At 11/17/14 03:14 PM, liljim wrote:
What you're asking here is that there's some subjective rule applied to each and every topic before it's removed from their history - cherry pick the keepers from the rest.
In a better case scenario most threads wouldn't need to be picked at all, nor deleted, but more on that below. As for subjective rules though, would a restriction preventing topics of a certain size (IOW amount of posts) be deleted without review work better? Of course that'd still require the user's OK to their initial post remaining, if initial posts aren't deleted (which are indeed usually useful guides to the topic to follow), and if letting posts remain without user reference isn't the standard way to go about such things...
There will always be some remnant when your posts are deleted in quoted text in replies to what you have said.
And therein lies another problem. When people want to be gone, they want to be gone. It really is that simple.
Yet this applies not only to quotes within a topic, but to quotes within other topics those users have posted in. As the system works now there are still remnants of their writing quoted within other users posts.
One day I'd like to see an option where you can remove your account name from previous posts and the counter in your profile says "0" but the posts remain without being attributed to you. If you really want everything removed you could ask an admin for it.
I can think of nothing more time consuming than having someone go through each and every post in some of these huge threads for instances of names that need removing. Whilst it IS sad that these threads sometimes disappear, that's the nature of the beast.
I'd assume he was suggesting this could be an automated task, a script, where at most someone approves the request, and said user then has all reference to their recorded posts instantly wiped out and replaced with a <deleted>. Or maybe for sake of clarity an <a nonymous> in place of their name. Most of the time I'd think users are satisfied with that - they just don't want these posts in their post history, or their names by those posts. In those rare cases when they actually have certain information they want to hide/remove, then of course it'd have to go through an admin, as it does now, at which point topics being deleted might be the inevitable outcome. With the suggested option available though, maybe so much content wouldn't have to be disappear, and it'd save time for all involved parties!
As for the time consumption with going through posts in huge threads replacing users instances, couldn't an automated search and replace quickly look up quotation instances and swap out specified names with <replacement>? Quote headers seem easy to find since they all follow a distinct pattern.
Anyway, check the forum index page, I put in options to restore defaults.
Working flawlessly, thanks! :) Wasn't expecting to turn this thing into a full-blown debate btw, but I do appreciate all the answers. I don't expect you - as in the devoted and limited NG staff - to appease all individual user requests, but it seems to me some changes could make things easier/better for everyone!
