Let’s say that we say something in the heat of anger or word something poorly shouldn’t we be able to take it back? My cousin once said that another poster (on another board) made him so angry that he would like to come and “demolish” (actually he stated it rather more strongly, but I won’t repeat it verbaden) the other posters building. This was right after Oklahoma city and had he not been able to immediately retract the post (after I told him that failure to do so might very well result in a visit from the FBI or worse criminal prosecution) he could have been in real trouble. Of course he had no intention of doing anything to anyone. What would be the harm in offering a delete option, at least one that lasted for a little while. There are many “Bobby Knights” walking around in the world (to varying degrees) and while it is not a good trait in today’s information age it can lead to felony charges being brought when they probably shouldn’t be.
For the same reason you can’t edit. If someone reacts to your ill-conceived words, then you delete them, it makes the other guy look like the ass instead of you. Measure twice, cut once, if you get my drift.
Verbatim?
I agree with Fear Itself - write post, preview, count to ten, correct errors, preview, count to ten, post.
(Oh if only 
)
Fear Itself has given the answer that every Moderator would.
I’ll just add, if you’ve posted something that really needs to be deleted – for instance, you suddenly discover that your boss also reads these boards – you can email a Moderator or Admin. We’ll delete posts under special circumstances; we’re more likely to delete a post if no one has responded to it yet, but we’ve helped people who posted a drunken rant and repented in the morning. No guarantees, of course, so Shrinking Violet’s advice is excellent. Just to be clear: we’ve also refused to delete posts when the poster thought it might be used as evidence in a divorce, for instance, on the grounds that it was already three pages long.
So, THINK before hitting that SUBMIT REPLY button.
I have seen boards where editing was permitted, on a very short timescale – one allowed editing for 20 minutes from time post hits database, there being a vBB coding permission with an expiration time. This allowed fix-the-coding and correct-the-typo errors while preventing the “I didn’t say that” sorts of delayed edits that plagued this board in its early days.
I am not necessarily advocating the institution of that vBB option, but it seems to me that it would cut down moderators’ editing work while leaving in place the “why we don’t allow edits” rule that presently exists. I’d appreciate staff considering this idea seriously, with the Admins. who are familiar with the vBB back end validating that it’s a simple, preprogrammed option (my impression but without certainty) that doesn’t require hacking the vBB programming to institute.
I believe the rule about post deletions being at discretion of moderation staff is a good one.
I’m not so sure 20 minutes is a sufficient time frame to allow for fix-the-coding and correct-the-typo errors. I distinctly remember occasions where I stepped away from the computer right after posting, when the outside world intervened, and by the time I came back to the board 22 minutes had elapsed.
On the other hand, could not the “I didn’t say that” issue occur if someone answers a previous poster in a 17-minute time period?
We need a team formed of at least one statistician, one physicist, one computer scientist and one behavioral scientist to determine the optimal time interval. I would imagine that the solution would like somewhat like a probability density function of a normal distribution - f(x) = e[sup]-x[sup]2[/sup]/2[/sup] / sqrt (2 * pi) - but more research is needed.
No, it’s verboten.
Gesundheit.
*Showgirls *sucked.
I posted something I regretted and it disappeared in the great crash. You could hope for something like that. Well, not the crash, but I sure appreciated it.
We’ve discussed the idea of a five-minute leeway. The most common situation is that someone posts, sees it on the screen, and then has almost immediate regret.
The problem with such a lag is that our boards tend to be very active – within five minutes, it’s not surprising to have a couple of responses to a post. So, even with a short lag time, we’d still be enabling the trolling mechanism of posting something and then changing it.
If we’re trying to build a community here, then posting is like real life in the sense of: think before you talk. If you’re sitting around having a conversation with some friends and you say something in anger, you can’t go back and edit it. You learn pretty quickly as a child to edit what you say BEFORE, not after, you say it.
I think the time idea would work great. Couldn’t it at least be tested out?
I’ve also seen boards where you can edit up to the point until another poster posts a message. That would work as well, and fit within your current protocol.
Or how about enabling it on certain forums, such as GQ, where arguements of significant magnitude are a rarity.
In my experience, I’ve rarely seen the edit function abused, and I can’t imagine it’d be any worse with the demographic this site targets.
The rules are the rules and since it’s your board you have the right to do all most anything you wish. However, at the hospital where I do my student, nursing clinicals we can edit our official notes (on a patients chart) for a period of two hours without leaving an edit trail., and for up to two days leaving an edit trail. Thus, I could make the notation: admininstered, undiluted potassium by IV resulting in fatal MI. and correct it 30 minutes later to read “adiminstered three units insulin”. The point being that this board exercises a higher degree of control than does many hospitals where life and death are concerned.
Of course two wrongs don’t make a right (I’m sure many of you could put that in cool Latin terms). Furthermore, this system has been in place for some time, and has worked.
What’s the big deal? When I’m doing a lot of coding, I (usually) use preview. Some mistakes slip through – but most of them aren’t worth correcting. If one is (I leave a “not” out of a statement like “I am a serial killer”), I’ll do a follow-up post.
Think of it as an opportunity to come to terms with the fact that you’re an imperfect human being.
The SDMB philosophy seems to be litera scripta manet* - not a bad one, in truth.
- Often rendered as “the written word persists” (or similar).
Oh, please. No one is following you around in the hospital to read the chart and comment on what you did. You’re not putting questions on the chart, like “What the heck should i do with this patient?” and then asking for others to come along and read it.
The hospital chart is a documentation, not a discussion. Your analogy is silly.
A newscaster on TV can’t push the rewind button and un-say what she said. A politician putting foot in mouth can expect it to get national coverage and can’t edit it away. A person losing their temper at a bridge game has no erase button. Such people can only apologize afterwards.
The moving finger types, and having typed moves on.
Think before you post.
Discrimination, DISCRIMINATION!
I should have made it clear that the hospital I am referring to uses complete computerized charting, there is no paper whatsoever. The notes made (at least by students) tend to be extensive, and can be used against us (and the hospital) in potential legal or administrative proceedings (the point being that they are a serious matter).
FWIW, I’ve posted some things I really wished I could undo. But on the whole it’s better that I can’t. If it were something really eggregious (like the codes to disarm the alarms at one of my company’s offices) the mods will remove it – and I’ll have to take my lumps. Otherwise, it stays… and I’ll have to take my lumps – which is as it should be.
Public shame is a powerful and useful tool.
On a personal note, one of my New Year’s resolutions – which involves taking steps to be a less critical, more compassionate person – came as a direct result of having to look at some of my postings here, and from responses from mods/admins and other dopers. The spoken word vanishes and is easily forgotten. But the published word is not so easily dismissed.
Thanks, guys and gals. I love you all.
Well ok, I don’t really love you, but thanks anyway. 