Why not able to delete a post during editing time period?

[Jingthing]

From time to time, or all the time for that matter, during the editing period of new posts (30 minutes) posters may wish to edit their posts. That is supported. But sometimes there are good reasons to just delete the post entirely. Sometimes because of second thoughts of making the post, sometimes there is a moderator comment about a thread going off topic and previous posts you were replying to are deleted ... etc., etc. The way I have dealt with those cases is to either just blank out my post and say POST WITHDRAWN or sometimes I'll just edit and add a new post entirely just to not have a blank post. The trouble with blanking out posts is that when you use the QUOTE function you are including other posters posts and then it looks weird to reply to another existing post with POST WITHDRAWN. So in those cases, I have just been blanking out the text in those quotes, but the identifying headers of those quotes can't be deleted. So that's weird. Bad weird.

So short story long ... why can't we just be able to DELETE the post entirely during the editing period?

If the reason is technical, software doesn't support, OK, that would be surprising, but a good reason.

If another reason, I don't get it. Like if the reason is people shouldn't be able to post horrible stuff and then just wipe it out without consequences, well you can ALREADY do that just by blanking out your post. But what's left is just a blank post, certainly not desirable.

The topic of deleting new threads (as opposed to just posts) during the editing time period is a separate issue. Obviously, if you start a new thread and even one person replies during the 30 minutes, that would be a problem to delete the thread as it would involve other posts.

Seems better to have the power to delete the entire post during the editing period.

Edited May 10, 2015 by Jingthing

[Crossy]

The ability to delete one's own posts hasn't been a feature of the forum software for as long as I've been a member here.

I think you can delete everything even the quoted posts, but there has to be something in the edited post ("post withdrawn" or a "." works) or the result won't save.

Then either leave it alone and maybe a mod will spot it and remove, or hit Report and get faster action.

[Jingthing]

OK. I am going to test this now with your quote.

I am unable to delete your quote frame. Only the text.

If this is really possible, can you explain how?

This is probably the larger issue.

Sure a blank post can say Post Withdrawn.

But if you can't fully delete the quote, that's weird.

Anyway, thanks for the info that delete isn't supported by the forum software. That seems odd to me that isn't at least a TECHNICAL option in the software. Oh well.

Personally I wouldn't want to elevate a blank post even with a blank quote with a report. Again ... oh well.

Edited May 10, 2015 by Jingthing

[NeverSure]

JT, you have to click and scroll to just above the poster's name and hit delete. I can cut multiple posts down one at a time by starting with the center one. Here they are in sequence.

If Crossy's post had text in it I would have clicked just below that and scrolled upward to select that too. I always click and scroll upwards to do all of this.

Edited May 11, 2015 by NeverSure

[Jingthing]

OK, able to do this now.

After saving the message with quote and editing, I need to move the cursor up with an arrow button to get to the top of the quote frame to select it.

Cheers.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Jingthing

[RichCor]

Don't forget that you can also 'edit or clean things up' by entering BBCode Mode (top-left icon in the Post Edit Box).

Sometimes I have to use BBCode Mode to let me escape a Quote frame to get a line to enter my own comments.

[Maestro]

Jingthing, I'm glad you have been able to solve what you perceived as a problem.

Just the same, it is worth looking at the question why the underlying forum software does not allow members to delete their own posts during the brief period that they are allowed to edit them. You may not know this but it is not meant to be a secret that not only each topic, but also each post in a topic has its own URL, ie its own link or unique address which brings you directly to that post when you click on such link. This is very useful when you want to give a link to an individual post in another topic, obviating the need to copy and paste the post in question. Therefore, if a member were allowed to delete his own post this would result in a broken or dead link and thus contribute to so-called link rot, something that every web programmer tries to avoid as best he can.

[wooloomooloo]

Can JT be deleted? Only joking. I'll get me coat.

Edited May 11, 2015 by wooloomooloo

[wooloomooloo]

I wouldn't mess about with all that, JT.

As RichCor states, hit the BBCode Mode icon and the entire quote/post turns to text and just delete what you require.

I use this to remove multiple lines that aren't necessary and code that has inserted itself to my post and quotes and generally tidy up my posts. I hate quoting everything and just quote the relevant sentence or two and this is a great way to do things, and quick.

Give it a few days and you'll be flying.

Edited May 11, 2015 by wooloomooloo

[wooloomooloo]

I also use BBCode mode to copy timestamps so I can refer back and forth and do all sorts of funky things, just so I can keep my posts looking professional, even if the content isn't, LOL.

[Jingthing]

Jingthing, I'm glad you have been able to solve what you perceived as a problem.

Just the same, it is worth looking at the question why the underlying forum software does not allow members to delete their own posts during the brief period that they are allowed to edit them. You may not know this but it is not meant to be a secret that not only each topic, but also each post in a topic has its own URL, ie its own link or unique address which brings you directly to that post when you click on such link. This is very useful when you want to give a link to an individual post in another topic, obviating the need to copy and paste the post in question. Therefore, if a member were allowed to delete his own post this would result in a broken or dead link and thus contribute to so-called link rot, something that every web programmer tries to avoid as best he can.

Thanks for all that and yes I did know that each post has a link as I've been using that function for years.

However, it makes no sense to me as an explanation why we can't delete the posts while only 30 minutes.

How likely is it that many people are going to be referring others to such newly wrought posts? Answer: obviously not likely at all.

I see that it makes sense from a software design POV ... but I can't imagine it would take much coding to add a time limit delete function for users, would it? Not suggesting that is any kind of priority.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Jingthing

[Maestro]

...

How likely is it that many people are going to be referring others to such newly wrought posts? Answer: obviously not likely at all.

...

Agreed, but a good programmer takes no chances. You would have to be a programmer yourself (I am not) to be able to imagine all the possibilities.

[slipperylobster]

However...even if you delete your post....I believe it would still show up if someone had quoted you before you deleted.

If not...then the thread would turn into nonsense. Blank deleted posts with replies that have no context.

Edited May 11, 2015 by slipperylobster