# Post withdrawn by author **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Created:** [August 7, 2020, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465 "2020-08-07T03:30:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/1 "2020-08-07T03:30:36Z")
Regarding this: (post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 876000 hours unless flagged) I’ve seen this now a few times. Is there some reason why a post will not be deleted for 100 years? On another Discourse board I visit, the message says 4 hours and after 4 hours, the post is gone. Are we waiting to see if someone in the next 100 years flags it? 😀 ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/2 "2020-08-07T04:48:33Z")
And how does an author withdraw a post? I’ve been known to have a few I’d like to withdraw after second thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/3 "2020-08-07T05:01:53Z")
(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 2000 years unless flagged) ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/4 "2020-08-07T05:12:16Z")
(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 876000 hours unless flagged) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/5 "2020-08-07T05:13:20Z")
Really it’s only 99.93 years, counting leap years. Although it depends slightly on if the century includes a year divisible by 400. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/6 "2020-08-07T05:18:32Z")
Ha! I thought you could actually mess with it. 😆 ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/7 "2020-08-07T05:20:07Z")
Well, if someone hasn’t flagged it in 99.93 years, I’m sure it will be safe to delete it. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/8 "2020-08-07T06:15:38Z")
I…am…about to hit flag. Nope. I’ve stopped myself in the nick of time. Woohoo! That was close. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/9 "2020-08-07T08:26:49Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > And how does an author withdraw a post? I’ve been known to have a few I’d like to withdraw after second thoughts. You click on the 3 dots at the bottom of your reply and one of the choices that comes up is a trashcan. I’m not sure how long you have to make that decision, though. But then your post will be replaced by the withdrawn message which will stay for +/- 99.93 years. Unless, of course, it’s flagged. 😀 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/10 "2020-08-07T09:20:26Z")
So how does the author decide to “un-withdraw” a post? ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/11 "2020-08-07T09:30:58Z")
(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted after the heat death of the universe unless flagged) ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/12 "2020-08-07T11:01:17Z")
My WAG is that this is another example of the fight between SDMB culture and the workings of Discourse. The SDMB philosophy was that you had just five minutes to edit your post, and after that, you owned it, and it was there forever. Accountability was the overriding value. Discourse allowed the edit window to be set to the same time interval, but separately from that, there was the “delete” function that continued to be available to the post owner for much longer than that (in fact, possibly indefinitely). This formerly caused posts to be completely disappeared by the system within a set time (I think the default was previously 24 hours). My guess is that someone tweaked the settings to change 24 hours to be as close to “forever” as the system would allow, in keeping with the above philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/13 "2020-08-07T11:29:11Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > Is there some reason why a post will not be deleted for 100 years? The default for Discourse was 24 hours. We had an incident where someone deleted their post and by the time the forum moderator saw it, more than 24 hours had passed and the moderator had no idea what had been in the post. We had a discussion about possible abuse of this feature in the mod loop and our admin decided to bump the timer up to basically forever, so that mods could always go back and see what was done and why. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/15 "2020-08-07T15:01:32Z")
BTW, when and why did the “will be automatically deleted in X hours unless flagged” change from 24 hours to 876000 hours? ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/16 "2020-08-07T15:20:22Z")
The when was about a week ago (ish). As for why, see my last post. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/17 "2020-08-07T15:22:18Z")
Sorry, missed that. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/18 "2020-08-07T15:56:33Z")
(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted until after the heat death of the universe _and_ a second Big Bang unless flagged) ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/19 "2020-08-07T18:11:11Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > You click on the 3 dots at the bottom of your reply and one of the choices that comes up is a trashcan. I’m not sure how long you have to make that decision, though. But then your post will be replaced by the withdrawn message which will stay for +/- 99.93 years. Unless, of course, it’s flagged. 😀 Thank you. Will be great to know when I realize my foot was in my mouth or I over-reacted or I failed to give someone the benefit of the doubt or I just got gotcha! trolled or…withdraw post, the gift that keeps on giving. Thanks also for it grin-inducing last bit. See y’all in a 100 years💆🏻 ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/20 "2020-08-07T20:42:47Z")
> [@PlaceboTarget](#): > > (post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted after the heat death of the universe unless flagged) [Flags post] Guys, we did it! We beat entropy! ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465/21 "2020-08-07T20:57:47Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > The default for Discourse was 24 hours. We had an incident where someone deleted their post and by the time the forum moderator saw it, more than 24 hours had passed and the moderator had no idea what had been in the post. We had a discussion about possible abuse of this feature in the mod loop and our admin decided to bump the timer up to basically forever, so that mods could always go back and see what was done and why. Thanks for the explanation. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-withdrawn-by-author/917465.md?page=2)