Ability to delete your own posts?

[Dullstar]

I recently accidentally double posted in a thread, and didn't see a button to delete the post.

Maybe I'm thinking of a site, but I think you used to be able to delete your own posts? If not, it would be nice to be able to delete accidental double posts like this so a moderator doesn't have to.

[Simon]

Top-right corner of your own posts should offer delete.

-- Simon

[namida]

This option used to exist but was removed as a result of someone using it (by deleting their topics and reposting them) to censor criticism of their pack.

[Simon]

Please re-enable for all users. It may be ill-designed because thread deletion affects other people's posts, but it's still a sharp and good tool.

Can you enable post deletion without enabling thread deletion?

-- Simon

[namida]

Seems I can do that. Done.

[Simon]

Delete own topics: This was off, unsure why because namida enabled it in 2017. namida enabled post deletion, not topic deletion.

Now, both are allowed. Regular users can delete their own topics. This trashes all posts inside by everybody, thus be careful.

-- Simon

[Simon]

The problem: If topic deletion is disallowed and post deletion is allowed, the forum disallows regular users to delete their own single-post topics. Forum software doesn't offer a finer distinction. A sad limitation.

Thus, I enabled topic deletion for all users. The abuse potential (delete your topic to also delete other people's posts inside) is there again. What weighs more though? Be able to delete your own single-post topics that you don't want anymore, or the safety that topic authors won't delete your replies?

I'm open either way.

-- Simon

[namida]

The user who was doing this has not been active on the site for a long time, and to the best of my knowledge, no other users have been attempting to do it.

My suggestion: We allow the self-delete in general. If any individual user is found to be abusing it, per-user permissions (or perhaps just a special permission group they get added to, preferably an invisible one if that can be done) could be used to override this and revoke their ability to delete their topics.

I would not consider it inherently "abuse" simply because they delete a topic with replies, provided it was not done for a malicious purpose (such as hiding criticism). Users should be encouraged not to do this as a "mini-mod" type thing; ie: if there are a few legitimately problematic posts in an otherwise-good topic, they should not delete the whole topic to get rid of those posts, instead, they should ask a mod / admin to remove just the offending posts. We have an extremely high mods-to-regular-users ratio, so it shouldn't take long for such posts to get dealt with; and most problem posts on this site have been harmless-but-annoying spambot posts, nothing particularly severe.

[geoo]

I'm against allowing users to delete their own topics, unless it's possible for admins to recover them if they want to.
Otherwise it's basically a form of data loss, which can be anything from negligible to severe, just imagine a high-profile user
from the past deciding they want to erase their tracks. Nothing you could do once it's too late, so I don't agree with the wait-and-see policy.

If someone really feels so strongly about getting rid of their topic they can just ask a mod.

[Akseli]

From IRC:

[00:59] <Akseli> yes, geoo's opinion here is actually what I had in my mind right from the beginning, too, it feels too powerful to have a chance to delete entire topics impulsively

[ccexplore]

There is an admin setting under Forum > Boards that (based on the terse help text) appears to turn "delete" of topics and posts into "recycling" (which I guess means moving) such deleted topics and posts to a specific board.  Obviously we haven't tried it, but if it works the way I imagine, presumably this offers a way to undelete.  There is also a "remove old posts" manual forum maintenance action that can conceivably be utilized for a sort of "empty the recycle bin" action for such a recycling board.

That said, I do tend to echo geoo in that the need to delete an entire topic is infrequent enough, "just ask a mod to do it" seems a reasonably sufficient option.

[Simon]

Thanks for the feedback!

I've enabled the recycling feature, although not 100 % sure if that's better than disabling topic deletion.

The Recycling board is visible to Global Mods and Admins. Deleted topics are moved to Recycling. Any topic on recycling "appears to be either missing or off limits" to regular users. Global mods/admins can then delete topics on Recycling for good, or move them back, or split them etc. as needed. I tested (regular user posts topic, admin replies, regular user deletes, see topic reappear on Recycling), works well.

Thus, I've kept the allowance to delete topics for regular users.

I'm still open to rediscuss. I like that you can remove your own unwanted topics without replies. But maybe you consider this recycling weird? It still appears to give regular users the power to make your posts vanish. Apparent data loss is nasty.

-- Simon

[namida]

For testing purposes, I deleted a TEST ACCOUNT topic on the Staff Board.

Result: Topics deleted by staff also get moved to the Recycling board. This is good - although accidental deletes are unlikely, having an extra line of defence against them is never a bad idea.

I also observed that topics that get moved there via deletion, may not immediately show up in the board's topic list. The "Empty File Cache" option in the admin panel (under Forum Maintanence) seems to fix this.