The whole point of a forum is to save and preserve posts so that other can learn by reading questions other have asked. If you don't want something to be seen by everyone, you shouldn't post it in the first place.
Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Arvind Mahendra
Ranch Hand
Joined: Jul 14, 2007
Posts: 1162
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fred rosenberger wrote:There isn't one, and you can't.
The whole point of a forum is to save and preserve posts so that other can learn by reading questions other have asked. If you don't want something to be seen by everyone, you shouldn't post it in the first place.
Arvind Mahendra wrote:What about poster's remorse?
Poster can ask a moderator to delete the post.
How do you know this?
We don't advertise it because we don't want to encourage posts to be deleted.
Arvind Mahendra
Ranch Hand
Joined: Jul 14, 2007
Posts: 1162
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David O'Meara wrote:
Arvind Mahendra wrote:
Devaka Cooray wrote:
Arvind Mahendra wrote:What about poster's remorse?
Poster can ask a moderator to delete the post.
How do you know this?
We don't advertise it because we don't want to encourage posts to be deleted.
David this is really unfair. What the new policy basically says is that there are no second chances with what you want to say or not say, and the only action you can take is feel remorse. Do you know how damaging this kind of thinking is? Just ask any teenager who gets his report card and thinks his life is now over because he failed to make the grade. You are encouraging poster's inertia with this policy. Posters will now wonder if they would like to take such a big gamble before making a post knowing that there is no recourse.
W. Joe Smith
Ranch Hand
Joined: Feb 10, 2009
Posts: 710
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Arvind Mahendra wrote:
David this is really unfair. What the new policy basically says is that there are no second chances with what you want to say or not say, and the only action you can take is feel remorse. Do you know how damaging this kind of thinking is? Just ask any teenager who gets his report card and thinks his life is now over because he failed to make the grade. You are encouraging poster's inertia with this policy. Posters will now wonder if they would like to take such a big gamble before making a post knowing that there is no recourse.
But if you post something that is incorrect (such as an answer to a question, or a code modification that isn't right) and that gets corrected other people that are making the same mistake can learn from it. That is kind of the whole point of the forums, really. What are you posting that you feel later should be deleted?
SCJA
When I die, I want people to look at me and say "Yeah, he might have been crazy, but that was one zarkin frood that knew where his towel was."
David this is really unfair. What the new policy basically says is that there are no second chances with what you want to say or not say, and the only action you can take is feel remorse. Do you know how damaging this kind of thinking is? Just ask any teenager who gets his report card and thinks his life is now over because he failed to make the grade. You are encouraging poster's inertia with this policy. Posters will now wonder if they would like to take such a big gamble before making a post knowing that there is no recourse.
If you feel remorse you can always apologise in whatever topic you feel you might have offended people in. People usually understand if you demonstrate contrition.
David this is really unfair. What the new policy basically says is that there are no second chances with what you want to say or not say, and the only action you can take is feel remorse. Do you know how damaging this kind of thinking is? Just ask any teenager who gets his report card and thinks his life is now over because he failed to make the grade. You are encouraging poster's inertia with this policy. Posters will now wonder if they would like to take such a big gamble before making a post knowing that there is no recourse.
But if you post something that is incorrect (such as an answer to a question, or a code modification that isn't right) and that gets corrected other people that are making the same mistake can learn from it. That is kind of the whole point of the forums, really. What are you posting that you feel later should be deleted?
W., I think the above example is a very self serving one that ignores the bigger problem. Although I take some issues with your example as these aren't just all technical forums here, but lets just say using your example, somebody posts a long answer to a question and right after posting he realizes that he missed something or gave an inaccurate answer or completely missed what was asked. In this case he may want to delete for now and go work on it later. But since he cant' quickly delete, he must edit his long answer and in the mean time people s*** all over his answer and make him and any potential employer googling for him feel like this guy is an incompetent fool. The only resort poster now has is to quickly edit out his long answer and shorten it to just a '.' and quickly get out of there. But he's stil not off the hook, because do you know how embarrassing it would be if an employer or a colleague surfs onto a post where Original/P had asked "hey man whats the diff b/w interface and abstract class?" and then sees your response as '.' This will do nothing but encourage Poster's anonymity, as posters will be reluctant to use their login account with their real account unless they can be 100% sure that a particular posting will make them look good.
Both your previous posts take an extreme view but I believe the reality is a little less severe. I'm not aware of that many life or job threatening posts made on the Ranch.
While we don't allow deletion, there is the ability to edit posts in the case or posters remorse.
Campbell Ritchie
Sheriff
Joined: Oct 13, 2005
Posts: 32712
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There is nothing unfair about this policy. We have had people who post a question, only to delete it later after being given an answer. That makes the rest of the thread read as nonsense, and is unfair to those who have replied whose replies are unintelligible without the original question.
Campbell Ritchie
Sheriff
Joined: Oct 13, 2005
Posts: 32712
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There is no problem about posting mistakes; I do it all the time. In fact one learns more from seeing the mistakes corrected, or imprecision sharpened, than from a straight answer in the first place.
W. Joe Smith
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Joined: Feb 10, 2009
Posts: 710
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And, even if you were to delete a post because there was something wrong with it the saying about "What happens on the internet stays on the internet" applies. Even if you delete every single post, those willing to invest some time can (most likely) dig and find your deleted posts.
I never really worried about being wrong, even way off. If they saw a post I made where I was brutally incorrect and didn't hire me, then fine. I'm reaching out to a well known, very experienced Java community to help learn the language. And I doubt anyone that posts on these forums has always posted 100% correct code.
Someone here once told me something wise. (This was by e-mail, not in the forums - so I'll allow him to stay anonymous if he wishes.)
He said that those who do all the work make all the mistakes. Everyone says something wrong every once in a while. We are human. If someone googles me, they first see I am active online. Then they read a sampling of posts - maybe. If they do, they see I am right most of the time. Or I was learning technology Y, X years ago. These are good things. Not having any presence doesn't seem better than being wrong a small percent of the time.
Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:Someone here once told me something wise. (This was by e-mail, not in the forums - so I'll allow him to stay anonymous if he wishes.)
He said that those who do all the work make all the mistakes. Everyone says something wrong every once in a while. We are human. If someone googles me, they first see I am active online. Then they read a sampling of posts - maybe. If they do, they see I am right most of the time. Or I was learning technology Y, X years ago. These are good things. Not having any presence doesn't seem better than being wrong a small percent of the time.
If i googled someone I was considering hiring, I'd rather see them post something wrong and come back and say "Oops, I made a mistake" than not post ANYTHING. Admitting a mistake is, IMHO, a sign of a GOOD developer. It shows your willing to re-think your position, willing to take in new information, and listen to others.
I've looked at a lot of forums in the last few months. It would seem that about half have the same policy.
There have been times that people have come to this forum and they were remarkably persuasive and their persuasion succeeded in getting me to change my mind. These people usually have a complete grasp of why things are the way they are, and they propose something that meets all of the needs. Usually something we have not considered before.
Statements like "this is really unfair" don't strike me as persuasive.
I think that if someone felt strongly enough about it, then they would choose to use a site other than JavaRanch.
paul wheaton wrote:I've looked at a lot of forums in the last few months. It would seem that about half have the same policy.
There have been times that people have come to this forum and they were remarkably persuasive and their persuasion succeeded in getting me to change my mind. These people usually have a complete grasp of why things are the way they are, and they propose something that meets all of the needs. Usually something we have not considered before.
Statements like "this is really unfair" don't strike me as persuasive.
I think that if someone felt strongly enough about it, then they would choose to use a site other than JavaRanch.
Ok so "thats not fair" is not persuasive - agreed. What kind of an persuasive argument would have moved you to add the delete button back in? assuming you had to argue for a delete button, how would you have done this differently? English is my second language, so I am really looking for something like a script or something.
I am willing to take my time to present a convincing case but I need yours and everyone's helps in helping me articulating my position. In addition to that, I would appreciate it if you could point me to posts where posters have managed to convince you and point out what they did right and how I might emulate them for similar outcome.
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