.
Any additional editing time is there for fixing any typos that may be noticed or changing to a more appropriate title, not for hiding "no no's" (although some may think it can be used as such).
We're big believers in personal accountability and users are responsible for what they post. We hope that everyone will think twice (and maybe three or four times
This is all about the concept of "Stop and Think" before you post.
Just like software companies don't advise how to abuse bugs in their code, I'm also not going to advise how to abuse a feature (even if it's not present).
Well I guess that makes sense (both counts). Still struggle to see what possible abuse could transpire in the span of 15 minutes (should such a feature last as long as the ability to edit a title), but I don't run a forum, so it doesn't really matter, LoL.