Why Can't One Delete Own Thread / Reply ??

[monirg]

Hello;

There're situations when one likes to remove his/her posting for whatever reason.
Assuming there're no replies to own thread or an incorrect reply had been posted by mistake to a wrong thread:
Is it unrealistic to provide the authors with the delete option as a possible remedy ??
Some Forums provide authors with unlimited and indefinite editing privilege; including "Delete".

Any comments ?

Regards.

 

[VoG]

You have a 10 minute window in which you can edit your post (you can delete everything and replace with "deleted" or whatever) http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=503953

 

[Peter_SSs]

I think there used to be a time when editing/deleting was allowed. However, threads can become meaningless if posts are subsequently deleted or the whole question or solution modified after replies are made. I'm not sure if the board software would even allow edit/delete until a reply was made and then remove edit/delete capability. Given that the Moderators are all volunteers, a simple system is a good system from our viewpoint. We would rather spend the majority of our time answering questions rather than moderating the forum.

In any case, if an error is made, correcting it with a subsequent post seems to work pretty well most of the time. If a post is grossly inappropriate for some reason it can be 'Reported' and a request made to the Moderators to edit/remove the post. Such requests are acted on fairly rarely - there needs to be a good reason.

 

[monirg]

I'm aware of the 10-minute window, as well as the possibility of posting a correction, retraction, or even an apology, but I was looking for a more practical and quick option such as Delete!

Contacting one of the Moderators is certainly an option, but probably wouldn't help unless the post is, as you put it, "grossly inappropriate", which is not the case!

Regards.

 

[Joe4]

Usually, there is very little need to delete a thread. In most cases, if a person has made a mistake in posting it, they often know right away and can delete it within that 10 minute window. There is generally no reason to go back and delete a thread that has no replies. It isn't hurting anything being out there.

In the rare instances in which it is legitimately needed, simply reporting it to Moderators will take care of that.

 

[monirg]

Thank you VoG, Peter SSs and Joe4 for your replies.

Regards.