As a moderator, I’d probably delete a very old thread at someone’s request if it was something embarrassing and they had a compelling reason.
I just remembered about a message board where my ex girlfriend posted. It was jam band music related and there was a lot of talk about partying and drug use.
There were a number of couples on there and one of them were starting a nasty divorce with a child involved. He was a massive dick with a substance problem. His male friends on there were trying to protect him. She tried to get statements from them for the divorce suit to deny him custody and they were worried that she’d try to get printouts of certain threads to use against him. Of course lots of people took her side too.
It completely blew up the board. Threads started getting deleted to the point that nothing made sense and it all quickly died after over ten years of being a great place.
Ah, yes, the old “throw out insults or break the rules, then delete the post so nobody can call you on it, then have the moderator point out that they can see edited posts” trick.
Maybe, maybe not. A locked but not deleted thread leaves open the possibility for aggressors to continue the argument in another place and just link the locked thread.
Makes it easier to find those aggressors and get rid of them.
True. There’s a lot of variables in the thing though.
The “posts are forever” approach certainly encourages (not requires) people to think twice about what they post. I think this feature is one of the reasons the mods here have a doable job.
One of my favorite Ernest Hemingway quotes is almost on point:
Always do sober the things you said you’d do while drunk. It’ll teach you to keep your mouth shut.
Discretion is a valuable thing to always have. Not that I’m perfect about that either.
I would have appreciated it if my OP in the Quarantine Zone could have been deleted, but realize that this would also mean that other people’s posts would be deleted. However, a possibility to close one’s own account would be helpful. I didn’t realize that when I joined the SDMB this was for life, that my account cannot be closed. Especially for those who live in difficult political systems (and the US is heading into one), it’s not safe if their accounts can’t be deleted. I have read a lot on the SDMB, but have not found anywhere that one’s threads remain on the board forever.
By the way: the moderators not only have access to dopers’ accounts, SDMB also compile statistics. In other words, you are under constant observation. Who has access to this data? To what extent is the SDMB protected against hacking?
If you start a topic and dopers then descend on you like vultures and you realize that there are a whole series of misunderstandings, it would be helpful to be allowed to close your OP. You should also be allowed to close your account if you no longer want to be a member of SDMB. As far as I understand it, you can only leave the SDMB by logging out, correct me if there is another way.
Presumably my post is now a hijacking of this OP. Bear with me, it will not happen again.
It is still possible to just not post or respond to posts anymore.
It might maybe help the person who posted the OP. Everybody else would be confused and justifiably angry. I doubt it would even help the person who posted and deleted the OP. Other posters will still know and post about what you said. If they are longtime posters with good reputations, others will believe them. Somebody might post a screensot. The person who posted and deleted the OP now looks even worse- they have the same problems as before and are now seen as not willing to stand behind what they post.
What specific data are they recording? As you may have guessed Doc Cathode is not my legal name. The mail address connected to the SDMB is not my legal name.
ETA
I honesly cannot remember if that is in the rules or not. I joined without bothering to read the rules. I have only myself to blame.
The statistics aren’t that interesting. Mostly it’s stuff like how often you’ve posted here. Personally, I’d worry a lot more about people piecing together who you are based on the words you’ve posted than on anything nefarious happening based on stuff the board software collects.
Your IP address leads directly to you, lest you use VPN or you log into your neighbour’s IP. In fact those who want to find you, will.
What you posted here could be of interest, see link below. You might not enter the USA as a tourist or a greencard holder but nobody knows now where the puck stops.
French researcher denied entry to US for Trump-critical phone messages
Does the SDMB record my IP address? Do I use a VPN?
How exactly and precisely will they do that?
Again, those messages were clearly sent from his phone. I rarely surf the web on my phone. Again, DocCathode is not my real name.
Additionally, all of this is beside the point. When you joined the SDMB, you agreed to the rules. If you did not read them first (I admit that I didn’t), that is your problem and not a problem with the rules.
Yes, that’s why i said
There’s no question that you could end up in trouble for something you posted here.
Fwiw, i usually post on my phone, and my phone is usually logged into the SDMB, which means if you poke around, you can see what I’ve posted to the SDMB from my phone.
“The Internet is forever” is probably more true than not. It’s a pretty safe thing to assume is true.
Also, I tend to place the blame more on the guy that got drunk and acted inappropriately at the company holiday party than on the people who caught it on video on their cell phones.
I suppose the OP’s point is really:
- If the USA is about to become a police state, everything any of us has ever posted here can, and probably will, be used against us. It will not be difficult for a motivated government agent to connect most of our Doper personas to our real ones. Is it wise to continue digging this hole?
To which I would reply: “If you self-censor, the terrorists have already won.”
If we get a message at an attempted logon that reads “Thank you for trying to log on, but in the interest of safety and security we are scrubbing all information about this message board. Good luck, and goodbye” I would fully understand.
Thank you for summarizing so aptly. And yes, self-censoring means resignation. Nevertheless taking precautionary measures is highly appropriate.
To which I would reply: “If you self-censor, you’re giving up the better accommodations in the concentration/re-education/death camp!’
Camp accommodations being first come first to leave.