A small query for JK (just out of curiosity!)

A bit of a mystery, Graeme. I haven't done anything to delete the post. I saw it and I thought it was helpful. I think the original poster can delete a post, using the "delete" button on the lower right. in which case the thread would probably go away as well. I don't remember who the original poster was, do you? It might be helpful in finding the thread. 

I just checked the activity log, Graeme. It's gone and I'm not sure why.

The poster was a familar Forum name I recognised, but for the life of me I can't remember which familiar name it was!

His problem was that he had been trying to search the Forum on his cellphone and the search icon was invisible, but he managed the search successfully once he got home. So maybe he just decided his post had brought him a result and he deleted it, but that's not something one would normally do. I thought only the Moderator could do it?

Mind you, he did say "Am I going mad?" (or words to that effect) when he couldn't get Search to work, so maybe he didn't want his insanity exposed to permanent view. Once his medication kicks in he may log in again and let us know.

At least I now know I'm not going mad.

Craeme you may be on to something. Looks like authors can delete their own posts, including the entire thread, just tested it.

Hmmm, many years ago in my CompuServe Forums days, a similar situation to this caused real chaos (and eventually problems). A poster could delete his original post after others had also posted in the thread and the whole thread would then vanish. Also, I think a poster could delete a response, supposedly claiming it somehow revealed their personal info, etc, etc. No need to request a Moderator to do it !

What happened is that some posters, when they perhaps got a detailed, point by point refutation of something they championed (or if they just didn't like someone) could deep-six any opposition, even if someone spent and hour or two researching points and details. The Mods were not sympathetic to our complaints and the only possible solution was to always copy and paste one's answer to a completely new "phantom" thread and/or some other posting "trick". Naturally, this unfortunately led to organizational havoc.    

Yes, a bit of a double-edged sword.

I can understand someone writing a post and clicking "Add Topic", then thinking "Oops, maybe that was a bad idea" or deciding their comment was unnecessary and deleting it. Fair enough. On the other hand, as Mike says, if someone has raised a contentious issue and others have devoted time and thought to debating the question, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth if the originator can just pull the plug on the whole thread because they feel they've lost the argument or feel embarrassed by the whole thing. And the ability to delete any posts in the thread that disagree with you, as Mike describes, is maybe even worse.

Am I right in remembering that on the old Forum only the Moderator could delete, even if it was just a matter of removing a duplicate post? More work for the Moderator, of course, but I think it would be a fairly rare occurence. Usually people are happy to let their posts stand, or if they do feel the need to qualify or amend their original thoughts they can simply edit their original post or add a supplementary comment to the thread. And if the Moderator feels the whole thread has become offensive, wiping it is their privilege (although some contributors might reasonably object that the debate should remain visible, for better or worse).

Presumably under the current system you can only delete you own original post, and not selectively delete other people's replies?

In any case, we may be told that the "Delete your own post" function is built in to the system and can't be changed, but then we heard that about several other features (including the dreaded reCapcha) and adjustments were eventually made.

Not sure if this will lead to a discussion about the pros and cons of the "right to delete", or whether most folks don't care one way or the other. (Yawn)

@graeme-ogg  Graeme - You are correct - in the old days we could not delete a post, especially inadvertent duplicates. But we could edit, a;; the way down to a period. That's why there were so many that read " .(EOM)" (remember those?) Anyway, perhaps posters here could be kind to the follow-up posters by using this method, or at least using the edit function to revise.  

It might also be that the original poster inadvertently deleted his post. I'm not aware of any that were deliberately removed.

I think Facebook works the same way.  I'll post some sort of joke to get a response, then delete my original post and see if the whole thread is deleted. Specifically this is what i'd like to know more about, from Graeme's response: 

"If someone has raised a contentious issue and others have devoted time and thought to debating the question, it leaves a bad taste in the mouth if the originator can just pull the plug on the whole thread because they feel they've lost the argument or feel embarrassed by the whole thing. And the ability to delete any posts in the thread that disagree with you, as Mike describes, is maybe even worse."

I have techie friends who can explain this sort of thing to me.  [Graeme, no names or Forums mentioned.  I'll use different wording and not direct quote].

No problem.

I see that the "Delete" option only appears at the bottom of the text entry area on your own posts.

 That means nobody else can go into original posts (or replies) they don't like and delete them. So we don't have to worry about that at least.