Deletion of postings

[Octoate]

Hi,
I already noticed that more and more postings get deleted in this forum (I use a RSS reader to get the new postings and so I see all those postings) and I am very unhappy about this process. E.g. the thread about the Phreaks demo is missing some postings which weren't rude nor flamed anyone in this forum, but they got deleted anyway.

If you want to delete postings you should post some rules here which we can accept or not, but currently it seems that this is just arbitrariness. Well, I had a look at this situation for some months and just wanted to tell you my opinion here.

I know that I am not the only one who is complaining about this behaviour in the CPC Wiki forums...

[Devilmarkus]

Yes, true...
It's really sad that things are deleted without requesting...

I know, some users don't behave as they should. But deleting or editing their postings is also not the best way.
Sometimes I find postings which were replies to others, and then, when I want to read what happened:
[Last edit by Mr.X.....] or the reply had been deleted....

This really suxx... (Sorry)

[norecess]

Ah ok so it was that ! I thought it was a bug..

[redbox]

I can see your point, but I think the moderation is necessary.

If people weren't stupid in the first place, there would be no need to delete anything...?

[norecess]

I don't remember what have been said after that in the Phreaks thread - but it was not that bad, was it?

[Octoate]

I can see your point, but I think the moderation is necessary.

If people weren't stupid in the first place, there would be no need to delete anything...?

Is it necessary to directly delete a posting? There are other possibilities to stop users from flaming each other, e.g. you can close a thread for several days or you can ban a user for a day or a week. That's all better than deleting information in a forum.
The last postings, which I read and then were deleted, weren't harsh or flaming anyone and I can only imagine what the intention was to do that - maybe to prevent a possible flamewar!?

@norecess: In my opinion it wasn't.

[MacDeath]

Sorry the Flamewar came here...

[AMSDOS]

Unsure why some clean posts are being deleted, though if a post contains some comments which could lead to a potential feud, Deleting it before it creates havoc is necessarily. Unfortunately simply closing down a thread may only bottle up the amount of flaming or simply generate another thread which blows up in every one's faces and banning sometimes works, but sometimes it doesn't as well and if it doesn't work it can only lead to permanent dismissal!

I had one of my posts deleted and it was a stupid post anyway which disobeyed the golden rule cause it was using Sarcasm to fuel others view which could have lead to flames and sadly I slip in one every now and again which stirs people up!

[Gryzor]

CP/M User put it quite nicely.

Let's get the elephant out of the room: 99% of the posts deleted come either from TFM[nb]although, of course, I also delete any replies from other users; in the last case, and I apologise for that, a post by Markus was also modded because it was a reply to the situation and it would be out of place without the situation itself[/nb] or from Leonie[nb]R.I.P[/nb].

Let's see the options here:
-Try to control things through dialog: nope, this has been tried several times before and it has always failed, always resulting in bigger flames.
-Banning the user for a couple of days: nope, this has been tried before and has failed to put some sense into the brains of some people.
-Banning the user for ever: nope, usually. Leonie - I had no problem banning him because he *only* caused problems, while contributing very little (if anything at all). But, see now, TFM is a great contributor to the CPC scene and it'd be really bad not to have him on board.
-Locking the thread: how on earth this would be a better solution is beyond me, just stopping the creative activity altogether in order to fight a few offensive posts...

*However*, this gave me another idea: maybe when such flames start I could split the thread and move the offensive posts into a new thread in a Trash subforum and have it locked there. This is a middle way, sort of, though my skepticism about this stems from the fact that any insults would still be there...

So, I hope you now understand my point. Experience has shown that just deleting the obvious posts has the minimum effect on the life of the forum...

[fano]

*However*, this gave me another idea: maybe when such flames start I could split the thread and move the offensive posts into a new thread in a Trash subforum and have it locked there.

Something like this  

[Gryzor]

OMG.

[redbox]

I agree with Gryzor.

When only a couple of people are causing the problem then the best option is just to ask them to stop, but unfourtunately it doesn't usually work. So, sometimes it takes a sledgehammer to crack a nut. 

[Gryzor]

Oh - as far as "rules" go, what I've learned from my professional life is that rules are there to teach you how to bypass them. So either we have rule and arguments about whether a post violated them or not, or we have a very comprehensive rule set and we dig our own grave.

So, there are actually three rules:

1. Common sense
2. Respect
3. Goto 1

[AMSDOS]

Perhaps a compromise can be made and certain advertisements could be placed on certain pages? 

[Gryzor]

Perhaps I don't understand if this pertains to another thread or not?

[AMSDOS]

No, I mean someone should take the heat and have the advertising attached to their IP address, so every time they come in they get the commercials and not me!    That way it's still paid for! 

[Gryzor]

Heh, nice one. We're off topic, but in case anyone's confused, I'm NOT talking about paid-for ads, more like a banner rotator or something.

[AMSDOS]

Hmm, Banner Rotator sounds really involved!    I've just looked at the "CPC-Power" Site which has an ad or two running down the side of it (Powered by Google naturally), if it's something like that then it seems reasonible, but if it's something like in that webpage from doomworld, the whole motion of it is too attention seeking. Animated commericals and ones which pop-up from nowhere and consume the webpage viewing area (as occasionally featured on Yahoo) are a pain in the rear end too! 

[AMSDOS]

Overall, I guess it becomes difficult to maintain a large site without some aid to keep it moving along!