To think MNHQ should let us delete our own threads

[BeaFuddled]

Just gone to catch up with a thread I was on and found this message

This thread has been deleted
Hello and thanks for the replies to this thread. The OP is very grateful but has asked that we take it down now - we have agreed to remove it.
MNHQ

I'm seeing it more and more with no reason given so why don't @MNHQ treat us like grown ups and let us delete a thread we've started if we think it's too outing, taken a nasty turn, wish we hadn't started it or its run course.

Good idea?

you could ask MN to delete your account and all your postings. How about you just go back and report all your posts?

The entire point of MN - and other message boards that were set up in the dim and distant past of Internet 1.0 - was to be helpful to everyone, as a forum. Just because people are now used to their own SM (where the content also doesn't belong to them, if only they read the small print they'd know that) it doesn't mean that the owner of a message board like MN has to listen to the footstamping of "it's not fair"

As pp said: if people posted in more appropriate parts of the site, it would be better all round.

This is sort of the idea that a thread you start is your personal property and you should be allowed to do what you like with it. But I disagree with that perspective, only your own words are yours. You start a thread you invite everyone else to engage, to just delete (or lock, or whatever) because it hasn’t given you what you want is disrespectful to everyone else you engage with on the board. Just because you start a conversation doesn’t mean you should have the right to make everyone else shut up if they don’t say what you want them to.

I see some merit to the idea you should be able to delete your own posts, though if people have already quoted you to comment on what you’ve said, that quote should not automatically be deleted.

We do have rights in respect of this

https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/your-right-to-get-your-data-deleted#:~:text=The%20right%20to%20get%20your%20data%20deleted%20is%20also%20known,'right%20to%20be%20forgotten'.

How do you do this?

I think the option of deleting your own thread is just going to encourage the non genuine posters and will result in a lot more troll posts.

I don't think so. MN is full of trolls - always has been and it's worse than ever now. Shouldn't stop people from being allowed to delete their own content.

Especially as MNHQ are pretty trigger happy (and inconsistent) in deleting threads/posts which they think aren't in "the spirit"

You can't. @BIWI was just suggesting what they think should happen.

Currently the only way for posters to delete their own posts / threads is to ask MNHQ to do so on their behalf.

Thanks! Bit of FOMO there!

OTOH - we don’t want threads full of holes because half the thread is missing and the other half is quoting missing posts.

If it happened a lot it would make threads pretty annoying, but I do see the argument that you own your own words and should be able to delete those if you wish. Whereas I don’t see the argument that you should be able to delete other people’s at all.

I don't think that means we can ask for posts to be deleted though - as that's not data, surely?

AFAIK posts are "content" and as soon as you hit that "post" button the content belongs to MN (terms & conditions i guess) to do with as they please.

I think MN has reactive moderation, i could be wrong I don't really think about it much, so if people report posts for not being in the spirit and they agree, away they go. Seems fair to me.

I think so yes,especially with the journalists sniffing around.MN may be the only safe space someone has to vent or seek help and all it takes is one journalist to pick up the story and publish it for all to see and potentially being identified by others who know them and their situation putting the OP in danger or at risk of harm.
I know this can happen as soon as any post is started but maybe if an OP got the help or advice they need they could take down the thread as soon as they needed or wanted to.

I don't actually agree with deleting threads unless for legal reasons and that's users or mumsnet.

People put effort into responding and then it's just gone is disgraceful to those people.

Absolutely don't complain if you get your arse handed to you if you post in AIBU.

That's your fault because you couldn't be bothered to post in correct area.

no, I like the Reddit style one where it deletes your username but people who commented can still read it, sometimes threads have really good advice/posts on and it sucks when they’re deleted

as for posting outing things? either don't post or change so many details that you are not recognisable.

That, of course, doesn't stop the supersluths going "but on your post 488 days ago you said you had 3 DCs and were an Irish lesbian and now you have 2 sets of twins and you're an Australian transgender gay man - i smell under-bridge-cheesy-feet" which you need to take into account.

It is interesting that more and more threads are being deleted seemingly very easily.

i had a thread about my child and was recognised IRL. Despite showing MN the issue it was causing they refused to delete the thread for hours, with endless back and forth, and only deleted after I’d posted on the thread saying I’d been recognised and had asked for it to be deleted and thanking everyone for their replies (MNs demand) to be fair to everyone. Yet other threads go instantly.

I think it's utterly ridiculous to think that other people benefit from threads to such an extent that people should not be able to delete their posts. We are all waking up to social media and online content and just how little anonymity there is - why shouldn't policies change to reflect that?

BTW this should be in site stuff if you want MNHQ to reply

I agree.

because while this is similar to social media, it isn't social media. We are posting on a board hosted by someone else, that is where the similarity ends.

If you are worried about posting something don't post it. That is Social Media/Internet 101

MN wouldn't be a viable business if the content could be deleted at any unpredictable moment.

If you want total control over your own content then you should bear the costs of hosting and publishing it.

There are already ways of posting so it gets automatically deleted, as pp have said.

I do think locking it and removing usernames could be a good compromise. I understand why people want to be able to post what they like and then delete but the threads would become like Swiss cheese. Mods being able to oversee it seems a good compromise. But I haven't had experience with wanting a thread deleted... so don't know how easy it is.

I
still don’t have the edit button

Yes, it would be really annoying like when people switch off commenting on Facebook because they are too lazy to turn off the notifications.

You don't own anything once you've posted it
Perhaps people should think more before posting a thread in the first place.