If a member e-mails an administrator with a list of threads they started asking for them to be removed and they gave a good reason for it would it be reasonable to expect them to be gone?
As you may know there are a good few threads now that I made, that if certain person or persons saw the world would end.
I quite like the world. I don’t want it to end. And I’m sure most of the rest of you wouldn’t like it to end either.
What’s the point of posting a thread asking what response you’d get if you sent an email? Why not just send the email and find out?
I’m pretty sure the only threads that get wished into the cornfield are the ones started by trolls. Lobsang, I think you’d be better off thinking before you type, and hoping S/He Who Cannot Know Your Life Here doesn’t get curious.
Treat it as a postcard, readable by anyone.
So you’re saying that you’re in witness protection, and there’s a hit out on you? Only way, Charlie.
This is why I never, ever post anything I wouldn’t put up on a Times Square billboard. Anything else is just asking for something to come back and bite you on the ass. Sure, I’ve posted things I’ve later regreted but nothing that would cause significant distress in my life no matter who should read it.
It occurs to me that this thread might be counterproductive… I, for instance, had never before had any reason to suspect the existance of these threads. Now, though, I might feel inclined to search for them. Or at least, I might if I were less lazy.
Don’t you have a class or something? 
I had been wondering the same thing myself.
Damn.
Just to clarify: we normally do NOT delete posts or threads. What you post is what you post. There are a couple of reasons for this:
Just because you started a thread, doesn’t mean it’s “your” thread. Others have posted to it, and may want to refer back to it at some point. It would be unfair to let any one poster make a decision that involves the work/writing of other posters.
We are trying to build some sort of internet “community” here, whatever that means. In community affairs, what’s done is done. You can’t go back to erase memories to delete a party where you got drunk and put a lampshade on your head. Part of community is memory and history.
Most threads fade into the long-ago after a while. A person coming idly to the Message Boards would be unlikely to stumble into something you said six months ago that you now regret, unless (a) they were looking for it or (b) someone brought it to the fore. (I realize this is lame reasoning, but we do have people who post to a long-dead thread and ask that it be deleted. Of course, posting to it just brings it to the front page, when otherwise everyone would have forgot about it!
IIRC, we once had someone who confessed an infidelity on the SDMB, and then asked that it be removed when he thought his wife was going to divorce him and use this as evidence. That request was rejected.
OK, having said that, there are some circumstances under which we do delete entire threads:
Threads started by spammers or trollers are usually deleted. This includes threads and posts created by people who were banned but tried to sneak back on board. The reason for these deletions is that we don’t want to give these jerks attention. They only post to crave attention, and they thrive on any attention whatsoever (negative reactions are just fine to them.) Hence, if they know they will get NO reaction, and that their work will disappear from view, we hope they’ll go away and leave us alone.
Sometimes, circumstances do warrant a thread being disappeared. We don’t classify these, and we don’t want to. There have been only a few, and we don’t want to be more specific in identifying what/why. If you have a serious request for thread deletion (and we mean serious), email one of the administrators.
I think the solution is obvious: post all the crazy, illicit, embarrassing, and controversial stuff you want. Just make sure that no living soul knows your username.
::looks at own username
:smack: