[RESOLVED] how do you delete a thread on this forum?

[Stoic]

its a nice layout and I am a bit confused

[Shaggy Hiker]

Well, I didn't think you could, but if you saw my last post, then you probably noticed that it isn't there anymore. So, it is possible under Edit, but you may have to be a power user to do that. Power users are those with more than 2048 posts (not counting in Chit-Chat), so you have a ways to go.

[techgnome]

I take it you're done with your homework then?

-tg

[FunkyDexter]

I'm pretty sure you can delete posts but not threads. You could try it out in the forum test area if you wanted to. I'd try it myself but I have no idea what abilities I get from being a power user, which come from being a mod and which are just general.

[FunkyDexter]

...however, I just came across your series of questions in the .Net forum and I can see you've edited out the content of each one of them. As a courtesy to others we'd ask that you don't do that. Those threads now appear completely nonsensicle so nobody else will be able to learn from them.

It looks like you were posting exam/homework questions so I can understand why you might want to delete them but it appeared to me that in every case you were asking us to check the answers you'd already arrived at yourself rather than give you answers. I don't know your teachers or the context but most probably wouldn't object to that... as long as you came up with the answers yourself.

[techgnome]

I think FD's right. Posts can be deleted (once a PU) but not the whole thread. But it's all good... I noticed earlier that Stoic was simply editing the original posts in all his threads, clearing things out now that the homework is done.

-tg

[FunkyDexter]

Would that be what prompted you to ask Shaggy if he'd finished his homework? I saw that first thing this morning and thought... errrr... what? It started to make a bit more sense as the morning wore on.

[dilettante]

Food for thought.

I have often started reading a thread and seen individual posts that make me think the author (a.) posted in the wrong thread, (b.) was trolling, (c.) was drunk, etc.

Now I wonder... could it be that someone came back and deleted intervening posts or even edited them such that the newer post looked bizarre?

[TysonLPrice]

I couldn't delete one in the test forum. I'm a PowerPoster (I didn't know that until today) and hovering over the "edit pencil" I see the option to delete. I can't get the cursor over it to click the option. I may just not be going about it thr right way.

[Steve R Jones]

...however, I just came across your series of questions in the .Net forum and I can see you've edited out the content of each one of them. As a courtesy to others we'd ask that you don't do that. Those threads now appear completely nonsensicle so nobody else will be able to learn from them.

No one except site staff should be able to "delete" anything..

On many of our sister sites, members only have up to 15 minutes to edit their own posts. I'm wondering if we should place a similar limit here. As FD mentioned in the quote, the threads in question are now useless.... And then there's the part where someone could flame the heck out of someone - then sober up and remove all the flames making it look like it never happened...

[TysonLPrice]

No one except site staff should be able to "delete" anything..

On many of our sister sites, members only have up to 15 minutes to edit their own posts. I'm wondering if we should place a similar limit here. As FD mentioned in the quote, the threads in question are now useless.... And then there's the part where someone could flame the heck out of someone - then sober up and remove all the flames making it look like it never happened...

I'd rather not see the 15 minute rule put in place. I see the point you are making but the flip side is "then sober up and remove all the flames making it look like it never should have happened. On the flip side of that I worked on a mainframe on an early email system where you could edit emails if you new where to go. You can imagine the stir it would cause if you could rewrite history.

See...I'm making progress, a year ago I would have accused a certain political party of that

I personally like the edit option the way it is now.

[FunkyDexter]

I can see the argument for the 15 minute rule but it makes me uneasy and I don't really know why.

I know I've gone back to posts much later in the day and edited them to correct spelling, typos etc. but I could certainly live without that ability to do that (though I'd look alot more stupid than I do now - if that's possible). I can't really think of any valid reason for editing a post that I couldn't live without.

On the flipside the 15 minute just feels a little heavy handed... but again, I don't really know why.

[Shaggy Hiker]

No one except site staff should be able to "delete" anything..

On many of our sister sites, members only have up to 15 minutes to edit their own posts. I'm wondering if we should place a similar limit here. As FD mentioned in the quote, the threads in question are now useless.... And then there's the part where someone could flame the heck out of someone - then sober up and remove all the flames making it look like it never happened...

I just tried editing one of my posts in this thread from yesterday and the Delete button is still there. I didn't try it because:

@Dilettante: What you have seen could also be All of the Above, but I have certainly seen cases where somebody edited a post that made it look like the next poster was seeing things. You can edit, and it is rarely abused, but in some rare cases a person edits a question to ask a totally different question after answers to the first question have been posted. That makes for entertaining reading.

I like the editing ability the way it is. Abuses are rare, and worth the price.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Would that be what prompted you to ask Shaggy if he'd finished his homework? I saw that first thing this morning and thought... errrr... what? It started to make a bit more sense as the morning wore on.

I didn't see the post, but I expect I know what it was referring to.

[FunkyDexter]

I think it was in CC somewhere, probably the post race. When I came across the series of what looked like test questions it made me grin but it was kinda wierd. Like a joke where the punchline came first.

I think the edit buttons rarely abused because, for me, that word implies some malicious intent. It is occasionally miss-used, though. Some users just don't realise the confusing effect they have by changing a question, they're just trying to keep things succinct.

I guess you could call what Stoic did as abuse. My guess is he was posting his answers for a test then deleted them because he was afraid his teacher might see them and construe it as cheating... and maybe his teacher would construe it that way. But the thing that struck me was that he was posting answers he'd already worked out rather than just asking for answers and they seemed to be almost all correct. If he was cheating he didn't need to, he'd have aced the test without it.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yeah, and that's why I answered as I did. Stoic picked up on a few things that even the teacher may have overlooked.

[dilettante]

I like the editing ability the way it is. Abuses are rare, and worth the price.

I agree. Considering the "posterity" angle the ability to correct typos and snafus in general result in a cleaner, clearer "reference thread" than looking 27 posts down for corrections to mangled statements and code snippets.

[RobDog888]

Its not possible to delete a thread in any area other than CC. Now when members go around clearing out the content of posts then its just ruining things for everyone as a new policy may need to be put in place to prevent this.

Rule of thumb, if you post it, expect it to live forever as there are always ways to retrieve content even after the website is gone.

Dont want it on the internet for all to see forever then simply dont post the content!

[Shaggy Hiker]

Yeah, we get plenty of people who follow that rule. That explains all the threads along the lines of:

"I wrote a program and it isn't working. What's wrong with it?"

[RobDog888]

If members post a thread like that and youre tired of prying out information from them to answer their "question" then dont reply. Sooner or later they will get the hint that if they want an answer they have to provide a proper question. I kno wI surely dont have time to play 20 questions

[techgnome]

That's usually when I whip out the crystal ball reply and start telling them to remove eels from their hovercraft.

-tg

[RobDog888]

Sounds like you found some funky shrooms on your last hike

[boops boops]

It looks like you were posting exam/homework questions so I can understand why you might want to delete them but it appeared to me that in every case you were asking us to check the answers you'd already arrived at yourself rather than give you answers. I don't know your teachers or the context but most probably wouldn't object to that... as long as you came up with the answers yourself.

It's strange that a student who already has all the correct answers would ask someone to confirm that they are correct. What could be the explanation?

1. Stoic or one of his friends has hacked into the teacher's computer and found what appears to be the answers to the exam. Stoic doesn't know enough about VB to be certain that the answers really are correct and is suspicious that the file may have one or more deliberate wrong answers to catch out any cheats.

2. Stoic is the teacher and wants to know which of his students cheat. He posts the questions and answers to the forum, pretending to be a student. The statistical chance that students will get not only all the answers right but formulate them all in exactly the same way is practically zero. Anyone who does so will fail. Wiping the original posts and posting dumb questions is just a smokescreen to make him look more like a student

3. Stoic is doing a thesis about exam cheating on web forums and the posts are part of an experiment. Will the numbers of students who get all the answers right differ significantly from the control group whose test answers haven't been published?

Would someone be so kind as to confirm whether any of the above scenarios are plausible? I'll erase this post as soon as I get a satisfactory answer. Thank you, S.... I mean BB.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Sounds like you found some funky shrooms on your last hike

Did you get the wrong person? I certainly found some funky shrooms on my last...bike (as it turned out), but I didn't eat them...nor did I post what you appear to have replied to

[Shaggy Hiker]

It's strange that a student who already has all the correct answers would ask someone to confirm that they are correct. What could be the explanation?

They were being graded on whatever it was is the most likely explanation.

1. Stoic or one of his friends has hacked into the teacher's computer and found what appears to be the answers to the exam. Stoic doesn't know enough about VB to be certain that the answers really are correct and is suspicious that the file may have one or more deliberate wrong answers to catch out any cheats.

Unlikely. Frankly, if they were able to hack into the teacher's computer, perhaps they don't need an introductory class in programming. Furthermore, a teacher who would deliberately plant false answers in the expectation that they would be stolen...would be pretty impressive, too.

2. Stoic is the teacher and wants to know which of his students cheat. He posts the questions and answers to the forum, pretending to be a student. The statistical chance that students will get not only all the answers right but formulate them all in exactly the same way is practically zero. Anyone who does so will fail. Wiping the original posts and posting dumb questions is just a smokescreen to make him look more like a student

That would be awesome! Cyber-warfare reaches the classroom.

3. Stoic is doing a thesis about exam cheating on web forums and the posts are part of an experiment. Will the numbers of students who get all the answers right differ significantly from the control group whose test answers haven't been published?

I don't believe this to be the case....but now that you mention it, I really hope somebody tries it. That would be even more awesome than the last one.

[techgnome]

4) It's the end of the term, Stoic needs an A in the class... posts what he has as his answers, refines them, and turns them in.

I will say this though, at least it was obvious he put some effort into it... normally we get the posts with the questions and no effort at solving it.

-tg

[FunkyDexter]

My pet theory is that he posted his answers legitimately (sort of) wanting confirmation of his answers, then the other students found the forum so he took them down to stop everyone else copying them. TG's suggestion probably more likely though.

[dee-u]

How about the 15 minute rule for all non-Power Users and below?

[boops boops]

How about the 15 minute rule for all non-Power Users and below?

I agree with that idea but I think Power User (2048+) is setting the bar much too high. It seems to me that most of the edits that take place are from people trying to provide information or who at least care about the quality of what they post. I think something like 50+ posts would be enough to sift out the habitual OP-deletion cowpersons, who are thankfully pretty rare anyway.

BB

[TysonLPrice]

I've been here for about twelve years and I don't think this has every come up. Why not just leave things as they are?

[Shaggy Hiker]

I like that plan, too.

[FunkyDexter]

You clearly don't understand how bored I am at the moment. Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle...

[RobDog888]

Bord, board or bored...

[FunkyDexter]

Is Bord a word?

<heads off to google>

Well I never, it actually is, but only if you're Cornish or several hundred years old. Not sure which applies to RobDog.




I actually don't have a strong opinion on a 15 minute rule. I'm not convinced we need it but I don't think it'd do any harm either.

[Shaggy Hiker]

That's the rule I use when deciding to eat something off the floor. I'm still standing.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I found a variety of definitions of bord, including a face of a coal seam, and "on the edge of". That suggests that you can be bored on board the bord of a board.

[RobDog888]

Is Bord a word?

<heads off to google>

Well I never, it actually is, but only if you're Cornish or several hundred years old. Not sure which applies to RobDog.

800+ years old, so guess Im old

[Nightwalker83]

I'm pretty sure you can delete posts but not threads. You could try it out in the forum test area if you wanted to. I'd try it myself but I have no idea what abilities I get from being a power user, which come from being a mod and which are just general.

In the Chit Chat section you may delete both! Everywhere else you may own delete posts.

[Niya]

The 15 minute limit idea is a bad idea. In my case, I would be unable to edit my OPs for CodeBank submissions whenever I make updates to whatever is posted.